Margaret Bryan (philosopher)
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Margaret Bryan | |
|---|---|
 Engraving of Bryan and two girls | |
| Born | Before 1760 |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Natural philosopher and educator |
| Years active | 1797–1815 |
Margaret Bryan (fl. 1815) was an English natural philosopher and educator, and the author of standard scientific textbooks. She was schoolmistress of a school located at various times in Blackheath, at Cadogan Place, and in Margate at Bryan House above the yet to be discovered . Her first known work was Compendious System of Astronomy (1797), collecting Bryan's lectures on astronomy.
Life[]
The year of her birth is uncertain, probably before 1760. She married a Mr Bryan and had at least two daughters, as shown in a portrait of her.
Teaching[]
Bryan was described as a beautiful and talented schoolmistress. Her school appears to have been situated at one time at Blackheath, at that time a village south-east of London; at another at 27 Lower Cadogan Place, near Hyde Park Corner, in the fashionable West End of the capital; and also at Margate, in Bryan House above the yet to be discovered .
Publications[]
Her published works are dated 1797 to 1815.[1]
In 1797 she published in quarto, by subscription, a Compendious System of Astronomy, with a portrait of herself and two daughters as a frontispiece, the whole engraved by William Nutter from a miniature by Samuel Shelley. She dedicated her book to her pupils. The lectures of which the book consisted had been praised by Charles Hutton, then at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.[2] An octavo edition of the work was issued later. The Critical Review printed her reply to what she saw as a damaging article in that journal.[1]
In 1806 Bryan published, also by subscription, and in quarto, Lectures on Natural Philosophy (thirteen lectures on hydrostatics, optics, pneumatics, and acoustics), with a portrait of the author, engraved by Heath, after a painting by T. Kearsley; and there is a notice in it that "Mrs. Bryan educates young ladies at Blackheath." In 1815 Bryan produced an Astronomical and Geographical Class Book for Schools, a thin octavo.
Conversations on Chemistry, published anonymously in 1806, is also ascribed to her by Watt[3] and in the Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816), but is in fact a book by Jane Marcet.
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Brown, Susan; Patricia Clements; Isobel Grundy. "Margaret Bryan". Orlando Project. Cambridge. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
- ^ Preface, p. xi
- ^ Bibl. Brit.
- Attribution
- Humphreys, Jennett (1885–1900). . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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