Madame Lavoisier and the Others: Women in Marie-Anne Paulze-Lavoisier's Network (1771–1836)

Abstract

Known as a translator and illustrator of chemical texts, Marie-Anne Paulze-Lavoisier (1758–1836) has been often represented as the associate of male savants and especially of her husband, the French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier. This article explores her biography from a different angle and focuses on her trajectories as a secrétaire; namely, someone whose main charge was to store and exchange information by means of writing. The article investigates the presence of women in Paulze-Lavoisier's network before and after Lavoisier's death in 1794. First, it shows that her work as a secrétaire combined a wide set of writing practices with domestic sociability. Then, it examines how other women contributed to her collaboration with Lavoisier. Finally, it analyses how these relationships changed in the post-revolutionary and Napoleonic era, when Paulze-Lavoisier's role as a secrétaire took on a new meaning.