"Imagination is the discovering faculty, pre-eminently. It is that which penetrates into the unseen worlds around us, the worlds of science."

• MATHEMATICIAN
  
• Wrote what is considered to be the FIRST computer program -- in 1843!
• TRANSLATED an article about Charles Babbage's analytical engine (forerunner to the modern computer) from French to English, adding her own commentary that ended up being three times as long as the original article
• Included several potential uses for Babbage's machine, as well as step-by-step instructions for the calculation of Bernoulli numbers in her Note G; which is now considered the first computer program ever written
• The English version was published only with her initials, as it was deemed improper for a lady to include her name on a publication
• Lovelace also devised a system of programming the analytical engine by using punch cards, inspired by a similar process used with looms
• In the 1970s the United States Department of Defense named its computer programming language ADA in her honor
• Daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron, her full name was Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace

Painting by Alfred Edward Chalon [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (cropped)

Bibliography: Doyle, Caitlin. Girls Can Do Anything: From Sports to Innovation, Art to Politics, Meet Over 200 Women Who Got There First. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2016. Print.
Green, Jen. Women in Science. New York: Penguin Random House, 2018. Print.
Ignotofsky, Rachel. Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2016. Print.
Mode, P.J. and Ronald K. Smeltzer. “Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace.” Extraordinary Women in Science & Medicine: Four Centuries of Achievement, The Grolier Club, 2013, 121-124.
Yount, Lisa. A to Z of Women in Science and Math. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1999. Print.

Biographies for Kids and Young Adults

(picture book)

(picture book)

(picture book)

(picture book)

Research

Historical Fiction

(graphic novel)

Spread the word!

Meet more Awesome Women like this

Please note that while Awesome Women Library tries to include links only to media from reputable sources, we cannot attest to the quality or content of any media listed on this website. Our mission is to introduce you to these Awesome Women and give you a wide array of resources for learning more. We haven't read everything listed and are not a recommendation site, nor is this meant to be an exhaustive catalog of every book related to this woman -- there's just too much out there! Happy reading!!