Table of Contents
- Collection Summary
- Biographical Note
- Scope and Content Note
- Subject Headings
- Related Material
- Administrative Information
- Access and Use
- Encoding Information
- Container List
Collection Summary
| Repository: | Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries |
|---|---|
| Creator: | Richards, Ellen H. (Ellen Henrietta), 1842-1911 |
| Title: | Ellen Swallow Richards Papers |
| Dates: | 1868-1934 |
| Quantity: | 0.3 cubic feet (1 box with approximately 102 letters and one typescript) |
| Abstract: | Correspondence , manuscripts, clippings, photographs, and other material relating to Richards' personal life, her education, and her work at MIT and Vassar College, the home economics movement, and womens education. |
Biographical Note
Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842-1911), chemist and leader in applied and domestic science, was born in Dunstable, Mass., in 1842. She was a member of the Vassar College Class of 1870 and the first woman to graduate from MIT (1873). Because of her mother’s ill health, overwork, and financial frustrations, she did not enter Vassar until she was twenty-five. At Vassar she became interested in astronomy and chemistry, the latter becoming the subject of her life’s work. In 1875, she married Robert Hallowell Richards, a metallurgist and mining engineer, who was equally devoted to science. She was the first woman member of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers.
Ellen Richards’ letters to her classmate (Mary) Anna Mineah reflect her amazingly busy and productive next thirty-five years. Dedicated to the scientific education of women, she was a pioneer in the study of sanitation, "sanitary chemistry," food chemistry, public health, and home economics, as well as one of the founders of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, which was later to become the American Association of University Women. After 1880, home economics claimed most of her attention, and she must be considered the creator of this new field of study in which she was a leader until her death in 1911. For the profession of home economics she has been called "its prophet, its interpreter..., its inspirer," and, in her own words, its "engineer."
TopScope and Content Note
These papers include seventy-six letters from Richards to her Vassar classmate (Mary) Anna Mineah concerning Vassar College, women at MIT, education, research, travel, the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, and the home economics movement, 1876-1910; seven letters to Miss Bogg concerning the organization of the home economics movement, 1909-1910; other letters concerning Vassar College, 1869-1903; typescript of an article on "Manpower," ca. 1906, and manuscript on Vassar College, "Alma Mater Bless Her;" excerpts from her letters to her mother written while at Vassar College, 1868-1870; ten letters from her husband, Robert H. Richards, and others about Richards, 1892-1934; and miscellaneous clippings, photographs, and biographical materials.
TopAccess and Use
Access
This collection is open for research according to the regulations of the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library without any additional restrictions.
Restrictions on Use
Permission to quote (publish) from unpublished or previously published material must be obtained as described in the regulations of the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library.
Subject Headings
Names:
- Mineah, Anna
- Richards, Robert H.
Organizations:
- Association of Collegiate Alumnae (U.S.)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Vassar College--Alumni and alumnae
- Vassar College--Students
Subjects:
- Food analysis
- Home economics
- Public health
- Sanitation
- Women chemists
- Women in science
- Women's colleges--New York (State)--Poughkeepsie
- Women--Education
VCL Categories
- Math, Science and Medicine
- Vassar College
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Ellen Swallow Richards Papers, Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries.
Processing Information
Original processing date unknown. Updated by Andrea Ditkoff in 2018.
Acquisition Information
Gift of (Mary) Anna Mineah, VC 1870, and Annie L. MacLeod, Vassar College, Chemistry Department, 1914-1928.
Container List
Return to the Table of Contents
Details
Correspondence , manuscripts, clippings, photographs, and other material relating to Richards' personal life, her education, and her work at MIT and Vassar College, the home economics movement, and womens education.
