View source for Mary Rosse

{{Short description|British photographer (1813–1885)}}
{{distinguish|Mary Ross (disambiguation){{!}}Mary Ross}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name       = Mary Parsons, Countess of Rosse
| image      = Mary, Countess of Rosse.jpg
| caption    =
| birth_name = Mary Field
| birth_date = {{Birth-date|14 April 1813}}
| death_date = {{Death-date and age|1885|14 April 1813}}
| spouse     = {{Marriage|[[William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse]]|14 April 1836|1867|end=died}}
| children   = 11
}}
'''Mary Parsons, Countess of Rosse''' ({{nee|Field}}; 14 April 1813 – 1885), was an Anglo-Irish amateur [[astronomer]], architect, furniture designer, and pioneering photographer. Often known simply as '''Mary Rosse''', she was one of the early practitioners of making photographs from waxed-paper negatives.<ref>For more on waxed-paper negatives, see John Towler, "[http://albumen.conservation-us.org/library/monographs/sunbeam/chap29.html Negatives on Paper]", chap. 29 of ''The Silver Sunbeam'' (New York: Joseph H. Ladd, 1864).</ref>
== Early life ==
Mary Field was born on 14 April 1813,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Scaife |first=W. Garrett |date=2009 |title=Parsons, William |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/parsons-william-a7220|access-date=8 November 2021 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography}}</ref> at Heaton Hall, Heaton, [[Bradford]], [[Yorkshire]],<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Heald |first=Henrietta |date=11 November 2020 |title=Mary Parsons, Countess of Rosse: Astronomer, Engineer and Photographer (1813–84) |url=https://electrifyingwomen.org/mary-parsons-countess-of-rosse/|access-date=8 November 2021 |website=Electrifying Women |language=en-GB}}</ref> the daughter of John Wilmer Field, a wealthy estate owner. She had a sister, Delia, and they were educated at home by Susan Lawson, a governess who encouraged the young Mary's creativity and broad interests, including astronomy. The sister were joint heirs to their father's fortune.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=P. |first=McKenna-Lawlor, Susan M. |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/53242264 |title=Whatever shines should be observed : 'Quicquid nitet notandum' |date=2002 |publisher=[Royal Irish Academy] |isbn=1-874045-93-3 |oclc=53242264}}</ref>
Through her family she met the future [[William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse|3rd Earl of Rosse]], then Lord Oxmantown (1800–1867), an [[Anglo-Irish people|Anglo-Irish]] astronomer and naturalist, and they were married on 14 April 1836. In February 1841, Lord Oxmantown succeeded his father in the family [[Earl of Rosse|peerage]] to become [[William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse|The 3rd Earl of Rosse]]. They had married on 14 April 1836, her 23rd birthday. Mary, Baroness Oxmantown, thus now became The [[Countess]] of Rosse.<ref name=":0" />
== Astronomy ==
In the early 1840s the couple became interested in astronomy, and Mary Rosse helped her husband, Lord Rosse, build a number of giant telescopes, including the so-called [[Leviathan of Parsonstown|Leviathan Telescope]], that was considered a technical marvel in its time.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.birrcastle.com/telescopeHistory.asp |title=Birr Castle Desme – History of the Telescopes |access-date=5 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224023233/http://www.birrcastle.com/telescopeHistory.asp |archive-date=24 December 2008}}</ref> The author, Henrietta Heald, contends that Rosse was not only a financial support to the building of the telescope, but that she also was involved in a practical and intellectual capacity.<ref name=":1" /> The ''Leviathan of Parsontown'' was completed in 1845 and held the record as the world's largest telescope for over 70 years, and was mentioned in [[Jules Verne]]’s science fiction novel, ''[[From the Earth to the Moon]]''.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Cole |first=Rupert |title=The Remarkable Mary Rosse |url=https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/the-remarkable-mary-rosse/ |website=Science Museum}}</ref>
She was an accomplished [[blacksmith]] – which was very unusual for higher class women of this time – and some of the iron work that supported the telescope may have been constructed by her. Other metal cast items around the castle grounds were designed by her, including bronze gates.<ref name=":1" />
During the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] of 1845–47 in Ireland she was responsible for keeping over five hundred men employed in work in and around [[Birr Castle]], where she and her husband lived.<ref name=":1" />
She created a huge dining room at Birr Castle in which to entertain scientific guests, which became increasingly used when Lord Rosse became President of the Royal Society of London in 1848. Guests included mathematician [[William Rowan Hamilton|William Hamilton]], who wrote her a sonnet about his experience of gazing through the Leviathan.<ref name=":2" />
== Photography ==
In 1842, [[William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse|Lord Rosse]] began experimenting in [[daguerreotype]] photography, possibly learning some of the art from his acquaintance [[William Henry Fox Talbot]]. In 1854, Lord Rosse wrote to Fox Talbot saying that Lady Rosse too had just commenced photography, and sent some examples of her work. Fox Talbot replied that some of her photographs of the telescope "are all that can be desired".
Lady Rosse became a member of the Dublin Photographic Society, and in 1859 she received a silver medal for "best paper negative" from the Photographic Society of Ireland. Many examples of her photography are in the [[Birr Castle]] Archives.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.birrcastle.com/maryRosse.asp |title=Birr Castle Desme – Mary Rosse and Photography |access-date=5 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081226144946/http://www.birrcastle.com/maryRosse.asp |archive-date=26 December 2008}}</ref> Much of the topography of Birr Castle that she portrayed has changed very little, and it is possible to compare many of her photographs with the actual places. She recorded the Leviathan in her photographs including one image showing her three sons, Clere, Randal, Charles and her sister in law, Jane Knox, standing upright at the mouth of the telescope.<ref name=":1" />
== Children ==
The Countess of Rosse gave birth to eleven children, but only four survived until adulthood:
* [[Lawrence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse]] (17 November 1840 – 30 August 1908)
* Reverend Randal Parsons (26 April 1848 – 15 November 1936)
* Hon. Richard Clere Parsons (21 February 1851 – 26 January 1923), apparently made a name for himself building railways in South America.
* [[Sir Charles Algernon Parsons]] (13 June 1854 – 11 February 1931),<ref name=":0" /> known for his commercial development of the [[steam turbine]]. His wife, Lady [[Katharine Parsons]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Obituary The Hon. Lady Parsons {{!}} Women's Engineering Society|url=https://www.wes.org.uk/content/obituary-hon-lady-parsons|access-date=4 July 2019|website=www.wes.org.uk}}</ref> and their daughter [[Rachel Mary Parsons|Rachel Parsons]] were founders of the [[Women's Engineering Society]] and its first and second presidents.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Presidents Past & Present {{!}} Women's Engineering Society|url=https://www.wes.org.uk/content/history/presidents-past-present|access-date=4 July 2019|website=www.wes.org.uk}}</ref>
== Death ==
Mary, [[Dowager]] Countess of Rosse, died in 1885.<ref name=":0" />
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
== Further reading ==
Taylor, Roger. ''Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840–1860.'' New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-300-12405-7}}.
== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081226144946/http://www.birrcastle.com/maryRosse.asp Birr Castle Demesne, Voyage of Discovery]
* [http://redmum.blogspot.com/2007/03/great-irish-women-part-4-mary-fields.html Great Irish Women, Part 4: Mary Field Rosse]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosse, Mary}}
[[Category:Pioneers of photography]]
[[Category:1813 births]]
[[Category:1885 deaths]]
[[Category:Scientists from Yorkshire]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish astronomers]]
[[Category:19th-century English photographers]]
[[Category:Irish countesses]]
[[Category:English women photographers]]
[[Category:19th-century British women artists]]
[[Category:British blacksmiths]]
[[Category:Photographers from Yorkshire]]
[[Category:19th-century British women photographers]]
[[Category:Wives of knights]]
[[Category:British women astronomers]]