In this second installment of the series “Before it was called citizen science”, we present Isabel Zendal (1773-?), the key piece of science’s first «human infrastructure».
Introduction. In 1803, the Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition departed from A Coruña with the aim of carrying the smallpox vaccine to overseas territories. The expedition, led by Francisco Javier Balmis, has been considered the first global vaccination campaign. But for the vaccine to arrive alive in America and the Philippines, knowing the technique was not enough; it had to be preserved during the voyage.
Care as scientific infrastructure. For the smallpox vaccine to reach America and the Philippines aboard the corvette María Pita, it had to be preserved “arm to arm” through a group of children from the Orphans’ Home of La Coruña. Balmis organized that vaccination chain; Zendal was responsible for sustaining its daily operation. Her work was not only welfare-based: it combined care, vigilance, coordination, and practical continuity so that the vaccine would arrive alive on the other side of the Atlantic.
A practical knowledge applied with rigor. Without a university degree —inaccessible to a woman of her background in the 18th century—, Zendal applied exceptional rigor in the observation, care, and maintenance of the vaccination chain. Her contribution did not come from academia, but from a daily practice made of attention, organization, and direct responsibility. It is a clear example of how practical knowledge, when exercised with rigor, can sustain a scientific enterprise of enormous scope.
Why is Isabel Zendal a reference in citizen science?
- Participation in scientific implementation. Zendal did not design or direct the expedition, but her work was essential to sustain the vaccination chain and make its application possible in other territories.
- Scientific and human infrastructure. The vaccine had to be preserved alive “arm to arm”. The success of the expedition depended on a human vaccination chain sustained by daily vigilance, coordination, and organization.
- Science of care. Her figure shows that maintaining, accompanying, observing, and guaranteeing that a process works is also part of scientific production. In this case, care was not external to science, but a condition for the health campaign to be carried out.
- An open tension. It was not citizen science in the current sense: there was no voluntary participation in the production of data or knowledge, but rather an institutionally organized health expedition. But it reminds us that many phases of science depend on people located outside the academic core, whose practical knowledge makes its application and impact possible.
Did you know…? Isabel Zendal has been recognized by the WHO as the first nurse on an international mission in history. The Balmis Expedition, considered the first global vaccination campaign, depended on a human chain formed by 22 vaccini-ferous children and the daily work of care, vigilance, and coordination of a woman located outside the academic field. Her story reminds us that science is also sustained by practical knowledge, logistics, and care.
REFERENCES
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. (2021). Un cómic y un libro monográfico rememoran la primera campaña global de vacunación: la Expedición de Balmis. https://www.csic.es/es/actualidad-del-csic/un-comic-y-un-libro-monografico-rememoran-la-primera-campana-global-de-vacunacion-la-expedicion-de-balmis
Ministerio de Cultura. (2023). Expedición Balmis (1800–1820). Registro Memoria del Mundo UNESCO. https://www.cultura.gob.es/cultura/archivos/difusion/registro-memoria-unesco/2023/expedicion-balmis.html
Real Academia de la Historia. (s. f.). Isabel Zendal Gómez. Historia Hispánica. https://historia-hispanica.rah.es/biografias/42380-isabel-zendal-gomez
Ramírez Martín, S. M. (2002). Única mujer participant en la Real Expedición Filantrópica de la Vacuna: Dña. Isabel Sendales y Gómez. En M. R. Sánchez Rubio, I. Testón Núñez, J. Alvaro Rubio y F. Serrano Mangas (Coords.), IX Congreso Internacional de Historia de América (Vol. 2, pp. 271–276). Editora Regional de Extremadura. Texto completo disponible en la Asociación Española de Americanistas: https://www.americanistas.es/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/09-76-Ma-Ramirez-Martin-Susana-Unica-mujer-participante-en-la-Real-Expedicion-Filantropica-de-la-vacuna-Dna.-Isabel-Sendales-y-Gomez-Congreso-de-Badajoz-2000.pdf
Agencia SINC. (2023). Isabel Zendal, enfermera pionera en misión internacional. https://www.agenciasinc.es/Visual/Ilustraciones/Isabel-Zendal-la-primera-enfermera-de-la-historia-en-mision-internacional
Illustration credits: Ramón Palmeral