Eliza Wilbur
{{Short description|American astronomer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Eliza Wilbur
| image =
| caption =
| othername = Eban Malcolm Sutcliffe
| birth_name =
| birth_date = October 21, 1851
| birth_place =
| death_date = March 31, 1930
| death_place =
| burial_place =
| nationality =
| alma_mater = Batavia Female Seminary
| occupation = Astronomer, botanist, inventor
| years_active =
| known_for = Her patents included three for telescopes
| spouse = 1. Thomas Basnett
2. Mathieu Souvielle
| children =
| mother =
| father =
}}
Eliza Madelina Wilbur Souvielle (October 21, 1851 – March 31, 1930{{cite web|title=Find A Grave Index|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVLP-PY9B|website=FamilySearch|accessdate=24 July 2016}}) was an American scientist, astronomer, botanist, inventor, author and publisher.[http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-may-3-amazing-alarming-or-transforming-scientists-from-jax 3 amazing alarming or transforming scientists from Jacksonville] May 20, 2013 Metro Jacksonville
Education, academia and publishing
She studied at Batavia Female Seminary in New York and may have been the first female to lecture in science at Harvard University. She was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and her work was published in magazines and newspapers including Scientific American and the New York Herald. She published Continuity (magazine).{{Cite web |last=Davis |first=Ennis |date=2022-03-16 |title=THE JAXSON {{!}} Six women's history sites in Jacksonville |url=https://jaxtoday.org/2022/03/15/the-jaxson-6-womens-history-sites-in-jacksonville/ |access-date=2023-11-24 |website=Jacksonville Today |language=en-US}}
Personal life
Wilbur was the third wife of Thomas Basnett and moved to Marabanong (a historic mansion in Jacksonville, Florida) in 1880. She invented a large astronomical telescope there. (In 1914, the house was sold to Eliza's cousin, Grace Wilbur Trout.)
After Basnett's death in 1886, she married Mathieu Souvielle, a throat and lung surgeon.
Pseudonymous writing
She wrote Sequel to the Parliament of Religion about non-Western religions under the pseudonym Eban Malcolm Sutcliffe and The Ulyssiad (Dacosta Publishing Co. of Jacksonville, 1896), a biography of Ulysses Grant in verse.
Other interests
She was active in the women's suffrage campaign, served as secretary for the Home for the Aged in Jacksonville for seven years, and was vice president of the Jacksonville Branch of the League of American Pen Women.[http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/100805/neR_19959565.shtml Empire Point mansion has long history of strong Trout women] by Leni Bessette and Louise Stanton Warren October 8, 2005 Florida Times-Union Her patents included three for telescopes. She was also involved in efforts to engineer an airplane.
References
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Category:American women astronomers
Category:19th-century American women inventors
Category:19th-century American inventors