Ellen Swallow Richards (December 3, 1842 — March 30, 1911) was the foremost female industrial and environmental chemist in the United States in the 1800s, pioneering the field of sanitary engineering and founding the field of home economics. Richards was the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and its first female instructor, the first woman in America accepted to any school of science and technology, and the first American woman to earn a degree in chemistry. December 3 is the 337th (in leap years the 338th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (90th in Leap years). ... 1911 was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... Events and Trends Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815). ... Family and consumer sciences, or home economics, is an academic discipline concerning consumer science, nutrition, cooking, parenting, interior decoration, textiles, gardening, and other subjects related to home management. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a research and educational institution located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. MIT is a widely renowned leader in science and technology, as well as in many other fields, including management, economics, linguistics, political science, and philosophy. ... Chemistry (in Greek: χημεία) is the science of matter that deals with the composition, structure, and properties of substances and with the transformations that they undergo. ...

Born (to Fanny Taylor and Peter Swallow) to an old Dunstable, Massachusetts family of modest means which prized education, Ellen Swallow taught, tutored, and cleaned for years, finally saving $300 to enter Vassar College in 1868, earning her bachelor's degree two years later. After failing to find suitable employment as an industrial chemist after graduation, she entered MIT to continue her studies, "it being understood that her admission did not establish a precedent for the general admission of females" according to the records of the meeting of the MIT Corporation on December 14, 1870. Three years later she received a Bachelor of Science degree from MIT for her thesis Notes on Some Sulpharsenites and Sulphantimonites from Colorado, as well as a Master of Arts degree from Vassar for a thesis on the chemical analysis of iron ore. She continued her studies at MIT and would have been awarded its first doctoral degree, but MIT balked at granting this distinction to a woman, and did not award its first doctorate until 1886. Dunstable is a town located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. ... Closeup of the Vassar Main Building Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college situated in Poughkeepsie, NY. Formerly a womens college, Vassar is the only fully co-educational member of the Seven Sisters. ... 1868 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... December 14 is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1870 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1886 is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ...

In 1875 Ellen Swallow married Robert H. Richards, chairman of the Mine Engineering Department at MIT. With his support she remained associated with MIT, volunteering her services as well as contributing $1,000 annually to create programs for female students. In 1876, with the urging of the Women's Education Association of Boston, the MIT Women's Laboratory was created, where in 1879 she became an assistant instructor (without pay) in the fields of chemical analysis, industrial chemistry, mineralogy, and applied biology, under Professor John M. Ordway. In 1883, MIT began accepting women and awarding them degrees as regular students, and the Laboratory was closed. 1875 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1876 is a leap year starting on Saturday. ... 1879 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Analytical chemistry is the analysis of material samples to gain an understanding of their chemical composition and structure. ... Mineralogy is an earth science that involves the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals. ... 1883 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

From 1884 until her death, Ellen Richards was an instructor in the newly founded laboratory of sanitary chemistry, the first in the United States, headed by her former professor William R. Nichols. In 1887, the laboratory, under Richards, conducted a study of water quality in Massachusetts for the Massachusetts State Board of Health involving over 20,000 samples, the first such study in America. As a result, Massachusetts established the first water-quality standards in America, as well as the first modern sewage treatment plant, in Lowell, Massachusetts. Richards was a consulting chemist for the Massachusetts State Board of Health from 1872 to 1875, and the official water analyst from 1887 until 1897. She also served as a consultant to the Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance Co, and in 1900 wrote the textbook Air, Water, and Food from a Sanitary Standpoint, with A. G. Woodman. Her interest in the environment led her in 1892 to introduce into English the word ecology which had been coined in German to describe the "household of nature". 1884 is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar). ... 1887 is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar). ... To most people not professionally involved in water quality issues, water is either drinkable (technically potable) or contains potentially harmful or toxic substances. ... Sewage treatment is the process that removes the majority of the contaminants from waste-water or sewage and produces both a liquid effluent suitable for disposal to the natural environment and a sludge. ... Old mill complex now converted to a museum. ... 1872 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1875 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1887 is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar). ... 1897 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1900 is a common year starting on Monday. ... 1892 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... (Ecology is sometimes used incorrectly as a synonym for the natural environment. ...

Richards' interests also included applying scientific principles to domestic situations, such as nutrition, clothing, physical fitness, sanitation, and efficient home management, creating the field of home economics. "Perhaps the fact that I am not a Radical 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 is winning me stronger allies than anything else", she wrote to her parents. She published The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning: A Manual for House-keepers in 1882, designed and demonstrated model kitchens, devised curricula, and organized conferences. In 1908, she was chosen to be the first president of the newly formed American Home Economics Association. Her books and writings on this topic include Conservation by Sanitation, The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning, The Cost of Living, The Cost of Food, The Cost of Shelter, The Art of Right Living, and The Cost of Cleanness. Nutrition is the study of the relationship between diet and states of health and disease. ... (See also List of types of clothing and Clothing terminology) Humans nearly universally wear articles of clothing (also known as dress, garments, or attire) on the body. ... The notion of physical fitness is used in two close meanings. ... Sanitation is a term for the hygienic disposal or recycling of waste materials, particularly human excrement. ... Family and consumer sciences, or home economics, is an academic discipline concerning consumer science, nutrition, cooking, parenting, interior decoration, textiles, gardening, and other subjects related to home management. ... 1882 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Richards served on the Board of Trustees of Vassar College for many years, and was granted an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1910. She died at Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, in 1911. In her honor, MIT designated a room in the main buildings for the use of women students, and in 1973, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Richard's graduation, established the Ellen Swallow Richards Professorship for distinguished female faculty members. 1910 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Jamaica Plain, more commonly known as JP, is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. ... 1911 was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... 1973 was a common year starting on Monday. ...

Publications

• Richards, Ellen. First lessons in food and diet. Boston: Whitcomb & Barrows, 1904.

• Richards, Ellen. The Cost of shelter. New York: J. Wiley & Sons, 1905.

• Richards, Ellen. Meat and drink. Boston: Health-Education League, [1906?].

• Richards, Ellen. The Efficient worker. Boston: Health-Education League, c1908.

• Richards, Ellen. Health in labor camps. Boston: Health-Education League, c1908.

• Richards, Ellen. Tonics and stimulants. Boston: Health-Education League, [1908 or 1909].

• Richards, Ellen. Air, water, and food: from a sanitary standpoint. 4th ed., rev. and rewritten. New York: J. Wiley & Sons, 1914.

External link

• Bill Kovarik, "Ellen Swallow Richards and the Progressive women's reform movement"
• National Women's hall of Fame: Ellen Swallow Richards
• The Revenge of Ellen Swallow, New York Times editorial, February 20, 2005
• Tributes to Ellen Swallow Richards
• Publications by and about Ellen Swallow Richards

See also

• List of chemists