Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson

Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson (1811 – September 4, 1870) was an American writer of books on science, astronomy and cookery.

Bouvier's Familiar Astronomy "for the use of schools, families and private students", went through multiple editions in the United States and England and was highly acclaimed.

A preface to a later edition of The National Cook Book, written by her husband after her death, indicates that 'When this work was prepared for the Press, she declined to let her name appear as the author, from her great dislike to notoriety, observing "that a woman should never be known outside of her own home.

Her "great work",[8] Bouvier's Familiar Astronomy: or, An Introduction to the Study of the Heavens (1855) was intended "for the use of schools, families and private students".

[5] In the preface, she elaborates further: This work, embracing all the recent observations of the heavenly bodies, is intended to be a complete treatise on Astronomy, conducting the pupil, step by step, from the base to the summit of the structure; explaining as far as practicable, by figures and diagrams, all the celestial phenomena, and the laws by which they are governed, without entering into those mathematical details which properly belong to treatises designed for those who propose to make Astronomy their chief study.

[5][11] Her treatment of the subject indicates that Hannah Bouvier was widely read, with broad knowledge of her field and considerable skill in organizing and presenting her material.

[11] Most of her cookbooks were published as being by "A Lady of Philadelphia", although at least one edition gives her maiden name, and identifies her as the author of both Familiar Science and Bouvier's Astronomy.

"[14] The author emphasizes the importance of domestic economy, and includes recipes for "heart, liver, tripe, feet" and the reuse of leftovers, a theme she also addressed in The Family Save-All.

[15] Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson died September 4, 1870, in Long Branch, New Jersey, home of her daughter Emma and son-in-law, George William Childs.