Sexy History Comics

Ada Lovelace

Born
December 10, 1815
Died
November 27, 1852
An ornate Victorian comic portraying Ada Lovelace with plans for the Analytical Engine, writing at a mechanical calculator, and discussing its creative potential with Charles Babbage.
Read transcript 6 panels · includes visual descriptions

An ornate, sepia-and-gold Victorian comic presents Ada Lovelace as a visionary mathematician imagining creative uses for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.

  1. PanelTitle and opening portrait

    SceneAda sits at a desk covered with mechanical plans, beside brass machinery and a glowing oil lamp.

    Text

    ADA. Countess of Code.

    Poet. Visionary. Mathematician.

    She saw the future in numbers.

  2. PanelPanel 1 — Imagining machines

    SceneAda writes beside a brass calculating mechanism in a candlelit study.

    Text

    Men build machines. I imagine what they could become.

  3. PanelPanel 2 — The first algorithm

    SceneAda reclines with a fan amid books, candles, and machinery.

    Text

    She wrote the first algorithm meant for a machine.

    Logic can be beautiful, darling. ♥

  4. PanelPanel 3 — Ada and Charles Babbage

    SceneCharles Babbage and Ada stand before a large brass mechanism.

    Text

    You really think this engine could do more than calculate?

    Much more. It might compose, create... even surprise us.

  5. PanelPanel 4 — Algebraic patterns

    SceneAda looks back toward the reader against a chalkboard of mathematical diagrams.

    Text

    The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.

  6. PanelClosing banner

    SceneA parchment banner decorated with flowers and brass gears closes the page.

    Text

    Ada Lovelace, 1815–1852.

    Enchantress of Numbers.

Fact-check note: Lovelace’s 1843 notes include an algorithm for Bernoulli numbers intended for Babbage’s unbuilt Analytical Engine and famously imagine machines manipulating symbols and composing music. Calling it the “first algorithm” is too broad; “the first published computer program” is the more defensible formulation, though historians debate priority and attribution. Dialogue in the panels is dramatized. Science Museum Group · NIST