1. Pandora’s breeches: copper coin, inscribed PANDORAS BREECHES / END OF PAIN, 1792 (copyright © The British Museum).
2. Minerva Directing Study to the Attainment of Universal Knowledge, frontispiece of The New Encyclopædia, 1807 (by permission of the British Library, shelfmark 012217.c.1).
3. The Birth of Pandora, etching and engraving by James Barry, c. 1804–5 (copyright © The British Museum).
4. Margaret Cavendish (Duchess of Newcastle) and her family, frontispiece of Margaret Cavendish, Natures Pictures Drawn by Fancies Pencil to the Life (London, for J. Martin and J. Allestyre, 1656); original by Abraham van Diepenbeke, engraved by Peter Clouwet (by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library).
5. Jean Nollet and his female assistant, from J. A. Nollet, Essai sur l’Électricité des Corps (Paris, 1746), facing p. 216 (by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library).
6. A Man-Mid-Wife, by John Blunt (Samuel Fores), frontispiece of his Man-Midwifery Dissected (1793), hand-coloured etching.
7. Enlarging the empire of knowledge, frontispiece of Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum, 1620 (Clare College Fellows’ Library).
8. Baconian ideology at the Royal Society, frontispiece of Thomas Sprat’s History of the Royal-Society (London, 1667).
9. Knowledge is power, frontispiece of Essays of Natural Experiments, Made in the Academy del Cimento, translated by Richard Waller (London, 1684) (Clare College Fellows’ Library).
10. Lady Philosophy, Figure 120 of George Richardson’s Iconology (London, 1779).
11. Nature and the mechanical world: Maarten van Heemskerck, Man Born to Toil (1572), engraved by Philips Galle.
12. The Temple of Reason, frontispiece of Émilie du Châtelet, Institutions de Physique (Paris, 1740) (by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library).
13. Truth sought after by the philosophers, from Bernard Picart, La Vérité recherchée par les philosophes, 1707 (designed as the frontispiece for Thèse de philosophie soutenue par M. Brillon de Jouly, le 25 juillet, 1707) (copyright © The British Museum).
14. Elisabeth of Bohemia: Poole Portrait 156 of Elizabeth of Bohemia ‘Princess of Palatine’, from the school of Gerrit van Honthorst (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford).
15. Anne Conway’s experience: Young Woman with a Letter by Samuel van Hoogstraten (Royal Cabinet of Paintings. Mauritshuis, The Hague).
16. Émilie du Châtelet as Voltaire’s Newtonian inspiration, frontispiece of Voltaire’s Élémens de la Philosophie de Newton (1738), engraved by Jacob Folkema after Louis-Fabricius Dubourg (by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library).
17. Émilie du Châtelet discussing Newton with Francesco Algarotti, frontispiece of Francesco Algarotti’s Il Newtonianismo per le dame (Naples, 1737), engraved by Marco Pitteri after Giambattista Piazetta.
18. Euphrosyne learns about electricity, from Benjamin Martin. The Young Gentlemen’s and Ladies Philosophy (2 vols, London, 1759–63), vol. 1, facing p. 301 (by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library).
19. An idealised Elizabethan housewife: A Good Housewife, c. 1600, hand-coloured woodcut, c. 1750 (private collection; photograph courtesy of the British Museum).
20. Elisabetha and Johannes Hevelius observing with their great sextant, from Johannes Hevelius, Machina Cœlestis (Danzig, 1673), facing p. 222 (by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library).
21. Johannes Hevelius pays tribute to Urania and his astronomical predecessors, frontispiece of Johannes Hevelius, Prodromus Astronomiæ & Firmamentum Sobiescianium (Danzig, 1690) (by permission of the British Library, shelfmark 523.k.19(1)).
22. Caroline and William Herschel, coloured lithograph after Alfred Diethe, c. 1896 (Wellcome Library, London).
23. Caroline Herschel, etching by G. Busse, Hanover, 1847 (Royal Astronomical Society Library).
24. Marie Paulze and her husband Antoine Lavoisier, by Jacques-Louis David, 1788 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Mr and Mrs Charles Wrightsman Gift, in honour of Everett Fahy, 1977. (1977.10)).
25. Marie Paulze working in the laboratory: Marie Paulze Lavoisier, ‘Experiments on the respiration of a man carrying out work’, probably 1790–1; reproduced from Grimaux, Lavoisier.
26. One of the thirteen plates by Marie Paulze in Lavoisier’s Elements of Chemistry, Marie Paulze Lavoisier, 1789.
27. Aesculapius, Flora, Ceres, and Cupid honouring the bust of Linnaeus, from Robert Thornton’s Temple of Flora (1806); engraved by Caldwell after John Russell and John Opie.
28. Mrs Bryan and children, frontispiece of Margaret Bryan, A Compendious System of Astronomy (1797), engraving by W. Nutter from a 1797 miniature by Samuel Shelley (by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library).
29. Scientific Researches! – New Discoveries in Pneumaticks! – or – an Experimental Lecture on the Powers of Air, hand-coloured etching by James Gillray, 1802 (copyright © The British Museum).
30. A Lady of Scientific Habits, lithograph, early nineteenth century (reproduced by courtesy of James A. Secord).
31. Minerva displays her cabinet collection of women, by D. Allan, engraved frontispiece of R. E. Raspe, A Descriptive Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems, Cameos as well as Intaglios, Taken from the Most Celebrated Cabinets in Europe; and Cast in Coloured Pastes, White Enamel, and Sulphur, by James Tassie, Modeller (1791) (by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library).