A life on paper can look deceptively tidy. A school, a position, a publication, an award. Yet every line rests on decisions, relationships, work, and circumstances that the line cannot hold.
A line is a beginning
HerCV takes its name from curriculum vitae: the course of a life. Its subject is women’s lives in science, exploration, craft and invention. Its organising idea is to read a record slowly enough to see the person and the world around it.
A botanical plate invites questions about observation and travel. A scientific paper points towards instruments, collaborators and access to a laboratory. An appointment can reveal as much about an institution as about the person who entered it.
The shape and its limits
Study, first post, firsts, honours, legacy: these are reading prompts, not five compulsory stages. Formal education is only one kind of learning. Paid employment is only one kind of work. Recognition is neither evenly distributed nor a reliable measure of contribution.
A “first” needs a boundary. We distinguish a publication from a discovery, an event from its later recognition, and a local milestone from a worldwide claim. Sources are linked alongside the dated examples so the trail remains visible.
What the margin can hold
We read for the people a famous name can eclipse: assistants, makers, family members and communities whose knowledge or labour shaped the work. Historical context includes exclusion, colonial power and unequal access; it is not merely a decorative backdrop.
The homepage’s original generated object studies evoke settings rather than reproduce evidence. They are not photographs of named women’s workplaces or possessions. The Notebook is a separate, wider archive of mixed-topic entries, not a claim that every post is a historical biography.
A record can be corrected
If a date, name or claim needs attention, send the page URL, the exact wording and a source through Contact. Disagreement is most useful when it leaves a trail another reader can follow.