Grace C. Frankland

Born Grace Coleridge Toynbee on December 4, 1858, she became known as Grace C. Frankland after marrying fellow scientist Percy Frankland in 1882. She was an English microbiologist who worked during the early years of bacteriology, when scientists were only beginning to understand how microorganisms affected health, water, and disease.

She collaborated with Percy Frankland on scientific research and also wrote for general readers. One of her best-known books, Bacteria in Daily Life (1903), helped explain bacteriology in a straightforward way for people outside the laboratory. Sources available here also describe her as a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, a member of the Linnean Society of London, and an honorary member of Bedford College.

Grace Frankland is remembered as one of the women who helped shape microbiology in Britain while also making science more accessible to the public. She died on October 5, 1946.