Origin Story: Forgotten Light — Stories History Misplaced

Forgotten Light began as a conversation between two educators who lived on opposite ends of California’s academic landscape yet shared the same restless question: How many extraordinary stories has history misplaced?

Dr. Elizabeth Marley, a faculty scholar at UC Davis, spent years researching the gaps, omissions, and silences in historical archives — the lives that shaped ecosystems, cultures, and ideas but rarely made it into textbooks. Meanwhile, in the Santa Cruz mountains, Melissa Schilling, a special education teacher and Cabrillo College faculty member, spent her days helping students discover their own voices and hidden strengths. Both women believed that stories — especially the forgotten ones — are catalysts for empowerment.

Their worlds collided over a shared fascination with Maria Sibylla Merian, a 17th-century naturalist whose groundbreaking work transformed science yet was nearly erased from popular history. As they read her journals, traced her journeys, and marveled at her art, one truth became clear:
If students and young readers knew these stories, they would never see the world — or themselves — the same way again.

So they created Forgotten Light: Stories History Misplaced, a graphic novel series dedicated to illuminating the brilliance that history overlooked. Each volume brings forward an unsung figure, a lost invention, a suppressed culture, or a place whose significance was ignored — all told with rigorous research, bold art, and an unshakeable commitment to truth.

Together, Elizabeth and Melissa built a creative partnership that bridges university research with classroom accessibility, science with storytelling, and justice with imagination.

Forgotten Light is their invitation to readers everywhere:
Step into the shadows of history — and discover the people who were shining there all along.