Who Was Elizabeth Fulhame and Why Study Her

Elizabeth Fulhame’s biography is largely a mystery, but in 1794 she wrote a book on chemistry that was way ahead of its time.

Research:

• Steinmark, Ida Emilie. “Elizabeth Fulhame: The Scientist the World Forgot.” Royal Society of Chemistry. 10/10/2017. https://edu.rsc.org/opinion/elizabeth-fulhame-the-scientist-the-world-forgot/3008111.article
• Shah, Irfan. “Rivers of Silver, Cities of Gold.” History Today. Volume 69 Issue 11 November 2019. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/rivers-silver-cities-gold
• Lewes, Darby. “Fulhame, Elizabeth.” The Encyclopedia of Romantic Literature. Wiley Online Library. 4/12/2012. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118300916.wberlf007
• Booth, Catherine. “Elizabeth Fulhame: Chemist.” Minerva Scientifica. https://minervascientifica.co.uk/elizabeth-fulhame/
• Mills, Virginia. “Worthy of Public Attention.” Royal Society. 7/4/2025. https://royalsociety.org/blog/2025/07/worthy-of-public-attention/
• Jarvis, Claire. “Elizabeth Fulhame, a forgotten chemistry pioneer.” Physics Today. 6/17/2020. https://physicstoday.aip.org/news/elizabeth-fulhame-a-forgotten-chemistry-pioneer
• Brazil, Rachel. “Elizabeth Fulhame, the 18th century chemistry pioneer who faded from history.” Chemistry World. 6/6/2022. https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/elizabeth-fulhame-the-18th-century-chemistry-pioneer-who-faded-from-history/4015638.article
• Smith, Thomas P. “A Sketch of the Revolutions in Chemistry.” Philadelphia : Printed by Samuel H. Smith. 1798. https://archive.org/details/b32885726/
• Linker, Jessica C. “The Pride of Science: Women and the Politics of Inclusion in 19th-Century Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania Legacies , Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring 2015). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5215/pennlega.15.1.0006
• Pancaldi, Giuliano. “On Hybrid Objects and their Trajectories: Beddoes, Davy and the Battery.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 20 September 2009, Vol. 63, No.3. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40647277
• Davenport, Derek A. "Fulhame, Elizabeth [known as Mrs Fulhame] (fl. 1780–1794), chemist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. September 23, 2004. Oxford University Press. Date of access 11 Mar. 2026, https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39778
• Palmer, Bill. “Elizabeth Fulhame: The Invisible Chemist.” Teaching Science. Volume 54, Number 4. December 2008.
• Laidler, Keith J. “The Development of Theories of Catalysis.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 1986, Vol. 35, No. 4 (1986). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41133790
• Davenport, Derek A. and Kathleen M. Ireland. “The Ingenious, Lively and Celebrated Mrs. Fulhame and the Dyer’s Hand.” Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. 1989.
• The Gentleman's Magazine. Review of New Publications. “An Essay on Combustion …”. Vol. 65, Issue 6. June 1795.
• Beddoes, Thomas. “Mrs. Fulhame’s Essay on Combustion, &c.” The Monthly Review. Vol. 20. July 1796. https://archive.org/details/sim_the-monthly-review_1796-07_20/page/303/
• Anderson, R. G. W. "Black, Joseph (1728–1799), chemist and physician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. October 03, 2013. Oxford University Press. Date of access 11 Mar. 2026, https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-2495
• Cameron, Anne. “THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CIVIL REGISTRATION IN SCOTLAND.” Historical journal (Cambridge, England) vol. 50,2 (2007): 377-395. doi:10.1017/S0018246X07006115
• McCloughlin, Thomas J.J. “Lost and found: The Nooth apparatus.” Endeavour. Volume 45, Issues 1–2. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2021.100763.
• Lim, XiaoZhi. "The new breed of cutting-edge catalysts." Nature, vol. 537, no. 7619, 8 Sept. 2016. Gale Academic OneFile, dx.doi.org/10.1038/537156a. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026. Gale Document Number: GALE|A462784622
• MacPherson, Hamish. "The mysterious case of Elizabeth Fulhame, a chemist and true pioneer of science." National [Glasgow, Scotland], 31 Jan. 2023. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A735208005/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=896de822. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.
• Benjamin Count of Rumford. “An Inquiry concerning the Chemical Properties That Have Been Attributed to Light.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 1798.
• Wheeler, T.S. “The life and work of William Higgins, chemist, 1763-1825, including reprints of ‘A comparative view of the phlogistic and antiphlogistic theories’ and ‘Observations on the atomic theory and electrical phenomena’.” New York, Pergamon Press. 1960.

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