Ella Crean is a third-year undergraduate student in the Department of English Literature and Creative Writing at Lancaster University. She worked with the Davy Notebooks Project team, supervised by Ellie Bird, and designed these learning materials in 2023, as part of a work placement module (ENGL329 Work Placement: Culture, Heritage, and Creative Industries).

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This lecture series explores the personal network of Sir Humphry Davy in terms of his scientific, literary, personal and romantic relationships, and how this network counters the idea of the ‘lone scientist’ popularised by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Drawing on the transcripts of his notebooks, it is possible to map Davy’s similarities to and differences with Victor Frankenstein, ultimately dismantling the myth of the ‘lone scientist’ via Davy’s relationships with Anna Beddoes, Michael Faraday, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jane Davy and John Davy. This lecture series was designed for undergraduate students but is a useful resource for anybody researching Davy or the ‘lone scientist’.

Video (click to view)