The Celebrated Elizabeth Smith

Elizabeth Smith gained transnational fame posthumously for her extensive intellectual accomplishments, which encompassed astronomy, botany, history, and poetry. As she navigated her place in the world, Smith made a self-conscious decision to keep her many talents hidden from disapproving critics. Therefore, her rise to fame began only in 1808, when her posthumous memoir appeared. Although Smith was cast as "exceptional" by her contemporaries and modern scholars alike, Lucia McMahon argues that her scholarly achievements, travel explorations, and posthumous fame were all emblematic of the age in which she lived. Offering insights into Romanticism, picturesque tourism, celebrity culture, and women's literary productions, McMahon asks the provocative question, how many seemingly exceptional women do we have to uncover in the historical record before we stop being surprised?