Ellen Swallow Richards

Ellen H. Swallow Richards
Richards c. 1890s
From The Life of Ellen H. Richards
by Caroline L. Hunt, 1912
Born(1842-12-03)December 3, 1842
Dunstable, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedMarch 30, 1911(1911-03-30) (aged 68)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Resting placeChrist Church Cemetery, Gardiner, Maine, U.S.
Education
Occupations
  • Chemist
  • professor
Known forHome economics
Euthenics
School meals
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1875)​
Signature

Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (née Swallow; December 3, 1842 – March 30, 1911) was an American industrial and safety engineer, environmental chemist, and university faculty member in the United States during the 19th century. Her pioneering work in sanitary engineering, and experimental research in domestic science, laid a foundation for the new science of home economics.[1][2] She was the founder of the home economics movement characterized by the application of science to the home, and the first to apply chemistry to the study of nutrition.[3]

Richards graduated from Westford Academy (second oldest secondary school in Massachusetts) in 1862. She was the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She graduated in 1873 and later became its first female instructor.[1][4] Richards was the first woman in America accepted to any school of science and technology, and the first American woman to obtain a degree in chemistry, which she earned from Vassar College in 1870.[5][6][7]

Richards was a pragmatic feminist, as well as a founding ecofeminist, who believed that women's work within the home was a vital aspect of the economy.[8] At the same time, however, she did not directly challenge the prevailing cult of domesticity that valorized women's place and work in the home.[9]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference obit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Richards, Ellen Swallow, Residence". National Historic Landmarks Program. April 7, 1991. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. Retrieved 2013-09-04.
  3. ^ Mozans, H. J. (1913). Woman in science. London: University of Notre Dame Press. p. 217. ISBN 0-268-01946-0.
  4. ^ "Campus Life: M.I.T.; Salute to Women At a School Once 99.6% Male". The New York Times. April 7, 1991. Retrieved 2014-03-08. When Ellen Swallow Richards came to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in January 1871, she was the first woman to attend the institute, then based in Boston.
  5. ^ Ford, Lynne E. (2010-05-12). "Ellen Swallow Richards". Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics. ISBN 9781438110325.
  6. ^ Bowden, Mary Ellen (1997). Chemical achievers : the human face of the chemical sciences. Philadelphia, PA: Chemical Heritage Foundation. pp. 156–158. ISBN 9780941901123.
  7. ^ "Ellen H. Swallow Richards". Science History Institute. June 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  8. ^ Richardson, Barbara (2002). "Ellen Swallow Richards: 'Humanistic Oekologist,' 'Applied Sociologist,' and the Founding of Sociology". American Sociologist. 33 (3): 21–58. doi:10.1007/s12108-002-1010-6. S2CID 144939987.
  9. ^ Koch, Shelley L. (2012). A theory of grocery shopping : food, choice and conflict (English ed.). London: Berg. pp. 13–30. ISBN 978-0-85785-150-5. OCLC 794136434.