Transcribathon 2025: women's health, women's handbook

This March, we are delighted  to once again be taking part in a Transcribathon with the Wellcome Collection and Early Modern Recipes Online Collective (EMROC). This year we are exploring women’s health in two 17th century recipe books; RCP MS688 and Wellcome MS373. 

Commonly written and maintained by women, recipe books like these have become a testament to women’s experiences across all levels of society. Sign up to take part in helping us transcribe these fascinating texts. There will also be a discussion panel, Zoom chats and talk about women and abortion in the Early Modern Era by author and Professor in the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Mary Fissell. Everyone is welcome - no experience necessary!

Transcribing

Participants can have a go at transcribing the two manuscripts with The Folger Shakespeare Library providing support via the FromthePage transcription interface. More details on how to transcribe will be available on the EMROC Transcribathon Central page here.

3pm GMT/10am EST/ 7am PST:

Take a break from transcribing to join a fantastic talk by author and historian Mary Fissell.

Hiding in Plain Sight: Women and Abortion in Early Modern England

Abortion has been hiding in plain sight in early-modern England. We haven't seen it because what we now call medication abortions were largely unproblematic. We don't often see, for example, women in court, solely because they sought abortions. But when we look at popular medical books and at manuscript recipe books, we can find suggestive evidence that women were indeed regulating their fertility.

Mary Fissell is the inaugural J. Mario Molina Professor in the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, focusing on sex, gender and reproduction. The author of Vernacular Bodies, among others, she has featured on the BBC, and in Vice, Slate, The Washington Post and The New York Times. In her spare time, she is a metalsmith.

The lecture will include a short introduction to the specific texts involved in the transcribathon by Julia Nurse, research development lead at the Wellcome Collection and Pamela Forde archive manager at the RCP Museum.

Mary Fissell’s new book Abortion: a history can be pre-ordered now: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/abortion/

Attendees at the talk will get a discount code for purchase of her book.

Please be aware this talk will include open discussion about abortion methods.