The exploration of the world during the Modern Age was an almost exclusively male domain. Due to this, few female names went down in history, despite the fact that there were not a few women who, during the 18th and 19th centuries, worked as assistants to their brothers or husbands in laboratories and scientific studies. One of the cases that had the greatest impact, for having constituted a real scandal in its time, was that of Jeanne Baret. Despite the importance of this character, it was not until 2012 that her work as a botanist She was recognized and led her to be considered the first female scientist to go around the world.
In this Supercurious article we will tell you the most important facts about the life of this fantastic woman and her expedition.
Who was Jeanne Baret? The start of change
Jeanne Baret was born on July 27, 1740 in French Burgundy. During the first years of his life, he was trained on the family farm, discovering there the first glimpses of interest in botany.
After his father’s death, Baret leaves the town of La Comelle, where his father’s farm was, and begins to work as a governess for his son. Philibert Commerson, one of the most important scientific and botanist physicians of the court of King Louis XVI.
It is at that moment that the path begins for Jeanne Baret to transform her life and become one of the great protagonists of world history, in addition of the history and evolution of science, more specifically, of botany.
The journey begins! The first step towards a great transformation
Jeanne Baret was not just any woman, and Commerson saw this very easily. Impressed by Baret’s intelligence and sharp mind, Commerson decides to allow Baret to be initiated and educated in the world of botany.
Hand in hand with her courage and great knowledge of plants and their properties, Baret ceases to be the governess and housekeeper, to become the scientist’s assistant. She was also believed to have been Commerson’s mistress.
A short time later, Commerson and his team are invited to participate in the first French expedition that would circumnavigate the world. That was how, in 1766, the first circumnavigation voyage departed and naturalistic research, in order to observe and record plants and animals of the new lands. To carry it out, two French warships would be used that would go around the world, commanded by Louis Antoine de Bougainville.
This expedition would be the one that would completely change the life of Jeanne Baret and would embark her on a journey that was hardly romantic.
1. A woman dressed as a boy, how did Jeanne Baret manage to go around the world?
As mentioned above, Jeanne Baret is believed to have been Commerson’s mistress. For this reason, being appointed as part of the expedition, Commerson did not want to embark three years alone. This led him to seek to bring his favorite assistant with him.
But there was a problem… At the time there was a royal ordinance whose objective was to prevent women from boarding crown ships. This led to the fact that, in order to be part of the expedition, Baret had to disguise herself as a man.
Although the risk was quite high, the woman managed to hide her condition, at least initially, because Commerson’s team was given the main cabin, so Baret had access to a private toilet, retaining his privacy.
2. A journey of shadows marked by the discovery of the deception
But Jeanne’s journey also had its shadows. The writer Glynis Ridley He presented, a few years ago, a complete biography that vindicates the figure of this brave woman and her work as a botanist.
A humble class woman who traveled the world and has finally managed to recover her name in history, but who was also a woman victim of abuse. Upon being discovered and without Commerson’s protection, she was raped by the sailors of the expedition.
And it is that hiding under man’s clothing was not an easy task in a world of men; although there were women, as is the case of Hannah Snell, who managed to pass himself off as a man for 5 years after enlisting in 1745 in the British marines, Jeanne’s case was not so “successful”. It was not until after two years of travel, in 1768, when the sailors began to suspect the possible feminine condition of Commerson’s valet. The voyage ended in 1769.
Jeanne Baret was forced to abandon ship, along with Commerson. At the landing site, Mauritius, Baret meets a French naval officer with whom she marries. Thanks to this event the woman can return to France and complete the circumnavigation of the world.
Baret and some wonderful discoveries
In addition to the audacity to participate in this expedition, Baret acted as a true scientist by fully participating in the investigation and being responsible for all the plant collections found in Rio de Janeiro, the Strait of Magellan, Tahiti, Mauritius and Madagascar. This was because Commerson’s poor health kept him from active research for some time. One of the best known species recorded and studied during that expedition was the bougainvillea, baptized with the name of the person in charge of the expedition and today extremely popular.
Baret and Commerson managed to collect more than 6,000 species, today preserved in the Museum of Natural History of Paris. Almost 70 of them were baptized as commersonii. In 2012, and as a tribute and recognition of Jeanne’s work, it was decided to dedicate a species to her, the flower of the Solanum baretiae from South America and belonging to the genus of tomato, potato and eggplant.
In recent years, the character of Jeanne Baret was rescued from oblivion. Her great contributions to scientific research have earned recognition of the value of women, especially at times when they were not allowed to practice activities related to science.
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