Graceanna Lewis

Graceanna Lewis (August 3, 1821 – February 25, 1912) was an American naturalist, illustrator, and social reformer. An expert in the field of ornithology, Lewis is remembered as a pioneer female American scientist as well as an activist in the anti-slavery, temperance, and women's suffrage movements.

Early years and education Lewis was born on August 3, 1821, on a farm near West Vincent Township in Chester County, Pennsylvania. She was the second of four daughters of a Quaker farmer named John Lewis and his wife, the former Esther Fussell. Graceanna's ancestors included a friend of William Penn who had emigrated to the new Province of Pennsylvania from South Wales in 1682. Her mother had been a school teacher prior to marriage and was instrumental in developing a keen affection for science learning in Graceanna. She also serving as a role model in social activism by housing fugitive slaves as part of the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada.

Another women who influenced and inspired Lewis was her friend Mary Townsend, the sister of John Kirk Townsend. She met one of America's leading ornithologists, John Cassin of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, in 1862 and studied ornithology at an advanced level under his tutorship for the next half decade.

From the middle of the 1860s Lewis began to give private lectures on the field of ornithology in Philadelphia. Unfortunately for Lewis, her patron Cassin died in 1869 and she was unable to obtain a teaching position in the field which would enable her to further advance her work. As a product of a devout religious upbringing, Lewis was critical of the Charles Darwin's theory of evolution for much of her life, instead positing that God was responsible for an intricate and well ordered universe. Two of her articles were published in The American Naturalist journal shortly afterward.

Social beliefs In addition to her direct action against slavery as part of the secret network which aided escaped African-American slaves in their flight to freedom in the years prior to the American Civil War, Lewis was active in several other social movements of her day. In accordance with her Quaker religious beliefs, Lewis remained throughout her life a dedicated pacifist. She was also an activist in the movement for the prohibition of alcohol in the United States serving as Secretary of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Media, Pennsylvania, and as that organization's superintendent of scientific temperance instruction for Delaware County.

Lewis's papers are part of the Lewis-Fussell Family Papers collection at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Included in this archival holding are Lewis's papers and drawings relating to the natural sciences, as well as an unpublished manuscript of a memoir of the Underground Railroad.

In 2014, a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania roadside historical marker honoring Lewis was erected in East Pikeland Township at 2123 Kimberton Road, Phoenixville, near the site of her family's farm.

Works Published work An Appeal to Those Members of the Society of Friends Who Knowing the Principles of the Abolitionists Stand Aloof from the Anti-Slavery Enterprise. n.c., n.p., n.d. [1840s]. Natural History of Birds: Lectures on Ornithology. Philadelphia: J.A. Bancroft, 1868. The Position of Birds in the Animal Kingdom. 1869. "The Lyre Bird," American Naturalist, vol. 4, no. 6 (Aug. 1870), pp. 321–331. Symmetrical Figures in Birds' Feathers. Philadelphia: McCalla & Stavely, 1871. The Development of the Animal Kingdom: A Paper Read at the Fourth Meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Woman. Nantucket, MA: Hussey & Robinson, 1877.

Unpublished work Chart of the Animal Kingdom. Chart of the Vegetable Kingdom. A Chart of the Class of Birds. A Chart of Geology, with Special Reference to Paleontology. Microscopic Studies of Frost Crystals. Plumage of Birds. Lower Forms of Animal and Vegetable Life. Studies in Forestry, Illustrated by Watercolor Paintings. Water Color Paintings of Wild Flowers.