Life of Ellen H. Richards, The.
Hunt, Caroline L. The Life of Ellen H. Richards. Boston: Whitcomb & Barrows, 1912.
8vo.; illustrated; red cloth stamped in gilt; spine sunned; bleach spots to bottom edge.
First edition of a biography published a year after Richards’s death, memorializing her myriad accomplishments in the field of science and her advancement of the cause of women’s education. The publisher notes: “…Our existence as a firm is due to her [Richards’s] belief in the need for specialized service in the literature of Home Economics. Our first publications were her books. Through seven years of development our best business asset was her good will. …To this publisher her life is therefore a fulfillment.”
Ellen Richards (1842-1911) was raised by two school teachers in Dunstable, Massachusetts, who developed in her a keen sense of the need to be well-educated. As she matured, she sought to acquire an extensive, formal education in the sciences, and successfully provided in-roads for women into fields previously dominated by men. In 1868 she became the first “special student” admitted to Vassar College, graduating with the senior class after two years. At Vassar she studied astronomy with Maria Mitchell and chemistry with Charles A. Farrar, and herself tutored some of the younger students. Farrar’s belief in the practical applications of science, combined with encouragement she received from other professors, inspired Richards to pursue a career in that field. In 1870 she was the first woman to be accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then only five years old, and was very likely the first woman admitted to any scientific school. The victory, though real, was not total: Richards was accepted as a special student in chemistry, was never billed for tuition and, therefore, was never officially enrolled. She assumed this was in recognition of her financial need, but later learned that it was a means of protecting the Institute president from complaints from other students. Nevertheless, in 1873 she received a Masters degree from Vassar and a Bachelor of Science from MIT, where she remained two years longer in pursuit of a doctorate which she never received, reportedly because “the heads of the department did not wish a woman to receive the first D.S. in chemistry” (Robert H. Richards, p. 153, quoted in NAW p. 143).
In her educational achievement Richards saw herself as a new style of feminist:
I hope…I am winning a way which others will keep open…Perhaps the fact that I am not a radical or a believer in the all powerful ballot for women to right her wrongs and that I do not scorn womanly duties, but claim it as a privilege to clean up and sort of supervise the room and sew things, etc., is winning me stronger allies than anything else. (NAW, p. 143)
In 1875 she married a young MIT professor, Robert Hallowell Richards, who shared her “single-minded devotion to science.” Ellen helped him with his lectures, examined and sorted the numerous scientific papers they received on a weekly basis, and for two summers conducted chemistry experiments to aid his research; his emotional and financial support allowed her the freedom to pursue aggressively her ground-breaking but non-remunerative advancement of women’s education in the sciences, as well as her own scientific discoveries. (NAW, p. 144)
Appreciative of her unorthodox role in the field of science, Richards sought to create similar opportunities for women. As an undergraduate at MIT she taught an experimental course in chemistry to female teachers. In 1876, through her fundraising efforts with the Woman’s Education Association of Boston, a Woman’s Laboratory was established at MIT for the instruction of chemical analysis, industrial chemistry, mineralogy, and biology. For the seven years of its existence both Richards and the Professor whom she assisted donated their salaries and made annual pecuniary gifts. In 1884 she was appointed to the faculty as instructor in
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