Ellen swallow richards fun facts
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Life Story: Ellen Swallow Richards
Ellen Swallow Richards and female MIT students in 1888.
Ellen Swallow Richards (top left) and female students, 1888 [ESR13a]. Courtesy of MIT Museum.
Ellen Swallow Richards with the MIT Chemistry staff
Ellen Swallow Richards with MIT Chemistry staff, 1900 [ESR12]. Courtesy of MIT Museum.
Ellen Swallow was born in Massachusetts in 1842. Her parents were former teachers who homeschooled their daughter because they did not believe the nearby primary school offered a strong enough education for girls. When Ellen was a teenager, the family moved to a different town so that Ellen could attend one of the few high schools in the region accepting female students.
Ellen learned to work hard at a young age. In high school, she excelled in math, science, and foreign languages. She also managed accounting and inventory for her parents’ grocery store. After graduation, her family could not afford to send her to college. Ellen did not let this stop her. She took jobs in nursing, housekeeping, and teaching. By the age of
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The most prominent female American chemist of the 19th century, Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911) was a pioneer in sanitary engineering and a founder of home economics in the United States. She was the first woman to be admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Born to an old but relatively poor New England family, Ellen Swallow spent several years teaching school, tutoring, and cleaning houses in order to earn enough money to attend one of the new women’s colleges. By the time she reached her mid-20s, and with the $300 she had saved, she entered Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1868 as a special student and graduated two years later.
Affinity for Science and Acceptance to MIT
At Vassar she was attracted to astronomy and chemistry. Upon graduation she applied for positions with various industrial chemists but was turned down in all cases. At the suggestion of one of these chemists, however, she applied and was accepted as a special student at MIT, making her the first woman in America to be accepted by a scientific school.
Three years later
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Richards, Ellen Swallow, 1842-1911
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Dates
- Existence: 1842 December 3 - 1911 October 30
- Usage: 1875 (Not Before)
- Usage: 1842 - 1875
- Usage: 1875 (Not Before)
- Usage: 1875 (Not Before)
- Usage: 1842 - 1875
Biography
Ellen Swallow Richards (1842 – 1911), was an American environmental chemist considered to be the pioneer of home economics.1 She also was the first woman admitted to MIT where she graduated with a BS in 1873. She was the Institute’s first female instructor, as well as the first American woman to earn a degree in chemistry.4 Specializing in sanitary engineering, Richards is also thought to be the first scientist to ever aim chemistry towards the study of nutrition.2
Born in Dunstable, Massachusetts, Richards was home-schooled as a child, but later attended Westford Academy at the age of 16.3 At the Academy, her proficiency for languages created a demand for her as a tutor, earning enough money for herself to continue her studies for the next several years.2 In 1868, Richards was admitted to Vassar College as a
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