History from below uncovers overlooked protagonists contributing to (inter)national endeavour often against considerable odds. Mrs T. Edward Bowdich then Mrs R. Lee (1791-1856) is indicative. When women allegedly cannot participate in early nineteenth-century scientific exploration, discovery and publication, Sarah’s multiple specialist contributions to French and British natural history, and to their dissemination, have surprisingly attracted no book-length study. This first appraisal of Sarah’s unbroken production of discipline-changing scientific work over three decades - in ichthyology, in historical geography, in the public dissemination of scientific knowledge - does more than fill this gap. It also pivotally investigates the intercultural and multi-genre dynamics of Sarah’s pioneering perspectives and contributions achieved often at great personal cost. Sarah’s larger significance is then to challenge ‘secondary’ or ‘leaky-pipeline’ models for women’s pioneering work in nineteenth-century natural history as a case study in the distinction of pertinence to women in STEM(M) today.