Ellen Swallow Richards
Stuff You Missed in History Class
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MIT Women's Laboratory
Ellen Swallow Richards was MIT's first woman faculty member. In 1876, she opened a facility specifically for women to study science. She also wanted to make scientific study accessible to women who couldn't go to college. Her ideas on ecology came from her trip to Germany in 1876.
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Ellen Swallow Richards was a big part of the establishment of home economics as a field. But well before that, she broke a lot of ground and was often way ahead of her time.
Research:
- Bettex, Morgan. “A life filled with firsts.” MIT News. 1/26/2011. https://news.mit.edu/2011/timeline-richards-0126
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Ellen Swallow Richards". Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Nov. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ellen-Swallow-Richards. Accessed 8 February 2023.
- Chapman, Sasha. “The Woman Who Gave Us the Science of Normal Life.” Nautilus. 3/28/2017. https://nautil.us/the-woman-who-gave-us-the-science-of-normal-life-236534/
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- Durant, Elizabeth. “Ellencyclopedia.” MIT Technology Review. 8/15/2007. https://www.technologyreview.com/2007/08/15/36578/ellencyclopedia/
- Dyball, Robert and Liesel Carlsson. Human Ecology Review, Vol. 23, No. 2, Special Issue: Human Ecology—A Gathering of Perspectives: Portraits from the Past—Prospects for the Future (2017). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26367977
- Egan, Kristen R. “Conservation and Cleanliness: Racial and Environmental Purity in Ellen Richards and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.” Women's Studies Quarterly , FALL/WINTER 2011, Vol. 39, No. 3/4. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41308345
- Hunt, Caroline Lousia. “The life of Ellen H. Richards, 1842-1911.” Boston: Whitcomb & Barrows. 1918. https://archive.org/details/lifeofellenhrich1918hunt
- Kwallek, Nancy. "Ellen Swallow Richards: visionary on home and sustainability." Phi Kappa Phi Forum, vol. 92, no. 2, summer 2012, pp. 8+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A291498991/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=7050163b. Accessed 6 Feb. 2023.
- McNeill, Leila. “The First Female Student at MIT Started an All-Women Chemistry Lab and Fought for Food Safety.” Smithsonian. 12/18/2018. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/first-female-student-mit-started-women-chemistry-lab-food-safety-180971056/
- Richardson, Barbara. “Ellen Swallow Richards: Advocate for ‘Oecology,’ Euthenics and Women’s Leadership in Using Science to Control the Environment.” Michigan Sociological Review , Fall 2000, Vol. 14 (Fall 2000). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40969050
- Smith, Coleen. "The William Barton Rogers Building - The Door Opens." Clio: Your Guide to History. October 24, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2023. https://theclio.com/entry/147331
- Smith, Nancy DuVergne. “Scene at MIT: Ellen Swallow Richards leads the Women's Laboratory.” MIT News. 3/21/2017. https://news.mit.edu/2017/scene-at-mit-ellen-swallow-richards-womens-laboratory-0321
- Talbot, H.P. “Ellen Swallow Richards.” Technology Review, volume 13, pp. 365-373. https://wayback.archive-it.org/7963/20190702115713/https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/esr/esr-biography.html
- Vassar Encyclopedia. “Ellen Swallow Richards ’1870.” https://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/distinguished-alumni/ellen-swallow-richards/
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