Want to know more about early modern recipes before the big day? Join us for an online Transcribathon Preview discussion devoted to recipes and women’s health on Friday 7 March, 5pm – 6pm GMT/12pm – 1pm EST. Click here for more.
2025 Transcribathon:
Women’s Health, Women’s Handbooks
Friday, March 14
Join EMROC, Wellcome Collection, and the Royal College of Physicians for a day of transcribing, virtual chatting, and a presentation from Mary Fissell.
This year we are exploring women’s health in two 17th century recipe books, RCP MS688 and Wellcome MS373.
Schedule:
1pm GMT/ 8am EST/ 5am PST: Live transcribing, with Zoom Rooms.
3pm GMT/10am EST/ 7am PST: Take a break from transcribing for a 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.
4pm GMT / 11am EST/ 8am PST – Live transcribing, with Zoom Rooms
8 pm GMT/ 3 pm EST/ noon PST — Zoom Rooms close