Merle Oberon As Anne Boleyn In The Private Life Of Henry VIII (1933)

Merle Oberon as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)

requested by anonymous

ab. 1670 René-Antoine Houasse - Presumed portrait of Anne Marie de La Trémoille, princesse des Ursins

(Condé Museum)

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH 2021

ADA LOVELACE (December 10, 1815 - November 27, 1852)

“Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace — better known as “Ada Lovelace” — was the only legitimate child of the famous poet Lord George Gordon Byron. Lovelace had an unusual upbringing for an aristocratic girl in the mid-1800s. At her mother’s insistence, tutors taught her mathematics and science. Such challenging subjects were not standard fare for women at the time. From early on, Lovelace showed a talent for numbers and language. She received instruction from various people, including Mary Somerville, a Scottish astronomer and mathematician, who was one of the first women to be admitted into the Royal Astronomical Society.

At the age of 17, Ada met Charles Babbage, a mathematician and inventor, and the much older Babbage served as a mentor to Lovelace. Through Babbage, Lovelace began studying advanced mathematics with University of London professor Augustus de Morgan.Lovelace was fascinated by Babbage’s ideas. Known as the father of the computer, he invented the difference engine, which was meant to perform mathematical calculations. Lovelace got a chance to look at the machine before it was finished, and was captivated by it.

Lovelace was later asked to translate an article on Babbage’s analytical engine. She not only translated the original text but also added her own thoughts and ideas on the machine. Her notes ended up being three times longer than the original article. Her work was published in 1843, in an English science journal. In her notes, Lovelace described how codes could be created for the device to handle letters and symbols along with numbers. She also theorized a method for the engine to repeat a series of instructions, a process known as looping that computer programs use today. Lovelace also offered up other forward-thinking concepts in the article. For her work, Lovelace is often considered to be the first computer programmer.

Lovelace’s article attracted little attention when she was alive.

Lovelace’s contributions to the field of computer science were not discovered until the 1950s. Her notes were reintroduced to the world by B.V. Bowden, who republished them in Faster Than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines in 1953. Since then, Ada has received many posthumous honors for her work. In 1980, the U.S. Department of Defense named a newly developed computer language “Ada,” after Lovelace.”

✧ “Her pleasant, condescending and spirited manner ingratiated her with the whole court. The Queen Mother keeping her much about her person, she was constantly seen in her company. It was so remarked that her mental accomplishments were not less-extraordinary than her personal ones; she was the topic of every conversation, and her praises resounded from every tongue.” — Madame de La Fayette, Histoire de Madame Henriette D'Angleterre

ok i’ll riff if no one wants to ask me anything ig, hem hem—

i think the reason koa biographers tend to be so uncomfortable with the fray diego ‘arc’ is that it doesn’t cast koa in the best light? the only biographer that i’ve read that doesn’t handle it with kid gloves is julia fox tbh.

here are basically the only two conclusions you can draw from it : a) koa was hugely exaggerating the level of her ‘destitution’ in her household, even to diplomats, and that’s why she did have the funds to buy fray diego gifts of books etc., b) she was being honest about the severe lack of funds , in which case this means she was buying gifts for him rather than paying her ladies what they were owed. which suggests she had more than a platonic attachment to him.

there’s no ‘third option’ , really, so licence and fraser sort of hem and haw and sit on their hands about it, try to have their cake and eat it too. basically they say she was always unflinchingly unfailingly honest BUT somehow she was managing to find the funds to do this as she was insisting she didn’t even have the funds to clothe and feed herself. and will yet still basically say it’s disgusting for any historian to suggest that she might have been some level of devotion and attachment to her confessor that bordered on inappropriate . and also that it’s beyond the pale to suggest koa ever lied about anything .

ps this confessor is the one that famously remarked that koa was ‘the most beautiful creature in the world.’

Today, 18 February, marks the anniversary of the birth of Queen Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.

“When I am dead and opened, you shall find `Calais’ lying in my heart.”