Marine Biological Hall Of Distinction: Jeanne Villepreux-Power
- The Persaud Catalog
- Aug 25
- 5 min read
This article is part of our collection known as the Marine Hall of Distinction. In this special collection, we will discuss marine biologists who have served marine biology and oceanography the most. We do this to commemorate these marine biologists and show gratitude for everything they have contributed to our oceans. Today's marine scientist is Jeanne Villepreux-Power.
Jeanne Villepreux-Power was a renowned French marine biologist, aquarist, & esteemed dressmaker. She is best known for inventing the aquarium, her research on Argonauta argo, & creating the wedding dress of Marie-Caroline, Duchess of Berry. She has been coined the “Mother of Aquariophily”, & broke glass ceilings for women in science all around the world.
In today's article, we are going to delve into her formative years & education, her personal life & career, & her achievements, accomplishments as well as her awards. With that being said, let us delve into the renowned career of Jeanne Villepreux-Power!
Her Formative Years & Education
Jeanne Villepreux Power was born on September 25th, 1794, in Juillac, France. She was born as the daughter of a shoemaker, likely where she earned her passion for garment construction & dressmaking from. Her mother passed away when she was 11, leading her family to live on a stricter budget.
Her schooling was not very advanced, as with many people of a lower economic status of the era, with the notable exception of reading, writing, & rhetoric.
In 1812, she walked approximately 461 kilometers from her home in Juillac to Paris, eyes set on becoming a seamstress. Unfortunately, the relative who was designated as her travel guardian assaulted her on the way, & stole her identification documents. As such, she had to attend to her injuries, & receive new identification documents from the local police.
Terribly, the job that she had lined up in paris was given to another seamstress due to her delay, & she was forced to take a lesser job as a dressmakers assistant.
Her Personal Life & Career
Despite the rough start to her career, she quickly rose to acclaim as a dressmaker, as she designed the wedding dress of Princess Marie-Caroline of Bourbon-Two Sicilies for her 1816 wedding to Charles de Ferdinand Bourbon.
This led her to become one of the most renowned dressmakers in Paris, & at the wedding ceremony, she met English Merchant James Power. The pair fell in love, & married in 1818. They married, & subsequently moved to Messina, Sicily, a harbour city in Northeast Sicily, where her passion for the natural world began to grow. She taught herself about the terrestrial & marine fauna as well as the flora of Sicily, educating herself about the biological world.
Beginning in 1832, Jeanne developed an interest in Argonauta argo, also known as the Greater Argonaut. The Greater Argonaut is an interesting species of coastal octopus known for its distinctive appearance, & paper-thin shell which it lives in. She closely examined the creature, fascinated by its unique features, & the mystery of its shell. You see, at the time, it was assumed that Argonauts found their shell from an external source similar to a Hermit Crab, rather than creating it themselves. However, Jeanne was not entirely convinced of this. She also knew that to get a proper grasp on a living organism's anatomy, you cannot solely study dead specimens.
So, in 1832, she developed one of the first aquariums, to observe the Argonaut from birth to death in its live form. This aquarium was the first of its kind, a revolutionary invention for ocean research & marine animal research.
While raising Argonauts in her aquarium, Jeanne discovered that the mystery of their shell wasn’t as it seemed. Instead of finding shells from an external source, she watched as Argonauts developed their own shells beginning almost immediately after birth, proving this belief false. In addition to this, she also illustrated her argonauts subjects in beautiful colour illustrations, in order to make a record of them.
Due to the fact that women were not allowed to present their research in universities or most academic societies, Jeanne had to send a proxy in the form of Richard Owen to present her groundbreaking work to the London Zoological Society.
In her research, she also invented 2 other aquarium-esque devices, such as a glass device placed within a cage that is supposed to be placed in shallow water, & another aquarium-esque device which was surrounded by a cage & capable of being lowered into the ocean. She used these devices to create a network of cages off the coast of Sicily, & each day, would row her boat from shore to check on each of these cages. She would put food as bait into each of them, hoping to catch another marine organism.
She would go on to publish “Observations et expériences physiques sur plusieurs animaux marins et terrestres”, a French book about her research on Argonauts using her aquarium. Soon after, in 1842, she published a book about the environment of Sicily titled “Guida per la Sicilia”. Both of these brought her notoriety in the scientific world, & contributed to her ultimately being the first female member of the Gioenian Academy of Natural Sciences, along with a member of a dozen other Zoological societies.
In 1842, she, along with her husband & family, moved to residences in Paris & London. Unfortunately, as a result of the move, many of her writings, scientific apparatuses, & collections were lost due to the cargo ship sinking on its way to deliver her belongings. She did still continue her work after this, she did not continue her research, & transitioned to mainly scientific writing.
Sadly, on January 26th, 1871, Mrs. Jeanne Villepreux Power passed away. Her contributions to marine biology, & historical fashion, are eternal. She will forever be remembered as the mother of the Aquariophily, a revolutionary marine scientist, & a skilled inventor.
Her Achievements, Accomplishments, & Awards
1. She invented the aquarium, an instrument which marine science as a field could not have progressed as far without.
2. She was the first scientist to truly study the Octopus Argonauts, & was the first person to prove that Argonauts create their own shells as opposed to finding them from external sources as hermit crabs do, fundamentally changing our understanding of them.
3. She was an extremely renowned dressmaker, designing the wedding dress for Princess Marie Caroline, House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a high honour.
4. In 1997, a large crater on Venus was named in her honour “Villepreux-Power”.
5. In 1858, she was referred to by English paleontologist Richard Owen as the “Mother of Aquariophily”, which means the mother of aquarium keeping.
Directories / Credits
Citation No. 1: “Jeanne Villepreux-Power”, Written by John P. Rafferty, & Published on February 25th, 2025. Published by Encyclopedia Britannica.
Citation No. 2: “History's Hidden Figures: Meet the 19th Century French Dressmaker Who Invented the Aquarium”, Written by Katharine, & Published on September 24th, 2023. Published by A Mighty Girl.
Citation No. 3: “The Seamstress Who Solved the Ancient Mystery of the Argonaut, Pioneered the Aquarium, and Laid the Groundwork for the Study of Octopus Intelligence”, Written by Maria Popova, & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by The Marginalian.
Citation No. 4: “Meet Jeanne Villepreux-Power”, Written by Unknown, & Published on June 3rd, 2024. Published by the Stemettes.
Citation No. 5: “Jeanne Villepreux-Power: Marine Biologist & Inventor of the Aquarium”, Written by Susan Fourtané, Published on September 25th, 2018. Published by Interesting Engineering.
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