I
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
THE LIFE OF
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
BY
CAROLINE L. HUNT
WHITCOMB & BARROWS
BOSTON, 1912
COPYRIGHT, 1912
BY ROBERT H. RICHARDS
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
WHILE there are many recorded instances of
friendship between author and publisher, to few
firms is given the peculiarly vital relationship that
it was our privilege to hold with Mrs. Richards.
Our existence as a firm is due to her belief in
the need for specialized service in the literature
of Home Economics. Our first publications were
her books. Through seven years of development our
best business asset was her good will.
The constant and innumerable kindnesses for
which we are indebted to Mrs. Richards throughout
those years cannot be told. To publish her life is
therefore a fulfillment.
WHITCOMB & BARROWS.
n
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..... xi
I. CHILDHOOD ..... 1
II. GIRLHOOD . . . . . 16
III. AT COLLEGE ..... 36
IV. AT COLLEGE (continued) ... 59
V. STUDENT OF CHEMISTRY ... 80
VI. IN THE LABORATORY .... 96
VII. IN HER HOME Ill
VIII. . THE WOMAN'S LABORATORY ... 132
IX. TEACHING BY CORRESPONDENCE . . 152
X. BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS . . . 171
XI. AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN . . . 194
XII. MISSIONARY OF SCIENCE . . . 215
XIII. IN JOURNEYINGS OFTEN . . . 23?
XIV. LAKE PLACID CONFERENCE . . 259
XV. THE HOME ECONOMICS MOVEMENT . 280
XVI. FULLNESS OF LIFE . . 300
XVII. STILL LEADING ON ... 316
ILLUSTRATIONS
Ellen H. Richards .... Frontispiece
The Swallow Homestead .... 2
Mr. and Mrs. Swallow . . 6
Ellen Swallow ..... 10
The Prize Handkerchief . . . 12
Ellen Swallow ....... 22
The Store at Littleton ..... 26
Ellen Swallow . | . . . . . 28
"The Lodge," Vassar College .... 36
The Willows, Vassar College . . . .50
The Observatory, Vassar College .... 62
Facsimile of Diary, 1870 . . . .68
Class Picture, Vassar 1870 78
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ... 88
The Water Laboratory 102
Mrs. Richards at Her Desk . . . .108
The Porch at 32 Eliot Street . . . .118
The Dining Room . .120
The Vine-Covered Dining Room . .122
Woman's Chemical Laboratory . . 136
Executive Committee, Naples Table Association . 212
The New England Kitchen 218
The Rumford Kitchen 224
The Balsams
Lake Placid Club *59
At Lake Placid 264
x ILLUSTRATIONS
Groups of Home Economics Workers . . 286
Academic Portrait of Mrs. Richards . . . 810
Professor and Mrs. Richards .... 320
Facsimile of a Letter ...... 324
Pen and Ink Drawings by
George H. Bartlett and Mws Ethel U. Bartlett
INTRODUCTION
ON the evening of the second of April, nineteen
hundred and eleven, a group of friends and co-
workers of Mrs. Richards, several of whom had
come from fa.r distant places to attend her funeral,
met at the College Club in Boston.
Gathered together under the shadow of their great
sorrow, they told each other what Mrs. Richards
had done for them. Each had a characteristic say-
ing of hers to repeat, or an anecdote illustrating
her unfailing helpfulness to relate, but chiefly they
spoke of how her call to them had always been in
the direction of the large outgiving life.
Strangely enough the outlook even at that time,
so soon after her death, was not backward, but for-
ward. They asked even then what they could do to
carry on the work that she had laid down. As the
evening wore on, the suggestion was made that one
way of doing this would be by giving permanent
form to what had been said there so informally, and
the hope was expressed that they and others who
had known the inspiration of her personal influence
might have an opportunity to show her to the world
as they had seen her.
Professor Richards, hearing of this conference,
xi
xii INTRODUCTION
asked to have a committee of persons representing
Mrs. Richards's various interests formed for the
purpose of advising with him about the preparation
of a memorial volume. The committee was formed
with Miss Isabel F. Hyams as chairman, to whom,
because of "a daily companionship of twenty years
which had sustained hands that were often weary,"
Mrs. Richards had dedicated her last book. Other
members were Mrs. Mary Hinman Abel, editor of
the Journal of Home Economics; Miss Isabel Bevier,
who succeeded Mrs. Richards as president of the
American Home Economics Association ; Miss Anna
Barrows, of Teachers College; Miss Florence Gush-
ing, who represented the Associate Alumnae of Vassar
College and the Association of Collegiate Alumnae,
and who had been a student in the Woman's Labo-
ratory; Mr. James P. Munroe, of the Corporation
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Miss Frances Stern, who had been Mrs. Richards's
secretary; Miss Lillian Jameson, also secretary to
Mrs. Richards ; Miss Jean Swain, to whom the steno-
graphic work was to be intrusted, and myself.
The result of the conference of this committee
with Professor Richards, and of his earnest desire
to smooth out all financial difficulties of the under-
taking in order that he might share with others the
life-giving influence which had been his for nearly
forty years, was a determination to prepare this
volume.
IXTROD LOTION
xiu
In response to a request for material which might
be of service, many letters written by Mrs. Richards
were received, and also many records and personal
testimonies. For all of these we who have been more
closely concerned in the preparation of the book
wish to acknowledge our indebtedness. We hesitate,
however, to express our thanks, because we feel that
all, near and far, have been working together for
one end, and that what others have done has been
not for us but for her. We hesitate, too, to name
any of these who have assisted us because of the
hopelessness of naming all. A few, however, must be
mentioned here.
We are indebted to Miss Anna A. Swallow and to
other relatives of Mrs. Richards for the record of
her early life; to Mrs. Laura E. Richards and
Miss Rosalind Richards for facts about her personal
and home life ; to her classmates, Mrs. Flora Hughes
and Miss Anna Mineah, and other college friends for
a large number of valuable letters ; to the Woman's
Education Association of Boston for permission to
examine its early records; to Miss Margaret E. Dodd
for bringing to light many facts about the Studies
at Home; to Dean Marion Talbot for the story of
her connection with the Association of Collegiate
Alumna?; to Dr. C. F. Langworthy for information
about her connection with the work of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture; to many graduates of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and many of
xiv INTRODUCTION
the faculty for facts concerning her connection with
that institution; to Miss Margaret Maltby for many
letters written by Mrs. Richards during her later
years ; to Miss Louisa P. Hewins, of Jamaica Plain,
a friend whom circumstances made the companion of
her leisure rather than of her labors, for the story
of many of her lighter moments. These are but a
few of those who have helped ; how far we have fallen
short of acknowledging our full indebtedness the
text will indicate by showing the breadth of her
activities and how far our researches have necessarily
extended.
Editors, revisers, stenographer, publishers, illus-
trator, printer, all of whom came under her influ-
ence, have worked together to prepare this book as
a memorial to her. If it is lacking in unity because
of this wide cooperation, it must surely approach
more nearly to completeness.
CAROLINE L. HUNT.
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD
THE unseen and the untried have ever lured
adventurous and courageous spirits, calling forth
in every age explorers, who have this in common
that they set forth with glad feet and expectant
faces toward that which lies beyond the knowledge
or experience of their times. But that which they
seek, whether it shall be an undiscovered country,
a new field of knowledge, or an untried way of
living, is determined by inner impulses and outward
circumstances. These unite to create multiple forms
of the exploring type.
The girl-child of adventurous spirit born to rural
New England during the middle of the nineteenth
century naturally chose as her field of exploration
new modes of helpfulness and of service. This choice
was almost inevitable at that time in that region,
for earnestness, conscientiousness, and unyielding
devotion to duty were breathed in with the air of
puritan New England, and self-sacrifice was de-
manded of women both by tradition and by public
opinion. But many of the older forms of labor
which had been women's contribution to family and
1
2 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
community life were being rendered unnecessary,
while at the same time enlarging means of communi-
cation and widening educational opportunities were
opening to them a whole new world, and were sug-
gesting to those who happened to be of adventurous
spirit the presence of fresh fields of usefulness lying
beyond the vision and waiting to be explored. Inner
impulses toward pioneering, as well as those toward
helpfulness, were likely in rural New England seventy
years ago to be quickened by the outward conditions
of life.
Into these changing social conditions Ellen Swallow
was born on a New England farm at a time not far
from the middle of the last century. As she grew,
her two most marked physical characteristics, a
steadfast look from large, thoughtful gray eyes, and
a quickness of motion and of speech, came to be the
outward evidences of the two great passions of her
life a longing for usefulness and a love of pioneer-
ing. These passions her early life in an isolated
community and among profoundly religious people
doubtless tended to strengthen and intensify. She
was destined to give herself for others, but to do it
in unique ways, and after the fashion of explorers,
joyously and enthusiastically, so that the record of
her life and labors is the story of happy excursions
into fresh fields of service.
The Swallow homestead, where she was born, was
situated near the village of Dunstable, which is part
CHILDHOOD 3
of a town of the same name in Northern Massachu-
setts, on the New Hampshire line. From the place
where the old home once stood one may look out
over the fields to a small burying ground where
Ensign John Swallow, who died in
the year 1776, lies buried. ^,.
"Ensign John," as
The Swallow Homestead
his descendants fondly call him, was the first of the
Swallow name to find his way to the little settlement
of Dunstable, in whose records his name frequently
appears. He was the grandson of Ambrose Swallow,
who was born in England, but who was living in
Massachusetts as early as 1666. There is a tradition
that the Swallow family had earlier married into a
French family named Larnard. If this be true, and
-I
ft
ELLEN HL RICHARDS
T ii* fact tfcat *n*nl of
km
TTLT T:
1674.
to tfe dbj
M
. . . . -^7^.
ndto
CHILDHOOD 5
proceed with the building of the meeting house. In
that generation affairs of the spirit were considered
to be the concern of the whole community.
But troublous times were in store for the little
band of settlers in Dunstable, for the town, having
been cut from a wilderness and lying at the farthest
point which the tide of immigration following the
Merrimac River had reached, was in an exposed posi-
tion, and the inhabitants were continually attacked,
not only by Indians, but also by wild beasts. We
read that in 1688 Samuel Gould was appointed dog
whipper for the meeting house, an office which was
indispensable because the settlers were obliged to
take their dogs to church with them for protection.
So fierce were the attacks of the Indians that the
population was at one time reduced to a single per-
son, the remainder having been killed or having fled
to places of safety. But the pioneers were not to be
vanquished. Those who had fled speedily returned,
and having fortified their houses brought back their
families. From that time on the population steadily
increased ; not very rapidly, however, for by the year
1753, when Ensign John cast his lot with the town,
its inhabitants numbered only two hundred and fifty.
But though few in number they were great in spirit,
for in winning the wilderness and converting it into
fertile farms, in removing the bowlders with which
the fields were strewn, and which an early history of
the town says "were doubtless placed there by a
6 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Titanic force for a beneficent purpose," and in ward-
ing off attacks of their enemies, they had grown a
sturdy and courageous people.
Ensign John's desire to see the gospel well settled
in Dunstable was evidently taken seriously, for he
was almost immediately appointed a member of a
committee to complete the meeting house by supply-
ing it with "26 windows, 23 of sd windows to Be
24 squares of glass in Each window, the 2 gavel End
windows to Be 15 squairs Each & the pulpit window
to be Left to the Descretion of the parish committe."
It was he, too, who in 1757 built the house which
was the birthplace of successive generations of the
Swallow family. This house stood until 1882, when
it was burned to the ground and replaced by another
on nearly the same site, which is still occupied by
one branch of the family. Ensign John's son, Peter,
was one of a little band of men which Dunstable gave
out of her poverty to serve in the War of Independ-
ence. He had a son Archelaus, and Archelaus's son,
Peter, was the father of Ellen.
Peter Swallow, the second, was born on June 27,
1813, the oldest child of Archelaus and Susanna
Kendall Swallow. Having scholarly tastes, he early
began to look about him for an education, and by
good fortune he was led to the academy at New
Ipswich, New Hampshire. The good fortune was his
and also the world's, for it was in New Ipswich that
he found his future wife, Fanny Gould Taylor, and
o 5
CHILDHOOD 7
there the two families from which Ellen Swallow
was to draw her strength and power were united.
Mr. Swallow and Miss Taylor were married on
May 9, 1839, and on December 3, 1842, their only
child, Ellen Henrietta, was born.
Before as well as after graduating from the
academy, Mr. Swallow taught in the neighboring
towns of Pepperell, Tyngsborough, and Nashua, and
one certificate of fitness to teach shows that when
nineteen years old he traveled as far from home as
Western Ohio. After his marriage he made his home
in one end of his father's house, and in 1845 his
father deeded to him half the farm and half the
house. For ten or twelve years he followed the
double occupation of teaching and farming, occupa-
tions which demanded his time during most of the
year, but left leisure in the early spring. The month
of March was often spent by him and his family
in trips to New Hampshire, Vermont, or Maine for
the purpose of visiting relatives. These journeys
were made by team, and as they were taken at the
time of year when the roads were likely to be worst,
they were full of adventure. Fifty years afterwards
his daughter wrote: "One of my earliest recollections
is of my father's reply to my mother's anxiety lest
we should get overturned in the sleigh on the snow-
drifted country roads 'Where any one else has
been, there I can go.' " "This," she continued, "is
not a bad working motto, but adventurous spirits
\
8 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
go beyond this and do what has never been done
before," which expresses well the quality of adven-
turesomeness and love of exploration which in the
daughter was added to the will and courage inherited
from her father.
Mr. Swallow remained on the farm until 1859,
when for the purpose of giving his daughter an
I academy education he moved to the neighboring
I town of Westford and opened a store. From that
time until his sudden death in 1871, he was engaged
in one form or another of trade ; but whether because
his interests were in books rather than in business,
or for some other reason, he seems never to have
been very successful.
The following extract from a letter written by
Ellen Swallow to her mother while she was at Vassar
gives a clew to one of her father's characteristics :
"I think father would be delighted to see Miss
Mitchell lecturing me, as she did this morning,
because I ignored the one one-hundredth of a second
in an astronomical calculation. 'While you are
doing it, you might as well do it to a nicety.' ' It
\ is said that no household task in the Swallow family
i was ever performed with such nicety as to meet with
the father's unreserved approval. And yet this in-
terest in details seems not to have been associated
in him, as it often is, with narrowness of vision, for
he was his daughter's most ardent supporter in her
efforts to gain a college education and a scientific
CHILDHOOD 9
training at a time when such education and training
were almost unknown among women.
Ellen Swallow's mother, Fanny Gould Taylor, was
born in New Ipswich on April 9, 1817, the fourth
daughter and sixth child of Samuel Taylor and
Persis Jones. She was descended on her father's side
from William Taylor, who came to this country from
England about 1640, and after prospecting a little
settled in Concord, Massachusetts, where several
generations of his descendants tilled the soil. It was
her grandfather, Thaddeus Taylor, who first came
to New Ipswich. In the middle of the winter of
1776, with his wife, Bridget Walton, and four small
children, he moved into an unfinished house on a hill
in the southwestern part of the town. Here the
family endured great hardship while the home was
being finished and the "rough and rocky farm
subdued." In this house "over the mountains,"
as it was described in a history of New Ipswich,
Mrs. Swallow was born.
The Taylor family and many of the families into
which it married showed a remarkable tendency
toward longevity. Mrs. Swallow's father lived to
be eighty-one and her mother to be eighty-eight.
Thaddeus Taylor, the grandfather, was eighty-one
when he died and his wife eighty-five. The ages of
six of their nine children averaged over ninety years
at the time of death, and one son, Oliver Swain
Taylor, lived to be four months over one hundred
10 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
years of age. Lydia Treadway, the grandmother
of Mrs. Swallow's mother, lived to be ninety-four
and to gather about her two hundred and thirty-
three descendants. It may be that this tendency
toward long life was in some way transmuted into
that wonderful physical endurance which carried
Ellen Swallow through a delicate childhood, and later
made it seem as if she were living the lives of ten
people and incidentally doing their work.
Deft and dainty were the adjectives most often
applied to Mrs. Swallow. To her dexterity, which
was shown in all traditionally feminine occupations,
may doubtless be traced the carefulness of manipu-
lation which helped to make her daughter successful
in one of the most exacting of all forms of chemical
work, water analysis. The mother's daintiness in
dress impressed all who saw her, even in later
years, when sickness and suffering would have made
carelessness excusable.
From references to Ellen in letters received by
her father and mother during her childhood, we may
infer that she was one of those active yet dainty
little creatures upon whose quick, quiet motions it is
always a delight for grown people to look. "How
is little Ellen?" one cousin wrote. "I often think of
her; what a pretty, interesting, amusing little thing
she is." And another: "I wish she were here; I
should like no better plaything."
As she grew, she came perilously near being a
ELLEN SWALLOW
iluyueiveotyfn' ink, n <tl,nt
CHILDHOOD 11
tomboy, if, in fact, she did not quite step over the
line. This was a sore trial to her mother, who
wished to train the little feet to walk demurely,
and the hands to love indoor and feminine occupa-
tions. But fortunately there came along a wise
physician, who, noticing the frailty of the child,
said that if she were to grow to womanhood she
must be allowed to run freely in the open air; and
from that time forward she followed her natural
bent, spending most of her time out of doors with
her father and her uncles on the farm. She rode
the horses, drove the cows to pasture, and pitched
hay. Two little stone posts still standing mark the
gateway of her own garden, which she made and
tended. In after years she used to say that there
was one form of farm work only which she had
never done. To her great sorrow her mother would
not permit her to milk the cows, for fear her hands
would grow large and unbeautiful.
Mrs. Swallow, like her husband, had been educated
at the academy in New Ipswich. Between her and
her daughter there must have been a keen intellectual
sympathy, for when in college Ellen painstakingly
outlined for her mother at home books which she
had read and lectures and sermons to which she had
listened. But there was also a fundamental differ-
ence of opinion as to what came within a woman's
sphere. In one of the letters written from college,
Ellen told of an address made by a student on
12 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Founder's Day. This brought forth a vigorous
protest from the mother, in spite of the fact that
she had been assured that the audience consisted
exclusively of faculty and fellow-students, and that
the description of the youthful orator, "dressed in
black with a lavender bow, her hair dressed plainly,
and wearing white kid gloves," made a picture of
preeminent feminine propriety.
Notwithstanding the fact that Ellen's predilections
were for outdoor life and strenuous pursuits, house-
hold tasks were not neglected. By the age of thirteen
she had, under the tutelage of her mother, mastered
the housekeeping arts which in later years she valued
so highly that she sought to have them embodied in
the curricula of the schools. The sheets and pillow-
cases of a toy bed daintily hemstitched, a pair of
silk stockings, and a beautifully embroidered hand-
kerchief for which she took a prize at a country
fair, when she was only thirteen years old, still
testify to her skill; while a china vase, which was a
prize offered at the same fair for the best loaf of
bread, bears silent witness to her early accomplish-
ments as a cook.
Her father and mother, both well educated for
the times, and both having been teachers, were
extremely critical of the incumbents of the village
school, and except upon rare occasions they in-
structed the child themselves. Her early years,
therefore, were passed chiefly within her home, varied
THK I'HIXK I1A\I)KKH< HIEF
"By tin- ant- of th'n-ti-i-n /,> Inn! i,u,xt<-ml the housekeeping arts,
in l,,t,;- IWOTJ ! ,-/,-// .s-o highly Hint she sought to have
them embodied in the curricula of the schools"
CHILDHOOD 13
by occasional visits at the farm of her uncle, Still-
man Swallow, in Nashua, whose daughter Annie was
her most intimate associate during her girlhood and
young womanhood. Here, besides enjoying the
companionship of a large family of children, she
took great delight in the high-bred horses with
which the farm was stocked.
Her love of animals and her sympathy with them
must have begun very early in life. In fact, some
of the first outpourings of her generous and helpful
spirit seem to have been toward pets. One of the
products of her mother's skillful fingers were little
white cotton rabbits, which found their way into
many homes to the delight of children. When Ellen
was four years old she broke her arm. After it had
been put into splints, her mother found her out
upon the grass one day, supporting herself upon
her uninjured arm and painfully pulling grass for
the cotton rabbits with the other.
Dunstable, during the time of Ellen Swallow's
childhood, had a population of about five hundred
and fifty, scattered over a territory of sixteen and
a half miles, not more than one hundred of them
living in the near-by village. It had no railway until
1850. Then the Worcester and Nashua cut across
its western portion, but made no stop within the
town. It was not until long after she left that rail-
way connection was established with other parts of
New England. In this isolated place she grew up,
14 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
among an industrious and religious people. It was
a fortunate childhood in many ways, for while her
body was being gradually strengthened by out-of-
door life, her mind was being stimulated by her home
associations.
She was sixteen years old when her father sold
his farm in Dunstable, and became the proprietor
of the village store in Westford. A friend who
knew her during the Westford years says that her
young companions always considered her a mem-
ber of the firm, so active was her interest and so
unfailing the help which she gave her father. We
may therefore consider the move from Dunstable
to Westford to be the dividing line between a care-
free childhood and a young womanhood of purpose-
ful preparation for a life work toward which her
steadfast gaze was always set, even when its outlines
were least clearly defined.
The road from the Swallow farm to Westford
leads past the cluster of houses and the little church
which form the village of Dunstable, and passing
through the pine woods suddenly comes out upon an
open space, across which the academy on the high
land at Westford comes into view. This was the
road which Ellen Swallow traveled in April, 1859.
With the strength and the courage of her fathers
which had been bred in the stern realities of pioneer
life, with their faith which had seen a beneficent
Providence even in the rocks with which their paths
CHILDHOOD
15
had been strewn, and with a spirit tuned to the
beauty of the quiet landscape and of the pines, she
set forth, and as she traveled, suddenly the way
opened before her, and there on the heights beyond
she caught glimpses of opportunity.
CHAPTER II
GIRLHOOD
THE periods into which life naturally divides
itself those of preparation and education, of
active labor, and of decline are least clearly
marked in lives of greatest power and most earnest
purpose. For great power is likely to show itself
in useful labor during the years which are usually
given to education, and earnest purpose persists to
the end, carrying with it the demand for continued
training. Thus dividing lines are obscured.
If Ellen Swallow had been a person of only
average energy and average strength of purpose,
we might now be able to speak of her days at
Westford as a period given to education, and to
point to the places which were most intimately
connected with her life there and say: "Here at the
academy on the Common she was educated; there in
the little store across the way her father worked
to support his family and to educate his daughter;
and there a short distance down the orchard-lined
street, in the white house among the flowers, her
mother made the family home." But so great was
her energy and so independent her spirit, that she
16
GIRLHOOD 17
not only took an important part in the home-
making, but also insisted upon helping to raise the
money for her own education. Naturally quicker
than her father, and with a greater aptitude for the
details of business, she became his constant assistant
in the store. At the same time her mother and she,
freed from the harder labor which farm life brings
to women, found time from their housework to make
the little home bud and blossom with the flowers of
which they both were passionately fond. During
the Westford period, therefore, she took a real part
in the work which was going on about her, and was
not removed from it for purposes of education.
These years, instead of being given wholly to prepa-
ration, represent rather one stage of her developing
power, one phase of the unfolding of a life in which
labor and preparation for greater labor always
went side by side.
Picking up the thread of her life at the time of
its greatest complexity, when activity was greatest
and interests most numerous, we are surprised to
find how many of its strands may be traced back
to childhood or girlhood. Of these the most persist-
ent, that which stretched straightest and strongest
from the beginning to the end and around which
all other interests twined, was the love of home.
To the separate household arts which she had
learned to perfection during her childhood, she
added in girlhood the art of household management,
18 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
and during her mother's frequent sicknesses she
had full charge of the home. She cooked, washed,
ironed, cleaned house, papered rooms, and laid
carpets. Those who heard her lecture in later
years on subjects related to home-making, often
took it for granted that, being a chemist, she spoke
from theory and not from practical experience; but
as a matter of fact there was no household task
which she could not perform as well as any one
whom she employed. When she became an expert
in an important branch of science, she added her
knowledge of sanitation to her skill in housekeeping,
and brought both to the service of her home.
Closely connected with love of home was another
interest which found its place almost as early in
her life and also continued to the end. This was
the passion for flowers which she shared with her
mother., There are few letters from mother to
daughter or from daughter to mother which do not
j contain some inquiry as to the welfare of the plants,
some statement as to their progress, some hope
expressed as to the blossoms to come, or some enu-
meration of blossoms which had already appeared.
Friends at a distance, too, seem always to have
thought of mother and daughter among their house
plants or in the garden.
While still a girl she wrote to her cousin Annie:
"Please tell Lucy that my coliseum [ivy] has
grown finely, has been in blossom ever since she was
GIRLHOOD 19
here. A few days ago I counted thirty blossoms
and fifty buds. I will send a blossom if I don't
forget it. I have made a basket for the ivy and
hung it in the window. It has also been in blossom
several weeks. I wish you could come and stay with
me a few weeks ; our bracing air would do you good.
You have no idea how pretty our village looks in its
summer dress. We have so many shade trees in the
streets, and so many pretty orchards beside them,
that at this time it is really a charming spot."
At a later time she wrote :
"The ivy that I had from your house covers the
whole window and is in full bloom. It is the admi-
ration of all. Our calla is magnificent; our Mobile
amaryllis (we call it so in distinction from the com-
mon one because ours came from Mobile) is budded,
and I expect will be well worth seeing. Our common
amaryllis is not going to bloom at present. Our
salvia is splendid; the little blush rose has had two
great roses at once; the pink one has been in bloom
and now has eighteen buds, nine on one new sprout.
We have beautiful heliotrope. I have a little silver-
leaf geranium about three inches high, which is
budded. Won't it be a little darling? We have
part of our plants in the store. People take so
much notice of them that father is willing to have
the trouble of them and has taken a great interest
in taking care of them ; has done more of it than he
ever did before. I think he would rebel as strongly
as any of us now to be deprived of them."
20 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Beginning in girlhood too, and continuing as
long as she lived, was a fondness for fiction, which
was probably allied to her love of pleasant explora-
tion and due to the eagerness with which her mind
went out to every phase of life. She climbed with
zest the difficult paths of science, but she also walked
with pleasure the easier paths of romance. The
friends of her busier years have a picture of her as,
comfortably seating herself in a street car, she took
a novel from her pocket or bag and became lost to
the world about her; or as, the work of a long day
over, she drew a footstool to a warm spot beside
fireplace or register and found in a story complete
mental relaxation, which prepared the way for sound
and restful slumber. It would be easy to think that
, this habit was acquired in the years of her greatest
activity for the purpose of freeing herself at times
from the pressure of care, but as a matter of fact
it dated back to girlhood. Her uncle, Mr. George W.
Taylor, writing after her death, says : " Ellen had
become at about twelve years old a rapid reader,
and was spending much of her time in reading works
of fiction. I then said to her that I thought she
better stop reading so much fiction and take up the
study of more meritorious work."
That she had some misgivings herself is shown
by a prim little composition upon the subject of
"Gathering Pebbles," which was written during her
school life in Westford. After telling how she
GIRLHOOD 21
wandered for one whole afternoon by the seashore
picking up stones, she adds: "Do not many people
spend precious hours in gathering pebbles and only
pebbles from other places than the seashore? When
in our school days we idle away our time in all the
various ways that only scholars can find, linger too
long over some enchanting book, lay aside the text-
book for the story because we do not feel like study,
are we not simply gathering pebbles which look
bright, but will fade when we look back in after
years, and think how much more we might have
accomplished ? "
But the truth is that the reading of fiction never
interfered with her other interests and pursuits, for
she read with lightning rapidity, and could so sail
off on the current of the story as to forget all her
worries and return completely rested and ready for
further work. And from no novel, not even one of
small literary merit, did she ever fail to get some
little suggestion which helped her to solve a practical
problem, or some thought which could be woven into
the philosophy of her life.
To the training she received in the store, which
began with waiting on customers and gradually
enlarged itself to include the keeping of accounts
and the purchase of goods for which purpose she
often made trips to Boston, as well as to her natural
quickness of perception, may be traced the busi-
ness ability which led to her being intrusted in her
22 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
maturer years with large sums of money for all kinds
of educational and philanthropic enterprises.
Life behind the counter, however, valuable as it
doubtless was as a means of discipline and education,
and important as its bearing was upon her later
work, was not all roses. The store being of the
kind known as a general store, she was obliged to
sell tobacco, which she hated. It is said that at one
time a group of men who had bought tobacco of her,
filled and lighted their pipes in the store, seating
themselves around the stove according to the usual
custom. When the youthful storekeeper objected,
they said, "Why do you sell us tobacco if you don't
expect us to smoke it?" "We sell you molasses,
too," she replied quickly, "but we don't expect you
to stay here and cook it up."
Two women customers, one of whom insisted upon
having saleratus because she never could cook with
soda, the other of whom demanded soda because
saleratus did not make good biscuits, and who hav-
ing been supplied from the same package were both
satisfied and both confirmed in their original opinion,
may have amused her at the time, but they probably
inspired her with a desire to look more deeply into
the nature of the things with which she was dealing,
and may well have directed her thoughts toward
scientific study.
Records of her life in Westford, though meager,
show that her love of adventure was leading her
I KOM A DAGIKRKKOTYHK TAKKN AIHH'T IH.'jH
GIRLHOOD 23
into ever widening circles of investigation. While
in the academy, she spent her vacation with friends
at Lynn who had a store from which they supplied
groceries to the large houses at Nahant and else-
where along the fashionable North Shore. While
on these visits, it was her greatest delight to take
her place upon the front seat of the delivery wagon,
and, riding from house to house, learn "how the
other half lived." The Ellen Swallow who as a girl
widened her horizon by looking upon life from the
front seat of a grocery wagon was the same person
who, in after years, frequently left the more conven-
tional routes of travel to explore the wilds of Canada
in search of minerals, or to visit remote mining
regions with her husband. She went to Europe, to
be sure, in 1876, and again in 1884, but during
the last twenty-six years of her life she preferred
to go where daring feats of engineering were in
progress, where mountains were being tunneled or
rivers spanned, or where great, new cities were
conquering unfavorable environments.
But her excursions to out of the way places and
into romance never, even in her youth, became pur-
poseless wanderings, for the goal was always before
her; and being determined to make her life count
in some helpful way, she would return to the straight
path she had marked out for herself and trudge
bravely forward. Her earnestness and her deep
faith, which in later years she trusted her deeds
24 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
to reveal, found expression during her girlhood in
the religious forms and phraseology of the day.
" The extra dash of puritanism " which some one has
said was added to her New England ancestry made
itself apparent in the letters of this period.
"As it is Friday," she wrote in 1861 to her cousin
Annie, "and I have a few moments which are not
imperatively claimed, I take the opportunity to write
the long-delayed answer to your welcome missive.
I was disappointed, as well as you, at not being able
to make my visit, for I had looked forward to much
enjoyment from it; but Providence decreed other-
wise, for wise reasons, doubtless. ... I want to come
and see you so much. I can see you all with the
mind's eye, just as when I used to be with you, and
even while I write your faces present themselves
before me in various ways. I fancy myself again
with you, out in the barn in the swing or jumping
off the hay, and lastly husking corn, and anon up in
your well-remembered room playing 'blindman's
buff,' etc. . . . Ah! childhood's joyous days are fled,
never more to return. God grant that our lives may
be useful ones."
The education which she received at Westford
Academy differed little from that given in the many
other academies with which New England was at that
time dotted. There was a little mathematics, a few
compositions, some French, and much Latin. In the
Latin she must have been thoroughly grounded, for
GIRLHOOD 25
her knowledge of it, and her ability to teach it,
formed a capital from which she later received an
income that made it possible for her to continue her
own studies. She proved to be an excellent tutor,
much in demand.
The successive principals of the academy, whose
periods of service were measured by terms rather
than years, and of whom there were four during her
three years' attendance, were all Harvard graduates.
The first was John D. Long, who afterwards became
Governor of Massachusetts and later Secretary of
the Navy. The second was Addison G. Smith, with
whom she became well acquainted. After he left
Westford they corresponded and exchanged books
and views upon politics and literature up to the time
of his death in 1874. This was the first of those
comradeships with men which, added to the one great
love of her life and to her friendships with women
and her sympathy with children, made her human
relationships peculiarly wide.
In March, 1862, she left the academy and was .tf
preparing to teach when the after effects of an
attack of measles interfered with her plans. In May
she wrote to her cousin :
"I am very glad the measles are over with, for
I have dreaded them very much since I had the
whooping cough, though it has sadly interfered with
my plans for the summer, as I had engaged to try my
skill in teaching the 'young ideas how to shoot.' It
26 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
was a severe disappointment, but I feel it was all
for the best. My friends all shook their heads when
I told them of my engagement; said I ought not to
attempt it in my present health. Some even said
they were glad I was really sick. ... I have not been
obliged to lie abed a day before since I was
The Store at Littleton
seven years old, yet suffered less pain in the three
weeks I was sick than in the same time for the last
three years. I am gaining, though rather slowly,
and am not very strong, as this writing will show."
In the spring of 1863 the family moved to
Littleton, a town situated about three miles from
Westford, where Mr. Swallow had bought a larger
store for the purpose of extending his business.
From Littleton the following letters were written to
her cousin Annie:
LITTLETON, April 30, 1863.
"Are you surprised to see the new heading to my
letter, or have you heard of our removal hither?
GIRLHOOD 27
Yes, we are really inhabitants of Littleton, or shall
be when we have been here long enough. So you
will never see our place in Westford in all its glory.
Yet we have a pleasant place here, in some respects
pleasanter than the other. The store is very large
and nice. The tenement is not as convenient as one
could wish, yet it is not very bad. It consists of a
two-story ell containing two large rooms below and
chambers above, with two rooms back of the store.
Over the store is Central Hall. We have a large
garden but no fruit trees. There is quite a little
village, more, I should think, than at Westford. The
house fronts upon a little common. When we get
righted I think we shall feel quite contented. ... I
feel it my duty to stay at home under present cir-
cumstances instead of teaching, as I had hoped."
i
MARCH 22, 1864.
"Am going to teach this summer if it please God
to grant me health and strength. School will begin
about the first of May, and I shall be needed here
to help take account of stock about the middle of
April, so I shall have no time for visiting. I wish
you could come and see me. I am going to the
easterly part of the town, about two miles from here.
It is a large school of some forty scholars. It will
require a great deal of care and patience, but it is
my chosen work."
JUNE 9, 1864.
"I have thirty-seven pupils. Am about two miles
from home; go home every Friday night. I have a
28 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
very pleasant boarding place, about as far from the
schoolhouse as your barn is from the house. I have
a few large scholars who study the higher branches,
which makes it more pleasant for me."
SEPTEMBER, 1864.
"Thought perhaps you would like to know how
I and my flock are prospering. Well, I guess about
as well as could be expected. I have forty-one
pupils and have to call out over thirty classes each
day. You may judge there is some work in it. ...
I usually have to work harder Saturdays than any
other day in the week. I have put up two wreaths
of flowers since I was at Nashua, and have two in
the house now to do. . . . Mother thinks it will be
very lonesome here in the winter, so I have almost
decided to remain at home, but cannot tell what may
happen."
After this the work at home and in the store,
and the care of her mother, who was often ill, took
up so much of her time that she did not again
attempt to teach. She wrote on February 10, 1865 :
"I am the same Nellie as of old, full of business,
never seeing a leisure hour, never finding time to
study or read half as much as I want. . . . Father
has a little extra business on hand now; is carrying
goods to two villages in Westford; so I have to help
him more. He has no one regularly now. Will have
in the spring, probably."
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS, lHtiO-186?
GIRLHOOD 29
It was during the intervals of time between teach-
ing, storekeeping, and housekeeping that she pre-
pared herself for college. There was an open book
beside her, whatever she was doing. The winter of
1865-66 she spent at Worcester attending lectures
and studying, though just where and whether or not
for the distinct purpose of preparing herself for
Vassar, which had opened a few months before, it
has been impossible to discover. Here she practiced
the strictest economy, living principally on bread
and milk.
From Worcester she wrote as follows:
DECEMBER 18, 1865.
"It seemed real good to have one of your nice
letters. I wanted to sit right down and answer it,
but could not then, as I had a good deal to do before
going home. I spent nearly a fortnight home at
Thanksgiving. Have come back to spend the winter,
if all is well. I enjoy the privileges I have here very
much, and I have the opportunity of doing good,
too, for Deacon Haywood has taken me to his Mis-
sion School and given me a class of bright little boys
to look after. And I go with him to the jail some-
times, when there is need of missionary work."
APRIL 14, 1866.
" This is the anniversary of our belpved President's
assassination. What gloomy days those were! I
shall never, never forget that sad time. I think
I could not suffer more than I did for two or three
30 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
days, and if I could have foreseen all that has hap-
pened since, I think I should have almost lost faith
even in God himself; yet I believe that all things
will be ordered aright by the good Father in Heaven.
"I expect to remain in Worcester about two
months longer, then if father is alone I shall prob-
ably go home, though I cannot tell what changes
may occur ere that time; though there is no 'possi-
bility' of your dreams proving true at present, for
the young or old gentleman has not yet made his
appearance who can entice me away from my free
and independent life.
"I know of no lady with whom I would exchange
places. The gentleman whom I think the most of
and who comes the nearest my ideal in other things
does not treat his wife as I wish to be treated; yet
they are considered a very loving, happy couple,
and are as much so as the average. I often tell him
we could not live together more than a week if we
were obliged to, though we agree very nicely now
on most essential points.
"Oh! Annie, the silent misery I am discovering
every now and then among my friends whom I
thought as happy as most, makes me shudder. Some
things I learned yesterday about one of my dearest
friends, made me almost vow I never would bind
myself with the chains of matrimony. I don't believe
girls usually get behind the scenes as much as I have,
or they could not get up such an enthusiasm for
married life.
"Annie, is it possible that we have attained the
GIRLHOOD 31
eventful age of twenty-three? Do you feel old? I
am sure I don't, yet I have seen something of life
in these years and it seems long to look back upon,
and how little I have done for my Saviour in com-
parison with what I ought to have done. And now
I fear I let many opportunities go by that I ought
to improve. Pray for me, dear Annie, that my life
may not be entirely in vain, that I may be of some
use in this sinful world. I feel sometimes as though
I would be glad to leave it, the ties that bind me to
earth at times seem very slight."
There were love affairs at this time; the usual
hopes and anticipations of young womanhood. After
she had begun her work as a chemist, but before
she became engaged to Professor Richards, she wrote
to a college friend:
"I can now change the query, 'Will it pay to
sacrifice love for fame?' into the declaration, 'It
has paid so far;'" adding, "If I had not had an
almost Napoleonic faith in my star I should have
yielded." The star, if we may judge from after
events, had no intention of guiding her away from
matrimony, only of saving her from a marriage
which, as a possibility, she could deliberately hold
up before herself and compare with a career. Stars
are not always leading us in the direction we think
they are at the moment.
Having abandoned the thought of marriage, she
bent her whole effort toward getting further educa-
32 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
tion. At that day, however, there were few doors
open to ambitious women. Until Wellesley and
Smith were founded, about ten years later, New Eng-
land had no college to which women were admitted,
*" while Vassar, the woman's college just across the
New York border, was so recently founded that
its fame was just beginning to spread abroad. As
there were no colleges in her neighborhood, there
were, of course, no college preparatory courses. She
herself had an honorable part in the work that led
to the founding of the Girls' Latin School of Boston,
in 1878.
Thus hampered and delayed in getting the edu-
cation she desired, and with a feeling of power
within her for which there was no outlet, she entered
in 1866 upon the only unhappy period of her life.
This unhappiness is not to be explained on the
ground that she scorned the duties which lay near
at hand, for she assumed her full share of work at
home, in the store, in the church, and in the Sunday
school. "Nellie was a very busy little woman,"
writes a friend, "and whether measuring off calico,
weighing sugar, or acting as postmistress, she always
had a kind and cheerful and helpful word. She was
always studying up ways and means to better and
improve things. She was not only influential in start-
ing a reading and magazine club, but attended to all
the details and pushed it through till the little post
office looked a good deal like a periodical store."
GIRLHOOD 33
Whatever her hands found to do, she did. She cared
for sick friends and neighbors ; and in order to earn
money, she sewed, and preserved flowers, organizing
classes in this art in the neighboring towns.
Nor is there any evidence that her unhappiness
was allowed to find outward expression. A man who,
as a little boy, had known her during this period,
wrote after her death: "She had an active part with
the other young people of the town in the social life
of the place, the fun and frolic that was going on,
and she was a great favorite at our home. I vividly
remember her presence with us as a nurse, a volun-
teer nurse, when we had serious sickness in the house.
There were, of course, no trained nurses in those
days, and in a country place like that no professional
nurses at all. The neighbors used to help each other
out, when there was severe sickness, by taking turns
as 'watchers' with the sick. And the thing that
impressed a very small boy about 'Nellie Swallow's'
nursing a thing that I have thought about hun-
dreds of times since was her wonderful cheerful-
ness and hopefulness when everybody else about the
house was anxious and depressed. I can remember
the sweet, encouraging tone of her voice and her
winsome smile in those dark days."
But the tasks which were given her at this time
were not commensurate with her power, and the un-
used energy within her seems fairly to have turned
upon her and to have reduced her almost to a con-
34 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
dition of invalidism. It is difficult for those who
knew the Mrs. Richards of later years, who, rising
at half-past five, went briskly through a long day's
work, scorning to rest or take naps, to believe that
she was the same person who in 1868 made the
following entries in her pocket diary:
January 6 Did not go to meeting, tired. Janu-
ary 11 Tired, indifferent. January Tired.
January 27 Tired. February 1 Busy, tired.
February 2 Almost sick. February 9 Miserable,
lay on sofa all day. February 13 Felt wretchedly
all day. February 14 Lay down, sick. Febru-
ary 19 Oh ! so tired. February 23 So tired.
March W Tired. March 24 Tired. April 11
Terribly tired.
This was the story as she told it at the time. A
few years later she wrote to a friend who found
herself hedged in :
"I lived for over two years in Purgatory really,
and I didn't know what to do, and it seemed best
for me to just stay and endure and it seemed as
though I should just go wild. I used to fret and
fume inside so every day, and think I couldn't
live so much longer. I was thwarted and hedged in
on every side; it seemed as though God didn't help
me a bit and man was doing his best against me
and my own heart even turned traitor, and, well
altogether I had a sorry time of it."
But better times were coming for her. "One day
GIRLHOOD 35
she came up to my uncle's house," writes a friend,
"and said: 'You know, Mr. Tuttle, that I have been
to school a good deal, read quite a little, and so
secured quite a little knowledge. Now I am going
to Vassar College to get it straightened out and
assimilated. What do you think of my plan?''
The same little diary which contains the record of
the suffering which she endured with outward calm
contains the following entries:
September 15, 1868 Farewell to Littleton; met
Father at Waldo House and took the Albany express
at 10.
September 16 From 5.25 to 10 in Albany.
Arrived at Vassar, pleasantly welcomed, very tired.
September 17 First day at college; am de-
lighted even beyond anticipations, the rest seems
so refreshing.
"--- \^z>' "The Lodge," Vassar College j^^f-
CHAPTER III
AT COLLEGE
FORTUNATELY, at this point, Ellen Swallow takes
up the story of her own life. During her years at
college she wrote long letters, at least once a week,
to her mother, which form an uninterrupted record,
and which have come to be known as her Vassar
Diary. Twenty-five years after she graduated, she
heard some one say that it was unfortunate that
the comments of students upon college conditions,
which might be of value in determining college poli-
36
AT COLLEGE 37
cies, were usually embodied in private family letters,
and thus lost to the world. With her customary
directness of action she sought out her own old
letters and marked certain portions to be type-
written, omitting the references to purely personal
and family matters, and also the long abstracts of
books and sermons which she had made for her
father and mother. Later she culled from the type-
written extracts all the passages which had special
bearing upon the beginnings of Vassar, and published
them in the Vassar Miscellany of January and
February, 1896.
When she entered Vassar, in September, 1868,
she was classified as a special student. Somewhat
over a year later she was admitted to the senior
class, and was graduated in 1870.
A college mate writes: "Her two years at Vassar
belonged to the period when faculty and students
alike (consciously or unconsciously) were forming
the standards of the new college. Her part in the
work was that of a strong personality, understand-
ing well her own needs, and by the same light in-
terpreting the needs of her fellow-students. Some
years older than the average student, she was mature
in character, with mental powers well-disciplined
and controlled. To do work well for its own sake,
not for its reflex on herself, she had already learned."
"While her primary purpose was study, she was
alive to all the best influences of college life, and
38 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
in it she was an active though often a silent force.
To make the most of her own powers for the sake
of using them in advancing knowledge and in broad
and enlightened activity seemed to be her aim, while
no opportunity for fellow service was to be let slip
by the way. Independent in thought and action,
quick to see far-reaching consequences, never self-
assertive, she is to be counted among that strong
company of the earlier students who while receiving
much gave much to Vassar College."
The strongest personal influences which came to
her in college were from Maria Mitchell, the astron-
omer, and from Professor C. A. Farrar, who was
at the head of the Department of Natural Sciences
and Mathematics. Miss Mitchell wanted to make
an astronomer of her, and she would doubtless have
succeeded if her science had not been so far removed
from the earth and its needs. In the woefully brief
autobiographical notes which Mrs. Richards left
she said it was probably an unrecognized leaning
towards social service which led her, an enthusiastic
student of Maria MitchelPs, to abandon astronomy
and study chemistry. Professor Farrar's very
strong influence over her came partly from her
respect for his ability as a scientist and a teacher,
and partly from the fact that he took the very
advanced position for that time that science should
help in the solution of practical problems.
Her natural bent was evidently towards scien-
AT COLLEGE 39
tific studies, for either in classroom or by examina-
tion she took all the courses in science then offered
with the exception of one in mathematical astron-
omy, and wherever there was an opportunity she
did additional volunteer work. One classmate writes
that she was a member of a little group of three
who in an elective course in chemistry analyzed
everything that came in their way "from shoe-
blacking to baking powder."
The selections from her letters which are given
here were made with a view to showing not only the
external conditions of her life at this period, but
also the pure joy with which she responded to the
intellectual stimulus of her college life, which from
the standpoint of biographical interest is quite as
important. In many cases the references to her
own progress and attainments seem egotistical, but
it must be remembered that during those early days
of pioneering she was almost like two persons, one
of whom was making an interesting experiment and
taking a step which was against all precedent and
against the advice of all of her associates, while the
other was a sympathetic onlooker, joyously record-
ing successes. It should be remembered, also, that
the letters were intended only for the eyes of a
loving father and mother, who knew what sacrifices
she had made, and who were, as a matter of course,
to be told of any triumphs which she achieved.
40 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
VASSAR DIARY
1868-1869
September 10. The President admitted me to
pursue the regular, or a special course. I was
cordially welcomed by all whom I had met before
(during the preliminary examinations in previous
June) 1 and everything promised fair.
I had for dinner, soup, which was a fashionable
one, water poured over meat, with macaroni a little
larger than knitting needles, then roast beef, suc-
cotash, squash and potatoes, with rhubarb pie and
canteloupes for dessert. All was nice as possible.
Our carpet is a little figure, red and green, bright
and good. The walls are pure white, at least
13 feet high, the doors and casings, dark, the
shutters, chairs and chamber set are chestnut, a
black walnut whatnot, an oval study table, with
a little waste paper basket underneath.
September 17. This morning I went over to the
Observatory and looked through the telescope, an
entrancing instrument. Had a very delightful call
on Miss Mitchell and her father, who is a charming
old gentleman. At eleven o'clock, we who had not
been classified, went into the chapel to listen to
Professor Hart for an hour. He accompanied
Professor Agassiz to Brazil, and he told us stories
of his adventures.
1 The explanations in parentheses which are found all through
the diary were made by Mrs. Richards in 1895.
AT COLLEGE 41
I do not feel the least anxiety now in regard to my
studies. I do not expect to work much for a month.
The Art Gallery has about 600 pieces, some
of them little gems and some are curiosities. The
Library contains much of interest for me; his-
tory and travels and choice works which I have
long wished to read. The table is well furnished
with magazines. It will be a favorite resort to me.
September 19. I am so fortunate in my little
family. All are studious and agreeable.
Some twenty or more of the girls wear their
hair flowing to their waists without any attempt
at doing it up. It is not usually curly, but long
and straight. It seems as if they had not yet
dressed. ... I hope you are feeling better by this
time. I don't worry, because I can do no good by
it. I left everything behind me at Worcester [about
the time she went to Vassar her parents moved to
Worcester] and live an entirely new life. Of course
if you are sick or need me, you must send for me,
and I will immediately come to you. Then will be
soon enough to worry.
September %Jf. I have got so far settled that I
will give you a sketch of my daily occupations.
The bell strikes at six. At quarter of seven we have
breakfast. Each one can leave the dining room as
soon as she has finished, and thus I get time to make
my bed, which is all we have to do in our rooms.
42 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
In chapel we sing, and Miss Lyman offers prayer.
We have ten minutes then for arranging our rooms,
or, if it is done, for study, then we have twenty min-
utes alone for devotion and meditation in perfect
quiet. Study hours do not begin until nine. At
quarter of ten I go down to philosophy [physics].
I like Professor Farrar very much. There is an
intellectual power about him. All recitations are
forty minutes. At twelve we have Trigonometry,
at one comes dinner, which occupies three-quarters
of an hour, then I go out of doors for an hour,
write an hour, and if my lessons are nearly ready
for the next day, go into the Library directly after
French, and perhaps read or study a little before
dressing for tea, which is at six. Then chapel and
another twenty minutes as silent time, from 7.30
to 9.45 for writing, reading, or study. I find I
have much time to myself, and it seems so pleasant
to be able to read and write with much comfort and
without danger of interruption, which used to dis-
turb me so much. I have not been homesick for a
moment. I have nothing to complain of. The
Faculty have not reached S( wallow) yet, so I do not
know what studies I shall take in addition.
It would seem that there was an immense amount
of travel in this great building, but on counting up,
I find that my regular work requires my going up
and down about two hundred and fifty steps daily,
and I have to walk nearly a mile on the corridors.
AT COLLEGE 43
Miss Lyman said yesterday, "You know people
will persist in calling this a school, when it is not
a school at all, but a college really." She also said,
"The Faculty do not consider it a mere experiment
any longer that girls can be educated as well as
boys."
I am very glad that I did not come earlier for
they have made great improvements, and I think
now is just the time to commence with the new
rules.
October 4- We of this parlor get on harmoni-
ously. I am quite well and perfectly contented.
We have festooned clematis all about the room,
and have a new tablecloth, black and green. We
had all the long morning to ourselves until half
past three, which is the regular hour for service.
We listened to a very dull sermon from a Pough-
keepsie clergyman. I do not wonder some of the
girls dread Sunday, which hardly seems a Sabbath
to me, save in the rest from study. I shall go down
to the city whenever it is pleasant. We have just
been to our us,ual corridor prayer meeting, a half
hour together every Sabbath evening.
The only trouble here is they won't let us study
enough. They are so afraid we shall break down
and you know the reputation of the College is at
stake, for the question is, can girls get a college
degree without injuring their health?
I am not working hard at all in my classes. My
44 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
regular studies do not take quite all my time, so
that I have time to read and study other things.
It is wonderful how all my wishes are granted
without my asking or working for it.
October 15. We have a sheet of paper with our
six names written at intervals of a few lines, headed
"Slang," pasted on our parlor door and every time
one of us uses a slang phrase or a bad word, as
"goodness" we have to write it down and pay a
penny besides. When we get pennies enough, we
will have a treat. The girls are .afraid they will
not get many pennies from me. I have not been
caught yet.
October 18. Miss Lyman had some beautiful
thoughts beautifully expressed this morning, on
Economy, taking God's greatest example and try-
ing to impress it upon us that we were each one
his stewards. Dr. - - gave us a sermon of over an
hour's length this afternoon, on "Sin exceeding
sinful." It was good enough, but he might have
said it all in half an hour and it would have done
the girls more good. . . . We have so many religious
exercises on Sunday, prayers and silent time. Our
corridor prayer meetings make more than most
people get and some girls are holding a daily prayer
meeting. I think it is too much.
October 19. I have taken my first lesson in riding
horseback. I rode a little black pony, Josephine.
[The only extras on her college bill for the first
year were for riding lessons.]
AT COLLEGE 45
October 25. Our Bible classes were organized
this morning and I was assigned just where I had
hoped, to Prof. Farrar. He is such a large-souled,
noble man and deep thinker. We are to study
church history which will just suit me.
November 6. I have been very busy all the week.
Have been perfect in all my lessons. We are just
through our examinations in philosophy. I have
not failed in any of them. I am very well. We
had chicken pie for dinner and pumpkin pie and
cheese yesterday for dessert, but I do want some
mince pies and pork !
November IS. I was so vexed yesterday morning
that I did not think of meteors and that Miss
Mitchell did not tell us. The girls who watched
on the Observatory counted 3500.
I must tell you that we had rules for table eti-
quette read in our corridor meeting to-day. Never
put a knife in the mouth. Never eat anything with
a knife that you can eat with a fork. Eat soup
noiselessly from the side of the spoon.
November 25. I cannot risk my health without
having a rest (at Christmas). The twenty-six
weeks that follow in one unbroken line will be hard
enough with all the strength that I can lay up.
I came here wholly unfit for study and my first
care was to look after my body, as my health is
the first importance. Having got that in pretty
good condition, I gave my brain the lead . . .
46 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
working every moment of the time, even carrying
the train of thought to the dinner table, which is
not allowable, always aspiring to the first place.
I have a double incentive now, for I have fully
decided to remain here one and very likely two
years longer, and upon my standing now will in a
measure depend the employment I shall have. I
think there will be no difficulty in arranging matters
satisfactorily and I must keep the body in good
condition to do the bidding of the spirit. We live
so isolated and so unanxious a life here that a
change is indispensable, to me at least, and if I
choose to dress more simply and use the dollars in
other ways, I feel justified in so doing.
My ivy is the pride of the third corridor north.
It is about three feet high and very .thrifty.
November 26. Miss Lyman sent for me the
other morning to say that I was accepted for a
scholarship and that she had no doubt I would
make good use of it.
December 3. This has been quite a pleasant day
for me. I have been promoted in German, so shall
have to study a little harder, but it will be very
nice.
Don't do anything for my coming home, only
have some mince pies. I shall be hungry as a bear.
I have gained thirteen pounds since I came.
January 20, 1869. I had a German letter to write
for Miss Kapp yesterday instead of a lesson. I put
AT COLLEGE 47
it in rhyme, twenty-four lines in German, ten syl-
lables in a line. I have to read an essay before our
Literary Chapter to-morrow night. It is not written,
only stray sentences, and one for the Natural His-
tory Society on Saturday, not even touched. We
are to commence a drill review in Chemistry to-day
which takes much time and I have to give all my
strength and courage to comfort Miss - , who
gets so tired and discouraged.
January 23. I am enjoying our philosophy now
very much. We have been making the universe to-
day by a large globe of oil in alcohol and water,
throwing off planets, etc.
February 5. As the half year closes on Tuesday
next and many studies are finished, there has been
a deal of reviewing and examinations which makes
hard work. My being promoted in German made
my work double and I wanted to keep up my
reputation in mathematics. I think of what you
say in regard to doing extra in order to keep the
standard people set for you, because you have
excelled in some things, but while I am so well and
can study nine hours a day without a headache,
I am all right.
February 16. I fear you will get more than you
are thankful for this time. If my notes are not
quite plain enough to be interesting, say so. If
you are really pleased, I like to do it for you, for
it takes much reading to cull the grains of wheat
48 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
from the chaff and writing them down aids in fixing
them in memory. (This refers to the abundant
extracts and abstracts which fill the letters.) . . .
A letter of eighteen pages is something I never
wrote before.
February 19. Last night Miss Mitchell gave
her maiden lecture before Chapter Delta. I was
invited and I enjoyed it so much. She was rather
timid and would not allow any of the Faculty
admitted, but it was charming to hear her talk of
the people she had met when in Europe and she
need not have feared. Her manner was very simple
and correct without any pretension. She stipulated
that she should sit at a table and she gave us some-
times her notes taken at different times, and some-
times she spoke her thoughts. We all came away
more proud of her than before, if that was possi-
ble. She spoke of Caroline Herschel who aided her
brother so much in his discoveries and Mrs. Somer-
ville, whom she had the pleasure of visiting when
about eighty years old, and who "came tripping
into the room" to meet her. Also she told us of
Harriet Hosmer. She urged us to do our work
well and faithfully. She said that living a little
apart as she did, she could see our advantages better
than we could.
February 28. Last night's lecture did not come
up to my expectations. Prof. - - is a learned man
doubtless, but I did not think he understood what
AT COLLEGE 49
to say to us. I expected something new and worth
knowing, not to be told that the rocks lay in beds
and that the continent was not in its present shape
in -the beginning, and that when pebbles rubbed
against each other they wore off into sand.
March 18. This morning Miss Lyman gave us
a regular "dressing down." She said that we should
look as though we were interested, if we were not,
when we went to lectures, and that we should give
close attention to whomever was speaking. She re-
marked that Prof. - - was a distinguished man
and if he should go to Europe, all the learned men
would flock to hear him; that he had made many
discoveries and was speaking on his own ground
and was capable of teaching wiser people than any
of us are. Very true, but he would not speak to
such a company of learned men as he spoke to us.
(This refers to the talking down to our supposed
level which most of the early lecturers were guilty
of.) Miss Lyman was quite shocked that two or
three ladies actually carried work into the chapel.
I should like to harve heard Miss Lyman talk to
three hundred young men in that strain.
April 4- It is really Spring. The ladies' delights
are in bloom and the tulips are up three inches high.
The birds are singing in the morning.
April 9. I would like to come in and give you
my first flowers for I have had the great privilege
of finding the white hepaticas, the first spring
50
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
flowers found this year. Miss Folsom and I found
them in our walk about two miles away from the
college. We sent a delicate bouquet to poor old
Mr. Mitchell (Maria Mitchell's father) who will
never see the spring flowers again. We carried a
cluster to Dr. Avery who was much pleased and to
The Willows
Miss Lyman who is sick. . . . The frogs are peep-
ing, the yellow crocuses are in bloom and the
hillsides are becoming quite green.
Easter Sunday. I send you a specimen of the
walking fern which we found on Cedar Ridge. [A
college mate writes : " There was a little Natural
History Club of which she was an active member,
and long walks in the neighborhood brought home
specimens for its meetings. Often she was one of
a group of five or six who, regardless of swamps
AT COLLEGE 51
or stone walls or ditches, made their way straight
to some distant hilltop, marked from the college
windows as a good place for a mountain view.
Oftener still her vigorous, elastic step set the pace
for one or two in a walk through fields and woods
and her eyes and ears made note of what was best
worth observing."]
Dr. Avery has given me permission to rise in the
morning when I wish if I will not disturb the others,
so I shall gain some hours these long mornings. [The
college mate who was quoted above says: "There
were no wasted minutes in her calendar. Out-of-
doors there was whole-hearted recreation: in-doors,
time well-adjusted to accomplish her ends. The
tireless industry that later she made so significant
showed itself in many ways. There was an hour
for going to the library to look through the Reviews
and Magazines and Weeklies, culling out whatever
had a bearing on her own studies or recorded prog-
ress in other fields. There was knitting to pick up
between observations at the telescope or to keep
time to the learning of German verbs. The knit-
ting needles were active sometimes even on the
long flights of stairs that led to her fifth floor
room of the senior year."]
One morning this week Miss Lyman sent for me.
I immediately began counting up my sins, as we
all do when that message comes to us. I concluded
I had not done anything but what I could brave
52 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
her wrath for, so I marched into the dreaded little
office with good courage. She was exceedingly
pleasant and wished to know if I could find time
to teach two young ladies arithmetic. I could, of
course, and she said I might try and that Prof.
Farrar would give me the necessary directions.
Each will pay about $5.00 a month. [From this
time on, until her education was finished, she sup-
ported herself, chiefly by tutoring. She had come to
college with $300, partly saved and partly borrowed,
and she had expected to remain one year only. Her
entire expenses during her first year at Vassar were
$515, of which $400 was for tuition and board.
She spent in the summer of 1869 $66.50, which
brought her expenses from September, 1868, to
September, 1869, up to $581.50.]
April 20. A party of Juniors and others
planned an excursion to the Cannon Factory at
West Point, to go down on the boat and back
at night. Prof. Farrar and Miss Braislin were to go
as leaders. Miss Lyman "could not think of it"
and wondered they had not asked her before the
plan was made. They told her they had no doubt
she would let them go. Then they asked her to see
the President about it. She said she would do so,
but he would first ask her what she thought and she
would tell him she could not consent. He might do
what he pleased. "It might get into the papers"
and that would never do. It must not happen on
AT COLLEGE 53
account of the precedent it would set. "It was
not because it was West Point" oh no! "It was
the principle of the thing." It seemed a real insult
to Prof. Farrar. He was justly very indignant.
It is a pretty idea. If we are to be educated so that
we can speak in public or to be self-sufficient any-
where, we ought to be capable of taking a little trip
without fearing a notice in the papers. Just at
present the whole faculty is in disgrace with us.
[Forty-one years afterwards, Mrs. Richards,
speaking at an alumnae luncheon, referred to this
affair: "Shall we ever forget the West Point expe-
dition which did not take place? Now we know
that rapid growth is cancerous or fungoid and that
it was not so much fear of us individually as of
what our development meant in the future that led
to the tantalizing caution so galling to us."]
Tell father he must not think it hard to work.
Work is a sovereign remedy for all ills and a man
who loves to work will never be unhappy.
April 26. Miss Folsom and I went to the city
yesterday for a little shopping. My hat is a soup
dish of white straw, with five leaves of the straw
edged with black velvet on the top. It cost $2.25.
In town we went up College Hill. The view of the
city was very fine from the roof of the building
which is used for a summer hotel. Miss Folsom
and I are the acknowledged champions of the
pedestrian excursions. I was not going down the
54 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
river to West Point, so only the principle touched
me. As long as I am always prompt to my classes,
and have my lessons well, and have no intimate
friend, and mind my own business, my disobedience
of one or two rules will be winked at. I do not
trouble myself to stay within the red fence when I see
something I want the other side.
April 29. Founder's Day exercises opened with
music on the organ. Dr. Raymond offered prayer,
then a poem was read by the composer, one of the
students, then Miss Whitney gave the address.
She is a tall, commanding looking girl, not hand-
some, but intellectual. She was dressed in black
silk with a lavender bow. She had a long watch
chain about her neck. Her hair was arranged
plainly and she wore white kid gloves. She was
a good representative of Vassar. The gestures
were admirable and the voice good. There is little
that could possibly have been bettered in words or
ideas.
Friday afternoon we went out surveying, took
about half our measurements. I intend to draw
a map of the farm. It will make me hurried, but
then I am used to that.
May 10. I laughed at your reference to our
training. Why, little mother, you used to keep
posted on the world's progress. If women are to
vote, they ought to be able to state their reasons
for thinking in a certain manner on the subject.
AT COLLEGE 55
I hope they will be able to use language better
than most of the men and not make such a fuss
about speaking in public. I do not care to have
women vote, but they will do it, in my opinion,
while you are living and they ought to be prepared
for it, but that is not the aim of the work here.
We only do our own talking. We read our own
essays and of course we ought to be able to give
our sisters our ideas. Miss Whitney was speaking
to us, not to a public audience. The place was
proper and fitting for her. No one but a student
was fitted to give a eulogy on our benefactor.
And as to surveying it is light work compared
with washing. The chain is light and clean and
the pins also. The instrument for taking obser-
vations can be easily carried and it is very fine
work to take bearings. We cross brooks and wood-
land for pleasure and pray why not for business?
It requires a good deal of skill to go over a fence
or a wall built of such small shaly stones as the
walls here, but it can be done and it is an accom-
plishment. I do not mean to do it with long
dresses and hoop skirts, of course not. I find
nothing in it not consistent with grace or virtue.
I prefer surveying for a week to spending a week
in fashionable society even of the best class and
there would be far less danger. Tell Merrick that
when I come home I will be ready to go out with
him and test my capability. Anything that will
56 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
take the American woman out of doors will be a
blessing to her.
Miss Lyman gave the girls a lecture on working
in the garden. She said that some of the finest
ladies she knew took the charge of both the vege-
table garden and the flowers and raked and did the
weeding. At first she was shocked to see the ladies
in Canada working out of doors but she found that
they were better and healthier and she got over
her prejudices. I think you will have to make up
your mind to do the same.
May 16. We have very much more than usual
to do this week. In calculus Prof. Farrar is anxious
to accomplish an immense amount of work in this
first class in college. We have a lesson of ten pages
for to-morrow. The class of '70 will be the first
under the new system and will be the best trained
of any, so we have some ambition. I am really
astonished at the amount of work we do. I think
few men in college do as much as we do here.
It is not orthodox to be found outside the grounds
except in parties of three, so that if one is hurt,
one can stay by to see that she does not elope and
one can run to get help. Accidents so often happen
to girls walking quietly in the road, that this is of
great consequence! !
People have a curiosity to know what mon-
strosity is to arise from my ashes, do they? I feel
much like saying, confound their base ideas of true
AT COLLEGE 57
education. But I will only say, tell all such inter-
ested individuals that my aim is now, as it has been
for the past ten years, to make myself a true woman,
one worthy of the name, and one who will unshrink-
ingly follow the path which God marks out, one
whose aim is to do all of the good she can in the
world and not to be one of the delicate little dolls
or the silly fools who make up the bulk of American
women, slaves to society and fashion. I do not
intend to ever say anything in reply to the half
sarcastic inquiries and covert sneers I have heard
so much from those who think that a person must
have a profession if she has been to college. Col-
lege is a place to learn. When you find what stuff
you are made of, then is the time to choose and
study a profession, if ever. I only say this to quiet
your sensitive nerves and to give you a weapon with
which to defend your pride. I do not wish any
defense for myself.
May 21. Nothing of general interest has occurred.
One of the society chapters had an entertainment.
At the German table Miss Kapp proposed a paper,
to be called, Die Schwalbe, the German for Swallow,
with editors and a staff of correspondents. I am
to collect items and anecdotes and translate them
into German.
Do not worry about me. Miss Lyman has no
cause to complain of me. I never fail in my college
duty, so I do not have to get excused. The faculty
58 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
have granted my every wish and there is no chance
for trouble. I always study causes and effects
wherever I am, so I must criticise sometimes.
May 30. (Abstract of sermon by Rev. Mr. Cox,
of Brooklyn.) Thanks for your kind sympathy
in my suffering (an ulcerated tooth, reported the
week before). It was indeed severe, "but this body
must be subject to the mind and the philosopher
must learn to control his nerves and not let pain
hinder the process of his thought," as Mr. Cox so
beautifully said. "Serenity is not natural. It is
a virtue. Calmness is a Christian grace."
On Wednesday, by a special favor from various
officers of the College from Miss Lyman down, I
was offered, without my seeking it, a place with
a party going across the river on a botanical expe-
dition. I enjoyed the trip very much. It was the
first time I had been in a conveyance of any kind
since Christmas.
CHAPTER IV
AT COLLEGE continued
1869-1870
September 21. It is so good to get back to
studying.
Sabbath morning. A message came that Miss
Lyman wished to see me in her parlor at eleven.
She had fifteen or twenty of the active Christian
workers to meet her and consult on religious mat-
ters in College and make suggestions. We were
there nearly two hours.
Wednesday. I spoke with the President yester-
day concerning my studies for the next semester.
Shall re-read Wayland's Moral Science and he will
examine me. Then I shall take political economy
and physiology thus completing the whole curricu-
lum, excepting Greek, and a year each of French
and Latin.
Wednesday. What think you? The senior class
must read their compositions on the platform in
public! We are horror stricken. Miss Morse sent
for me and wished to have me take an oversight of
a little friend of hers who has trouble with her Latin,
so that brings in a little pin money.
59
60 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
October 10. I have helped three different girls
out of mathematical difficulties during the week and
had to submit to being thanked and kissed. I find
my eyrie on the fifth floor is not so secluded a place
as I had fancied. [Her room for this year was
chosen primarily for its secure quiet, but also for
its glorious view, with the sunsets over the long,
dark line of the Highlands of the Hudson and the
peaks of the Shawangunk. There were not more
than half a dozen others who for various reasons
had chosen these upper rooms, and as they were
a fairly law-abiding set, there was no surveillance
by corridor teachers and little interruption from
idle visitors.]
October 17. (Contains an account of the trip
to Rondout by the geological class.) This is the
first day I ever wore my gymnastic suit all day long.
I hope it will help bring the day when such suits
will be worn. It is so suitable. I wonder if the
Poughkeepsie Journal will chronicle the wonderful
sight. We have often ridden through town but never
walked their streets before.
October 20. Our first hour in the laboratory.
Prof. Farrar encourages us to be very thorough
there, as the profession of an analytical chemist is
very profitable and means very nice and delicate
work fitted for ladies' hands. I also made my first
observation of the sun, which I shall keep up every
day at noon. There were only three little spots
to-day.
AT COLLEGE 61
One of the seniors, who is in astronomy comes
to me sometimes for a little light and she thinks
I am "awful good."
My plants are doing very nicely. The rose is
growing fast also the ivy, and several geraniums.
The Synods of New York and New Jersey are in
session in the city and are coming out to see us this
afternoon. We are to assemble in chapel and show
ourselves, literally make our best bow, as the Presi-
dent introduces the Moderator. This body visited
the ground six years ago and encouraged Mr. Vassar
in his undertaking, and the President felt it a duty
to ask them out now.
Later. The Reverends have just arrived. A
large open wagon, two omnibuses and many hacks
and carriages. I should think the whole two hun-
dred were here. College is put in apple pie order
for them to see.
October 24. The visit of the Synod passed off
well. One hundred and fifty ministers were packed
in a dense black mass on the platform to look at
us. Dr. William Adams of New York spoke very
well. Said he felt it to be one of the greatest
privileges of his life, etc.
I have nothing further to record of the past
week, only it has been full of blessing and mercy.
I have been well, learned much and able to help
others.
October 26. I spent nearly an hour in the obs.erv-
62 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
atory last night looking through the telescope. It
was a new experience and a delightful one. I saw
considerable, though Miss Mitchell said I must not
expect to do much the first night. I thought Jupiter
and his moons were magnificent through the little
telescope, but Miss Mitchell let me look through
the large one, the third in size in the country, after-
wards, and it was beyond description. The round
The Observatory
planet with its beautiful colored light, and so close
to it the bright moons. To-day the sun is very tur-
bulent. The spots that have been quiet for four
days have disappeared and changed greatly. Last
night the aurora was wonderfully beautiful.
We are to have three lectures on Egypt by Dr.
Thompson. I expect they will be treats.
October 30. I wonder if it is because I am doing
more good that I enjoy so much more than last
year. I thought then that nothing could be better
AT COLLEGE 63
than to see and hear so much of value, but last
night, after our natural history meeting, where
Prof. Orton told us seven what we might do for
science, thinking of that and of my astronomy and
chemistry and of the world whose door is now wide
open to me, I felt as though I could never murmur
at anything again, but could be useful and contented
in learning, any where that I might be. I feel as
though I was fast on my way to the third heaven,
if not already there. I do not wonder at the enthu-
siasm of an Agassiz or a Livingstone.
November 7. My life is becoming very busy,
as it always does. The old woman's prophecy is
surely being fulfilled. (Referring to the meeting
in Lowell of a person who stopped me on the street
and said "And you have a great deal of work to
do.")
The first of importance to tell you is that on
Thursday I found the nebula that I found the week
before. Miss Mitchell was very much pleased and
said that I showed a facility with instruments and
with my eyes that promised well. I do not know
yet if it is a real discovery or if some one had seen
it before. Miss Mitchell does not know it. I shall
be much hurried this week and next on account of
the meteors. ... I must sleep on Saturday and
Sunday as much as possible as Miss Mitchell needs
six or seven of us with her Saturday and Sunday
nights, and there are few girls who are able to
do it.
64 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
November 14- On Friday night I determined to
wake up at three in the morning. I did it within
three minutes. It was quite clear and I went into
the Lithological cabinet on this floor, perched up
in the window and watched for meteors. I saw eight
in an hour, two very fine ones. Last night was very
dubious, but two of the advanced class, the only
post-graduate, and myself went to the observatory
at ten o'clock. It was quite an honor that Miss
Mitchell chose me of all her class of fourteen to be
her aid. She ordered Miss B. and myself to lie on
the lounges in her sitting room. We were not to
raise our heads, or speak if Miss Mitchell came in
to look at instruments, unless she called us. It
cleared up at quarter of eleven, the stars came out
quite bright. One very brilliant meteor flashed
through the haze in the north. I was the only one
at the observatory who saw that, for I had drawn
the lounge to the east window where I could see
clearly. In ten minutes it was cloudy again. Miss
Mitchell said it was one of the darkest nights that
she ever knew. At five we went sound asleep and
slept until half past six. So ended our famous
meteor night.
The first two of the senior essays were read last
night. The Faculty freely and without demur or
condition admitted me to the class of '70 last night
and highly complimented me on my meekness and
patience in quietly waiting these six weeks.
AT COLLEGE 65
As to a box, I should enjoy it during the Christ-
mas vacation, if it won't cost too much and take too
much of your time to prepare it. I suppose I do
not need it, for I have all that is necessary here,
and am getting quite stout. My body does not
need pampering. I should like it only because it
came from home.
November 21. We are to have company in two
classes to-morrow and are to have extra lessons.
Much responsibility is thrown on us for the reputa-
tion of the College. Nobody knows how we work
here. It is really marvelous. No other institution
can show whole classes of such hard workers.
November 28. I went down to the meat cellar
yesterday and weighed myself, 123 Ibs.
There is an article in the North American on the
Civil Service Reform which father ought to read
in order to keep posted in political affairs.
December 3. One cannot understand Vassar
until they have been here. I speak advisedly when
I say there is no such work done in any institution
in the country. All professors say so who have
been in other places. All students say so. One
teacher who has been principal of a young ladies"
seminary says the same. All bear testimony they
never knew what could be done. Our very play is
hard work.
December 5. Miss Mitchell says that I may have
two little telescopes here during the vacation and
66 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
make all the discoveries I please. I am planning
much for the two weeks. Prof. Farrar says that
butyric acid which is formed in strong butter is
one of the worst poisons. It works so slowly that
one does not know what is the matter, but it un-
dermines the health surely. Avoid strong butter
wherever you are.
December 19. The President preached a Christ-
mas sermon to-day. Everybody talks so much
about Christmas. I realize fully that I am not in
New England, and though I try to be very liberal,
yet dear old Massachusetts is dearer than ever.
The senior who read her essay last night suffered
everything almost. She cried over it a great deal,
and when she went up on the platform she was white
as marble. I expected to see her sink to the floor,
although she had a fine essay. Prof. Farrar does
not think it right to subject the girls to such a
strain and he will not go in to hear them. It is
almost martyrdom to some of them, for they will
be judged by it, however unjustly. Miss Mitchell
will not hear any of her girls read, strong woman
that she is.
Miss Mitchell told me yesterday that Prof.
Henry of the Smithsonian wished some one to under-
take the meteorological record here; that I could
do it if I would. Instruments would be furnished
me and I can keep them after I leave here and con-
tinue the work if I please. I shall undertake this.
Mr. Mitchell used to do it as long as he was able.
AT COLLEGE 67
College has been in a ferment to-day. Some weeks
ago the Students' Association requested the Lecture
Committee to invite Wendell Phillips to deliver his
lecture on the Lost Arts. Dr. Raymond told us
this morning that we were refused; that the Com-
mittee had one member who would not hear him or
let any member of his family hear him, and one who
would hear him rather than anybody else. The
other three members stood between in their opin-
ions. They thought that a man so identified with
extreme views ought not to come here as we were
not to be exposed to radical doctrines of any sort.
"The sacred trust of fathers and mothers" etc.
To-night we held a meeting of the Philalethean
Society and requested the secretary to ask the
Faculty to have Wendell Phillips lecture before
them and that they might sell tickets, so that no
one should come unless sensitive papas and mammas
were willing. We are about tired of poky lectures.
This year has been better than last but we want
the best.
December 29. So far this vacation has more
than realized my highest anticipations of profit and
enjoyment. Friday evening some ten or twelve of
us had a candy pull in Prof. Farrar's kitchen, a
fine time which he enjoyed as well as we. Saturday
evening we all gathered in the college parlors and
the President read to us Dickens' Christmas Carol.
It was a great treat and every one enjoyed it. We
then had ice cream and cake and a social time.
68
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
I never fully realized how much a New England
birth was worth. I am so happy that that was my
lot. It is a great deal in these days. I feel it so
keenly now when I am away from it among a strange
people almost. Dear old New England is the home
of all that is good and noble with all her sternness
and uncompromising opinions.
1870
January 5. The last day of quiet. I am very
sorry. I have enjoyed this so much. I have accom-
plished a great deal in one way and another.
I shall save in money all that I can, for I want
AT COLLEGE 69
a telescope more than anything else. I am per-
fectly content with whatever clothes I have. I
have enough in my head to balance what is wanting
on my back. I am just as happy as if I had a
dozen dresses, and have come to the conclusion
that a contented spirit is a great boon.
With regard to the essays, we would not mind
an ordinary essay, but this is felt to be a test of
our class standing and an unfair one at that. It
is an unheard of thing, so far as I know, in any
college and we feel that it is very different from
reading at a literary entertainment.
January 23. I went up to Sunrise Hill with Miss
Mitchell's niece yesterday morning. It was like
May.
January 31. I am doing nicely in all my studies
now and am not fretting over the examinations
which occur Thursday and Friday. Much depends
on keeping cool and I believe I have that faculty.
February 13. I wish you could have heard
the good things I have heard to-day. First
Prof. Farrar's Bible lesson, taking up the life of
David, then this afternoon and evening, Rev. Mr.
Sanders of Ceylon, told us of the Island, the people
and the work there. I almost wanted to go to India
after hearing his stories.
We are fairly on our way now in all our new
studies. My yesterday's work was, physiology at 9,
astronomy at 9-45, logic at 10-30, chemistry at 12.
70 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
I learned my physiology -and astronomy for to-day
between 11-15 and 12. A class meeting fifteen
minutes came after dinner. I studied German what
time I could find in the afternoon besides thirty-
five minutes with a pupil in Latin, forty-five minutes
for elocution, thirty minutes with a classmate in
astronomy who did not quite understand the lesson,
until 5 o'clock, when I rested forty-five minutes,
then dressed my hair and myself for tea. After
chapel spent an hour with Miss T. in Latin. At
8 o'clock went to the President to hear him read
Boswell's Life of Johnson until 9. Took a bath,
read over the logic for to-day and was in bed before
the bell struck at 10. Wasn't that a good day's
work? There were a dozen other little things, such
as my weather record, a visit to the steward's de-
partment for a bone, a call on my former parlor-
mate, etc.
The world moves, but we seem to move with it.
When I studied physiology before (when I was a
little girl of seven years old) there were two hun-
dred and eight bones in the body. Now there are
two hundred and thirty-eight. I think father would
be delighted to see Miss Mitchell lecturing me this
morning, because I ignored one one-hundredth of a
second in an astronomical calculation. "While you
are doing it, you might as well do it to a nicety."
That is the only thing she has ever complained of
me for.
AT COLLEGE 71
February 20. I am not fretted with my work
after all. My lessons are not hard and they are
interesting, and I find some time to read, but it is
mostly scientific reading. . . .
We have had no good observing weather of late.
When it does come, we shall improve it whether we
do anything else or not. There is so much to do
that, as usual, I shall do part of everything and
content myself with that and not try to outshine
the rest. I came here for self-culture and not for
honors. My talent does not lie in recitation.
"Great executive ability" has been Miss Mitchell's
and Prof. Backus' only compliment for me.
February 27. Friday I stayed up until nearly
half past eleven. I found some star clusters which
I thought Miss Mitchell did not know. She was
greatly pleased and said to me, "Do not spend any
money on knicknacks until you buy yourself a tele-
scope. You will make valuable discoveries in the
course of your life."
We had our Chapter meeting Friday night and
the criticism of the last meeting was read. The
critic of the evening was the best scholar of the
class and I was delighted with her criticism of
my essay. She said it was well delivered, showed
thought and study. There was no attempt at
ornament which caused a little lack of smooth-
ness. It had the three elements of a good essay,
thought, information, and urging us to action.
72 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Monday was a busy day. I went to five recita-
tions, spent three periods with my pupils, went to
see Miss Lyman for the first time this year at her
request, that she might give me authority to train
the delinquents in all their studies "as if you were
their mother." . . .
Miss Lyman said today: "Colleges do not pre-
tend to finish, seminaries only do that. They make
nice little flower beds with the seeds all planted
in rows and the earth smoothed off handsomely.
Colleges spaded up the ground deep down and put
in guano, mixed it up thoroughly that whatever is
planted there afterward has a luxuriant growth."
Yes, I know I take up too many things, I know
that I am careless in many ways, I always was,
but I can be careful enough when I think occa-
sion requires it, and I have decided that it is
not worth my while to use up strength in going
against the grain where it is not necessary in order
to accomplish a great end. I find that to be my
greatest fault but when I see others who have that
virtue and yet are so deficient in what I have in
great abundance, I am content to do what I can
in my own way. Miss Mitchell appreciates highly
in me, what she decidedly lacks, business ability
and administrative talent, and a quick, clear in-
sight into things. I came here to train myself,
not to make a show, and I am satisfied. I
am better off than those who are so anxious
AT COLLEGE 73
about class honors. I shall not feel badly if
I get none of them. I have not shown my full
strength. I have kept in my corner and worked
for myself. . . .
I would like to enjoy the quiet with you a little
while, but my life is to be one of active fighting.
March 13. My teaching seems to give great
satisfaction for Miss Lyman has called me to
her twice this week to consult on poor scholars,
and has given me charge of her niece and another
young girl who do not like Latin. I enjoy teach-
ing and find that my previous teachers were really
superior; that my knowledge of Latin has not
gone, only faded by reason of dust, and can be
brushed up without difficulty.
Of course the event of the week for me was the
essay last night which was a complete success.
My voice filled the chapel without effort and they
said I seemed to have any amount of breath and
power unexpended; that I stood there just as
though it had been my business to read essays.
I never felt more cool and collected in my life,
and my face was not in the least flushed, nor did
a nerve quiver. I never have dreaded it, but I got
off better than I expected. Miss Mitchell would
not come because she would suffer so much, al-
though I assured her I should not. . I wore my
black silk with lace sleeves and my class pin,
without a particle of color about me. Everybody
else had worn bows and ribbons.
74 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Miss Mitchell was cautioning one of her girls
the other day about looking too long through the
telescope, but the girl was obstinate, when Miss
Mitchell said, "You do not take so good care of
yourself as Miss Swallow does."
I sympathize with father and I wish the women's
rights folks would be more sensible. I think the
women have a great deal to learn, before they are
fit to vote.
March 16. In calculus, Prof. Farrar keeps me
in reserve to call upon when the others fail. I
ask nothing more, only longer days or quicker
memory. There is so much to do.
March 20. "Es bildet ein Talent sich in der
Stille, sich ein Character in dem Strom der Welt."
So says Goethe, and I've been making a talent
here in the quiet of my life, as I couldn't if I had
entered into the rushing, foaming stream that
flows even here. I had been in the hurrying waters
too long not to appreciate an opportunity to lie
on the bank and rest, watch others, and gain
strength for the coming years. Moreover, I am
a thorough-bred democrat, clear to the marrow,
as perhaps you have reason to know, and there
is too much of aristocracy and particularly mon-
archy, in the air of the College for me to safely
pass freely about, without coming into collision with,
when there would be great danger of an explosion.
I early learned where the powder magazines were
AT COLLEGE 75
situated, and carefully avoided the vicinity, but
did not put out my candle, and now I begin to
see that my little light has had its effect. An
extra covering is thrown over the fiery material
when I am around, so that I can come nearer, and
I feel that I've conquered.
Again, time is too precious to me to waste in
chitchat and gossip. I worked too hard for the
opportunity of being in Vassar College to throw
away any of it. Very few people pay well in
intellectual or moral coin for the time spent,
therefore, the greatest misfortune to me would
have been popularity at first.
Once more, it does not pay well to strain one's
mind and spend one's time to be sure of rattling
off rules or facts, or a string of words in exact
order, when there are so many principles lying
in them which are rich in thought and informa-
tion. 7 didn't take the 200 topics in chemistry
and prepare for examination by studying from
beginning to end, as one girl did. I didn't fail
in the examination, as she did, when a question a
little off the track was put, and I wasn't sick
a fortnight, as she was. I gave much thought
to my plan of life here. It was the result of
cool deliberate judgment, and I am satisfied with
the fruits. . . .
I don't think I can be called an idle individual
about now, five studies, laboratory and observa-
76 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
tory practice, and earning $1.50 a day, as much
as most girls do who work all day. Tell Father
I guess I'll beat him. And the money is not all,
I have gained so much courage to find that my
knowledge comes back to me and that I am suc-
cessful in imparting it. The recommendation that
will be ready for me, will be valuable some day.
Well, I must hasten to the news items. I've
been in the Laboratory some time, helping get
ready to make some casts for your mantel shelf,
and this week we are to begin to learn photogra-
phy. Last night was a clear night, for a wonder,
and I was out on the stone steps of the Observa-
tory two and one-half hours, and got pretty
tired. There was a beautiful aurora, red stream-
ers and brilliant white ones. The night before,
we saw the planet Uranus, through the great
telescope, seventeen hundred million miles away.
March 27. I am getting a reputation for know-
ing all that occurs in the out-door world. Miss
Mitchell sends to me if she wants to know what
happened in the night, or how the stars looked at
a certain time. Dr. Avery told one of the girls
on this floor that if she wanted anything in the
night, she could call on me, for I was a spook.
I was amused, for I had never heard that term. I
believe it is the darkey term for ghost or spirit,
that wanders about in the night.
Without date. Tuesday night we heard more
AT COLLEGE 77
of the eccentric Sam Johnson. The President
requested the girls to bring their knitting work.
April 3. (From one of the latest works on
physiology, a lot of rules on cooking and food.)
April 10. Five of us left the College yesterday
morning (this was the Easter vacation) for Fish-
kill, in search of a Graphite Mill which our text-
book in mineralogy said was there. That was all
we knew. (Follows a full account of the trip.)
I was up in the night and found seven new star
clusters, and three new nebulae, which will delight
Miss Mitchell.
April 17. I shall wear my white dress to grad-
uate in. I could have nothing prettier. Miss
Lyman said that she did not know why we should
have new dresses, and I can do my share toward
creating a different style of dress. A senior has
some influence you know, and the professors, espe-
cially Prof. Van Ingen, are much opposed to long
dresses and finery. It hurts the College. I have
lived up to my principles on dress while here and
hope that I have done some good.
April 24. I do not see the use of a veil for me.
I never wear one over my face and I do not want
it because it is the fashion. That is against my
principles.
May 1. I shall have to wait until I see you
for my raptures over George William Curtis.
He made himself doubly dear by asking it as a
78 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
privilege to do so much from love and not for
pay. He spoke of our having an opportunity to
show what our needs and capacities were, not in
a hot house, but like a tree, symmetrical in all
directions. It was the best women's rights speech
I ever heard. Suffrage, the ballot or rights, were
not mentioned. [A large photograph of Mr.
Curtis hung in her bedroom up to the time of her
death.]
Wednesday. I hope I can remember Miss Mitch-
ell's story of her experiences at Rome when I
get home, how she got into the Observatory of
Father Secchi, which no woman had ever entered,
and where Mrs. Somerville and Caroline Herschel
had vainly tried. How she would not ask the Pope
herself, because she would have to kiss his hand,
which she thought beneath the dignity of an
American, but she got Mr. Cass, the American
minister, to get her permission.
Tuesday. As Lizzie Coffin and I went in to
Chemistry class to-day, Prof. Farrar said, "Dr.
Coffin and Prof. Swallow."
The two happy years at Vassar were brought to
a close by a botanical expedition to the Catskills
in company with a party of college friends. The
last entries in her pocket diary are :
Wednesday, June 15. Rose at 3%, walked to
the station. Went to Mountain House. Thursday.
AT COLLEGE 79
Explored. Friday. Came back. Successful trip.
Monday. Mother came. Tuesday. Class Day.
All went well. Wednesday. Commencement. A.B.
Said goodby. All kind. Friday. Home.
CHAPTER V
STUDENT OF CHEMISTRY
THE Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
founded for the purpose of offering advanced in-
struction in science and opportunity for research,
and of making a connection between science and
/ the industrial arts, was opened to students in the
I year 1865, the same year that Vassar was opened.
Up to the year 1871, its students were all men.
In January of that year, a woman was admitted as
a special student in chemistry. On the morning of
her entrance, she had an interview with the presi-
dent, Dr. J. D. Runkle, who, having worked valiantly
for her admission, was from the first deeply inter-
ested in her success. He introduced her to the
only other woman in the building, Mrs. E. A. Stin-
son, the assistant in charge of the chemical store-
room, and asked that arrangements be made for
her comfort. Later in the day, when passing the
storeroom, he inquired of Mrs. Stinson how the
young woman was getting on. "She looks rather
frail to take such a difficult course," Mrs. Stinson
said. "But did you notice her eyes?" was his
reply. "They are steadfast and they are coura-
geous. She will not fail."
80
STUDENT OF CHEMISTRY 81
The new student with courage in her eyes was
Ellen Swallow, who seven months before had been A
graduated from Vassar College. The story of how
she succeeded in becoming the first woman to enter
the Institute of Technology, or, for that matter, the
first woman to enter any such strictly scientific
school in the United States, makes an important
chapter in the history of woman's education.
When she left college there was little to determine
her future course except a leaning towards science
and a need for self-support. Like most educated
women of her day she turned to teaching as a means
of livelihood. Unlike most of them, however, she
thought of any teaching she might at this time do
as only a stepping-stone to more advanced work.
With her eager desire for wider experience, she
seems not to have considered any position short of
California, and finally decided upon South America.
At the time of her graduation she was under ap-
pointment to go in the autumn to the Argentine
Republic, as one of six teachers engaged by Presi-
dent Sarmiento. But the Argentine Republic was
at that time in a state of war, and during the
summer conditions became so unsettled that the gov-
ernment was obliged to break its contract with the
teachers from the United States.
The final word concerning the change of plan
did not reach Miss Swallow until late in the
summer. In the meantime she watched and waited.
82 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
On August 21 she wrote to a friend, "I do want
to go if it is best, but I am afraid that selfish
ambition is too much at the root of my desire for
it to be granted."
She did not, however, content herself with watch-
ing and waiting; she worked also. The first three
weeks after her return from college she describes
as "one grand Aunt Dinah's clarin' up time." Her
mother had been sick all winter, and the work had
run behind. She set about, therefore, not only clean-
ing house, but also getting her own and her mother's
wardrobes into shape. According to a letter written
on July 26, she got out all her trunks, boxes, and
bureau drawers ; she sorted, mended, washed, and
ironed, and arranged all her worldly possessions
for the summer. She papered her room, made "a
nice toilet stand out of two empty tea chests, a
piece of heavy bedspread and some white fringe,"
took up and put down entry carpets and other
carpets; took up and set out plants; ripped up
dresses, washed, turned them, and made them over.
To this long recital of activities she added, "So
you may imagine I have not had time to be very
misanthropic," and "I take books from the library
to read when I sit down for a few minutes to cool
off."
"Don't you see," she wrote later to a friend
whose plans were also unsettled, "how wisely our
different natures have been provided for during
STUDENT OF CHEMISTRY 83
these weeks? You need some outside aid to quell
jour inward disquiet, and you've had it under cir-
cumstances calculated to draw your thoughts from
yourself. I, always self-reliant, have had to fight
my battles alone and unaided. I have those around
me who look to me for help in their trials, never
dreaming that I have any."
The South American plan having failed, she
apparently decided to take a little leisure in which
to meditate upon what to do next. On Septem-
ber 15, she started upon a three weeks' trip to
Nashua, Dunstable, Westford, and Littleton. "I
went to my birthplace," she wrote on October 8.
"Saw great trees planted by my hand, great boys
nearly six feet high whom I had rocked in the cradle,
and felt the wrinkles deepen and the old in my joints
at the sight. I visited new households formed since
my last visit some four years ago, and found babies
in abundance. I liked my new cousins and thought
the world would be peopled without my troubling
myself in the matter. ... I went to Littleton and
saw the dear faces and was welcomed most heartily.
"Well, here I am," she continued, "no nearer
my winter's work than when I left you, to any
earthly eye. I have tried several doors and they
won't open. I am not discouraged or blue at all.
I've full faith that the right thing will come in time.
I've only to work and wait. I've lived in the greatest
calmness all summer, not feeling the old unrest and
84 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
fretting against the fetters, and I know the blessing
of contentment.
"I wonder if there would be any chance for me
to take private pupils in Latin in the Western
cities. I think I would do it though I believe I
would go into a chemist's shop in preference. Does
Dayton boast any drug stores or the like? Would
it be advisable for me to advertise, think you, for
a situation in such a place? I rather want to dip
into some science.
"I often feel as if I must have something good
in store for me so many people give expressions of
confidence in my future never a croaking word
do I get. I hope I shall not neglect the right
thing when it comes, but I begin to feel anxious to
see something done. I can't lie idle and must stir
in some direction."
On the day after this letter was written, she
must have decided in what direction to stir, for she
wrote to Merrick and Gray, commercial chemists in
Boston, asking them if they would take her as an
apprentice. Her final decision to study chemistry
was probably reached through a desire to help her
father in the new business upon which he had
entered, that of manufacturing building stone. She
wrote to commercial chemists because no school then
open to women offered more chemistry than she had
had at Vassar. Merrick and Gray replied that they
were not in a position to take pupils, and that her
STUDENT OF CHEMISTRY 85
best course was to try to enter the Institute of
Technology of Boston as a student a most ex-
traordinary piece of advice to be given to a woman
in 1870. She realized that if she acted upon it she
must do so unaided, with no support or encourage-
ment from her friends.
" There's no sense in going further it's the edge of cultivation,"
they said to her in effect. But she decided that
the time had come for the "edge of cultivation" to
be pushed a little further forward, and wrote at
once to the Institute of Technology, asking if the
school admitted women, and giving as references
Maria Mitchell and Professor Farrar. To this
letter she received no answer for four weeks. In
the meantime she wrote to Booth and Garrett, of
Philadelphia, another firm of chemists. These good
Quaker gentlemen replied, on November 14, that
they were not in need of any assistance, for "experi-
ment, study and reflection" were their sole occupa-
tions, and that these could be performed only by
themselves. They regretted that they knew of no
position to which they could direct her attention,
although they had "heard that female assistance
had been employed in the apothecary store." They
regretted the more that they could render her no
aid as they desired "to see proper means of liveli-
hood thrown open to females."
The sympathetic spirit of this reply led her to
write again, urging her case. Their second letter
86 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
stated that they would take pupils only upon the
payment of $500 a year, which of course, in her
self-dependent position, put the thought of study
with them beyond the realm of possibility. Like
Merrick and Gray, they advised her to try to enter
a scientific school.
In the time that elapsed between writing to the
Institute and receiving a reply, she wrote the fol-
lowing to a friend: "I have quite made up my
mind to try Chemistry for a life study and have
been trying to find a suitable opportunity to attempt
it. I've been busy with this and hoped to have
something to report, but everything seems to stop
short at some blank wall and I suppose I'm like
Baalam and don't see the angel of the Lord in the
way. ... I trust something will come to pass soon
for I fear I shall get impatient.
"I've been making some lovely wax flowers for a
lady to give as a wedding present and some for our
Fair, ajso sewing for the Fair and helping make
fancy things, doing a little in that way, reading
some and cooking, Thanksgiving, etc., going to
lectures, etc., etc. I've been full of business and
it is well, else I should go wild over all the hindrances
I find in my path."
Ten years later she wrote to a woman who had
consulted her about preparation for a definite line
of work :
"I know just how you feel; you want your own
STUDENT OF CHEMISTRY 87
work to do in the world. You want to feel that just
a little is your own. Is not that it? Well, I went
through a good many years of that. After I felt
the power to do I could not sit and fold my hands.
I have found my work and plenty of it, but it is not
what I had planned it to be and it did not come to
me until I was nearly thirty years old."
On the twenty-eighth anniversary of her birth,
December 3, 1870, the Faculty of the Institute of
Technology formally received her application for
admission, which had been in the hands of the secre-
tary, Dr. Samuel Kneeland, up to that date. It
voted, however, "to postpone the question of the
admission of female students until the next meet-
ing." On December 10, "the question of the admis-
sion of Miss Swallow was resumed and after some
discussion it was voted that the Faculty recommend
to the Corporation the admission of Miss Swallow
as a special student in Chemistry." That same day,
however, it was "Resolved That the Faculty are of
the opinion that the admission of women as special
students is as yet in the nature of an experiment,
that each application should be acted on upon its
own merits, and that no general action or change
of the former policy of the Institute is at present
expedient."
It was on December 14 that President Runkle,
who had previously said to her that he considered
the introduction of ladies to the Institute "a con-
88 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
summation devoutly to be wished," wrote her as
follows :
"Dear Miss Swallow: The Secretary of the Insti-
tute, Dr. Kneeland, will notify you of the action of
the corporation in your case at a meeting held this
day. I congratulate you and every earnest woman
upon the result. Can you come to Boston before
many days and see me? I will say now that you
shall have any and all advantages which the Insti-
tute has to offer without charge of any kind. I
have the pleasure of knowing both Miss Mitchell
and Mr. Farrar of Vassar. Hoping soon to have
the pleasure of seeing you, I am
Faithfully yours,
J. D. RlJNKLE,
President of the Institute."
So it came about that the answer to her question,
"Are women admitted?" was not "They are," but
" You are." To the clause in President Runkle's
letter, "without charge of any kind," Miss Swallow
afterwards referred, saying: "I thought it was out
of the goodness of his heart because I was a poor
girl with my way to make that he remitted the fee,
but I learned later it was because he could say I
was not a student, should any of the trustees or
students make a fuss about my presence. Had
I realized upon what basis I was taken, I would not
have gone." Fortunately she did not know.
ROGERS BUILDING
The only Institute Building in 1S7C
WALKER BUILDING
Where for years Mrs. Richards had her laboratory
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
STUDENT OF CHEMISTRY 89
Just before she received word of the success of
her plan, she had engaged to work in a store for
the two weeks preceding Christmas. This delayed
her entrance to the Institute a short time, but it
gave her something quite as valuable to her as two
weeks of study an understanding of what the
Christmas rush means to the shopgirl. Christmas
Eve she worked until half-past ten without supper.
On Christmas she wrote to a friend: "I would
give very much to have an hour's talk with you on
the prospect the future is opening to me. I want
your opinion on it and the support of your interest
in what lies before me. Very mysteriously God leads
us, doesn't he? He grants us our wishes, often tho in
different ways from what we expect. You will know
that one of my delights is to do something that no
one else ever did. I have the chance of doing what
no woman ever did and the glimpse I get of what
is held out to me makes me sober and thoughtful,
not that I want to turn back but I fear that I can't
carry steadily all the load I've taken and feel in-
clined to go slowly at first, not with my usual dash.
To be the first woman to enter the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, and so far as I know, any
scientific school, and to do it by myself alone, un-
aided, to be welcomed most cordially, is this not
honor enough for the first six months of post-
collegiate life?"
Shortly after the holidays she went to Boston
90 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
and engaged a room at 523 Columbus Avenue. This
was a boarding house kept by Mrs. Blodgett, the
mother of Isa Blodgett, her most intimate friend
at Westford Academy. She could not, however,
afford to pay for board, and so she and her
friend Helen Morse, who roomed with her, boarded
' themselves.
Established in Boston, she entered upon the
same program of work and study which she had
followed all her life. As early as January 26, she
had assumed temporary charge of the office of a
friend in his absence from the city, and was "en-
joying being in the office and the Institute also."
Shortly afterwards she took full charge of the
boarding house in which she was living, during
the absence of Mrs. Blodgett, whose daughter was
critically ill. She kept peace in the kitchen,
directed the servants, planned the meals, and took
care that the routine of the house should not be
interrupted. "I got up at half past five this morn-
ing," she wrote at this time, "to get Mr. Blodgett
his breakfast because he had to get away on the
early train and I was afraid the girls would for-
get." In the meantime she was carrying on her
work at the Institute, and was supporting herself
by tutoring.
Having been admitted to the Institute as a special
privilege, she set about making herself indispen-
sable. "I hope in a quiet way," she wrote on
STUDENT OF CHEMISTRY 91
February 11, 1871, "I am winning a way which
others will keep open. Perhaps the fact that I am
not a Radical or a believer in the all powerful
ballot for women to right her wrongs and that I do
not scorn womanly duties, but claim it as a privi-
lege to clean up and sort of supervise the room and
sew things, etc., is winning me stronger allies than
anything else. Even Prof. A. accords me his sanc-
tion when I sew his papers or tie up a sore finger
or dust the table, etc. Last night Prof. B. found
me useful to mend his suspenders which had come
to grief, much to the "amusement of young Mr. C.
I try to keep all sorts of such things as needles,
thread, pins, scissors, etc., round and they are
getting to come to me for everything they want
and they almost always find it and as Prof.
said the other day "When we are in doubt
about anything we always go to Miss Swallow."
They leave messages with me and come to expect
me to know where everything and everybody is
so you see I am usefiil in a decidedly general
way so they can't say study spoils me for any-
thing else. I think I am making as good progress
as anyone in my study too They say I am going
ahead because Prof. Ordway trusts me to do his
work for him which he never did anybody else
the dear good man I am only too happy to do
anything for him." (Professor Ordway had a large
practice as consulting expert in technical chemistry.)
92 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
"They are even daring to joke a little. The
other day I found a letter on my desk there with
the A.B. crossed out and A.O.M. written. What
do you suppose they meant? I couldn't get it from
them. Prof. Ordway whom I privately consulted
said it must be Artium Omnium Magistra. I inter-
preted it old maid."
Mrs. Stinson, who became her faithful friend and
ally, and who was "happy if she could just hear
her voice," told many stories of her helpfulness
during these early days. One of these stories would
have shocked Mrs. Richards herself in later days
when she was advocating scientific methods of clean-
ing, but it shows how quick she was to see and to
meet a need. One day a professor of Chemistry
was preparing for a lecture in a room which had
not been swept or made ready for the class. Shortly
before the time of the lecture the janitor entered,
but detecting an odor like that of rotten eggs, due
to the escape of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, he
fled precipitately and refused to return. What was
to be done? The class would be in in a few moments
and the room was still unswept. Recognizing the
emergency, Miss Swallow seized a broom, and start-
ing at one end of the room while Mrs. Stinson
started at the other, they had it swept before the
class arrived.
To understand the difficulties which Ellen Swal-
low overcame during that first year in order to hold
STUDENT OF CHEMISTRY 93
to the course she had laid out for herself, one must
know something of her home life. Early in March
her father was struck by an engine in the Union
Station at Worcester and so badly injured that he
died four days later. She wrote on April 30 to
Mrs. Hughes: ... "I was sick about the first
of March and came up here for a few days. While
here, just able to lie round on the sofa, word was
brought to us one morning that father who had left
home an hour before was being brought home, his
right arm crushed by the cars.
"Oh, Flora, imagine if you can the horrible
scene the amputation, the terrible agony he suf-
fered 'in the arm that is gone,' the anxious watch-
ing and care which all came upon me, as he looked
to no one else, trusted all in my hands, night and
day for four days, a few hours' delirium, then sleep,
and a glorious awaking in Heaven.
"I had strength to go thro all, calm, cheerful,
without a tear, but it almost took reason, when
the strain was removed, and I've not recovered
yet. I sometimes fear I shall give up before the
spring is thro. So many things I have to do
which almost kill me, business which calls him up
to me, seeing people who want to talk of him, and
yet I will not allow myself to shirk. I could not
leave mother alone tho it is torture for me to be
here and so I go back and forth to Boston every
day. I have tried thro April and shall one month
94 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
more then the Institute closes and I hope to go
back to Boston in September to live. Mother will
still live here. I am succeeding quite well in my
work and the future looks well. What special
mission is God preparing me for? Cutting off all
earthly ties and isolating me as it were."
A few months later she wrote to a friend who
was in trouble : " . . . When you feel an indica-
tion of a certain morbid feeling resolutely set
your mind in another direction, and don't give
up easily. Let the mind know there is a will
power to control it in a measure. This is pos-
sible. I never could have lived thro these sad
months if I had for an instant allowed my mind
to dwell on the terrible scenes of my father's death.
I turn my attention by something and so success-
fully that I've not dreamed of him as crushed or
dead but once and that was a few nights ago after
sitting here mending a dress all the evening and
thinking of things at home. Now when the thought
comes to my mind I shut the doer tight and run
to the other side and take a book or pencil or
plan something for the future and so turn the
attention which is a very child to please so
easily is it diverted."
Thus during the last few months of that first
year of her work at the Institute she was sup-
porting herself, was settling her father's estate,
and was making daily a trip to Boston and back,
STUDENT OF CHEMISTRY 95
which even in these days of rapid transit takes
more than an hour each way. And yet, in spite
of the shock, the sorrow, the worry, and the
weariness, she held her place in the Institute,
keeping the door open for other women.
CHAPTER VI
IN THE LABORATORY
THE next four years, from 1871 to 1875, were
spent by Miss Swallow at the Institute of Technol-
ogy, first as student, then as student assistant, and
finally as assistant in the chemical laboratories. If
these years were to be considered only as they of-
fered opportunity for self-expression, the record
might be made up from her letters, for she repeat-
edly wrote of pleasure in her work, of satisfaction
that she was able to "do real things of value to
people," and of pride that "her opinion was getting
to be of consequence on chemical analysis." But
during this period, as at previous times in her life,
preparation for work and work itself overlapped,
and her student labors gradually took the form
of professional services in sanitary chemistry. It
seems best, therefore, to connect these years with
that part of her subsequent life which was given
to systematic scientific work, even though this may
somewhat disturb the sequence of the narrative.
Such a treatment has another advantage also, for
it is only against the background of her scientific
labors that her other varied and ever-changing
activities can be seen in their true proportions.
96
IN THE LABORATORY 97
Mrs. Richards's public activities, numerous as they
were, fall rather naturally into two groups, those
of leadership and those of expert service in sanitary
science. To compare these two kinds of work, and
to try to say of one or of the other that it was her
greater contribution to the life of her times, would
be idle; and to seem to be making such comparison,
or to be laying undue emphasis upon one or the
other, would be unfortunate. Yet in the written
record it is almost inevitable that the work which
she did as leader should loom larger and more
prominent than the other. For so multiform were
the activities of this kind, so wide the territory over
which they carried her, and so many the people with
whom they brought her in contact, that they must
necessarily form a large part of any written record
of her life. It is well, therefore, to see them against
the background of that patient work which she did
day after day and year after year, in the quiet of
her laboratory and classroom. And all the more so
because those w r ho were closest to her feel that the
authority with which she spoke on matters of public
interest and her very wide influence were due to the
fact that she had painstakingly made herself master
of a certain field, restricted though it may be con-
sidered. An eminent chemist who heard her speak
upon a platform with several other women expressed
this idea when he said that her speech carried more
weight than the others because she was herself a
98 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Fachmann, her training and her work being behind
every word which she spoke.
Considering the service which she was destined
to render in the line of public health and the train-
ing of sanitary chemists and engineers, the time of
her entrance into the Institute was most opportune.
On April 16, 1869, less than two years before she
began her work, the Massachusetts legislature had
passed an Act providing for the establishment of a
State Board of Health. This board, to which
Mrs. Richards gave some of the best working years
of her life, became a leader in the public health
movement of America. In its first report, its gen-
eral principles of action were set forth in the follow-
ing words : " No board of health, if it rightly perform
its duty, can separate the physical from the moral
and intellectual natures of man. These three quali-
ties of man are really indissoluble, and mutually act
and react upon each other. Any influence exerted
to the injury of one, inevitably, though perhaps
very indirectly, injures another. As in the physi-
cal world there is a correlation of forces, so that
no force is ever lost but only interchanged with
another, so do these various powers and qualities
of man act upon each other, and act and are acted
on by the physical forces of nature that surround
him." We may well believe that this statement and
the plea which follows for an ethical purpose in pub-
lic health work met a responsive chord in the soul
IN THE LABORATORY 99
of the woman who during her college life had said,
"I must keep the body in good condition to do the
bidding of the spirit."
Very soon after the organization of the State
Board, the question of the pollution of streams by
industrial establishments and by the sewage of towns
was brought to its attention, and it decided to in-
vestigate the matter, selecting Professor William R.
Nichols, of the Institute of Technology, to make
the chemical analyses. Water analysis being at that
time a new branch of chemistry, Professor Nichols
wisely decided to begin by a very thorough exami-
nation of the waters of a limited district, and chose
Mystic Pond for this intensive study. He began
his work in April, 1870, and made his report in
September of the same vear. As a result of the
conditions shown, the legislature issued an order in
April, 1872, instructing the Board of Health to
make an extensive inquiry into matters connected
with sewerage and water supply. In doing this it
followed the example of England, whose Rivers Pollu-
tion Commission had made its first report in 1870.
In undertaking this larger task, the Board again
intrusted the chemical work to Professor Nichols,
and this time he chose Miss Swallow as his assistant.
"He thus availed himself," to use Miss Swallow's
own words, "of the technical skill of hand gained in
using instruments of precision under the tutelage
of Maria Mitchell." This was doubtless the work to
100 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
which she referred in a letter dated August 14, 1872:
"Now a new work has been put into my hands which
will tell, and that by a Professor who does not believe
in women's education." In November of the same
year she wrote: "The record since I wrote might
almost be summed up in one word 'Work.' I have
made about 100 water analyses and that is only part
of my daily duties. I have been studying with the
classes since October 9th. I have to prepare my
lessons evenings."
While this work was going on, Professor Nichols
was making frequent trips to England and to the
Continent in order to learn what was being done
abroad, and during his absence was directing the
work of the laboratory by correspondence. In writ-
ing of him after his death, Mrs. Richards said:
"He accepted nothing short of absolute accuracy,
as if under oath. Each new assistant was put
through a vigorous process of testing as to the
accuracy of work no matter at what cost of time
and money." Miss Swallow, as Professor Nichols's
pupil and assistant, therefore had the advantage
not only of being in touch with some of the most
advanced work in sanitation which was being done
in the world, but also of having a most rigorous
training for the part which she was to take in later
work. In his report made to the Board in 1874,
Professor Nichols said: "Most of the analytical
work has been performed by Miss Ellen H. Swallow,
IN THE LABORATORY 101
A.M., under my direction. I take pleasure in ac-
knowledging my indebtedness to her valuable assist-
ance and expressing my confidence in the accuracy
of the results obtained."'
Her student life at the Institute, through good
fortune as to the time when it began and the men
with whom it brought her in contact, led toward
what was probably the greatest direct contribution
of her life to public health her part in the ex-
tensive sanitary survey of the waters of the state,
which began in 1887. This work was great in its
conception and great in its consequences. The
survey itself lasted for nearly two years, and con-
sisted in monthly analyses of samples from all parts
of the state, representing the water supply of eighty-
two per cent, of the population.
Before this survey began, a separate laboratory
for sanitary chemistry had been established at the
Institute of Technology, the first of its kind in the
world. This laboratory, which was opened in 1884,
was in charge of Professor Nichols, with Mrs. Rich- >
ards as an assistant. Professor Nichols died in
1886 and Dr. Thomas M. Drown was appointed his
successor. Dr. Drown planned the great survey
and placed Mrs. Richards in charge of the labora-
tory and of the corps of assistant chemists. After
the completion of the investigation many prob-
lems were left to be solved, and Dr. Drown and
Mrs. Richards remained in charge of the water
102 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
laboratory of the state until it was transferred to
the State House in 1897.
In a work of this magnitude, it will be seen that
the success depended very largely upon system and
regularity in the management of the laboratory.
The samples were collected and transported at large
expense. Upon their arrival at the laboratory it
was necessary to examine them within a few hours
or they became useless. If a sample was spoiled by
delay it was not replaced, and in order that there
might be no gaps in the record, Mrs. Richards
worked not only all day, but frequently late into the
night, and on Sundays and holidays. "I have been
under water since June 1 of last year," she wrote
in March, 1888, to a friend, "and I suppose it will
be the same another year. We are testing all the
public supplies once a month and we are up to 2,500
samples already. I am on constant duty from
8 o'clock to 5.30 or 6 every day, Saturday included/'
In a letter written in 1904, she referred to the
strain of this work, saying: "I worked fourteen
hours a day on five and sometimes seven days of
the week. If the day was too hot for analyzing
water the work was done at night." In the course
of this investigation more than forty thousand
samples of water were analyzed, either wholly or
in part by her. During all this time laboratory and
experimental methods were being perfected and new
forms of apparatus devised. In the splendid co-
IN THE LABORATORY 103
operation which brought the survey to a successful
issue, there was little thought of where the credit for
specific parts of the work lay, but it is generally
recognized that, as Dr. Drow r n said in his report to
the Board, "the accuracy of the work and the no less
important accuracy of the records were mainly due
to Mrs. Richards's great zeal and vigilance."
The very large number of analyses, showing as
they did the condition of the water of all parts
of the state at all times of the year, were in them-
selves a valuable record, and made possible many
important generalizations. One of these found ex-
pression in what is known as the Normal Chlorine
Map, which has become a model wherever sanitary
surveys are being made. Upon this map all the
places whose natural unpolluted waters contain the
same amount of chlorine were connected by lines
very much after the fashion in which places with
the same barometric pressure are connected in a
weather map. To these lines the name of isochlors
was given. When the map was completed, it was
discovered that the isochlors ran in a general way
parallel to the line of the seashore, and that the
distances between them and the shore corresponded
very closely with differences in the amount of normal
chlorine present, thus revealing the fact that for all
places the same distance from the sea the chlorine
in the natural waters might be considered the same.
By means of this map, it is possible with very little
104 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
trouble to tell of a given place in Massachusetts
(except of places on Cape Cod, which is washed on
all sides by the sea) how much of the chlorine found
in its waters is due to its nearness to the sea, and
how much is due to pollution. This suggested to
other states and countries that there might be a like
uniformity in the chlorine content of their waters,
and consequently served as a valuable starting point
for the examination of w r aters in many parts of the
world.
As in the case of the work of general water
analysis for the state, so in the case of the making
of the chlorine map, it was a great piece of work
to which a large number of faithful workers con-
tributed. Whether the important deduction from
the large number of figures at hand first occurred
to Mrs. Richards or to some one else, no one seems
to know, but one thing may be said, if it had not
been for the vast number of reliable figures which
had been secured through her generalship and her
management of the laboratory, the chlorine map
would never have been made.
/ In 1873 Miss Swallow received the degree of
Bachelor of Science (in Chemistry) from the Insti-
tute of Technology, becoming its first woman grad-
uate. The same year she received the Master's
degree from Vassar upon the presentation of a
thesis and after a long and searching examination.
At this time she hoped to go on with investigational
IN THE LABORATORY 105
\
work and to secure a Doctor's degree. But while
there were many to make use of her skill as an
analyst, there were few to realize what the oppor-
tunity to do original work would mean to her, and
there were few to encourage her and help her to
surmount the difficulties which at that time lay in
the way of a woman's securing such an honor.
In spite of the fact that the times were against
her, she traveled far enough in independent work to
look over into the promised land that only those
may enter who make contributions to knowledge. In
1872 she came into possession of a small piece of a i
rare mineral, samarskite, which others had analyzed \
without discovering anything unusual about it. After
analyzing it with great care, she reported in a paper
published by the Boston Society of Natural History 1
that there was an insoluble residue which could not
be accounted for. To those who were working with
her in the laboratory she repeatedly said that she
believed it to contain elements not then known. A
few years later two new elements, samarium and
gadolinium, were isolated from this mineral.
After her first experience as water analyst under
Professor Nichols, Miss Swallow entered upon a X
large private practice in sanitary chemistry, includ-
ing the examination not only of water, but also of
air and of food, and the testing of wall papers and
fabrics for arsenic. In 1878 and 1879 she examined
a large number of staple groceries for the state,
106 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
the results of her investigation being published in the
first annual report of the Board of Health, Lunacy
and Charity, which had succeeded the earlier Board
of Health.
Her work as an expert in sanitary chemistry
constituted a most important and at the same time
a unique form of public service, even when it was
done for fees. But frequently she chose to give
her expert knowledge without remuneration. For
example, a friend might be choosing a site for a
country home or a camp or a summer cottage.
Mrs. Richards's contribution, or shall we say her
part of the housewarming, would almost invariably
be a thorough investigation of the water supply.
When we consider how many people fall victims
to typhoid fever during their summer outings, we
realize how valuable this contribution was. Or the
question of the water supply for a school would
arise. Mrs. Richards was always ready to offer her
services without cost, if she felt that the enterprise
was in a struggling financial condition or if she
had a personal interest in it. As alumna trustee of
Vassar she performed invaluable services in testing
the drinking water of the college, in order to deter-
mine the efficiency of a sewage disposal plant which
had been installed. The half of what she did to pro-
tect human life from the danger of impure waters
will never be known by any one person, and for that
reason its complete story can never be written.
IN THE LABORATORY 107
During the time that Miss Swallow was study-
ing at the Institute, she was assistant not only to
Professor Nichols, but also to Professor Ordway,
whose specialty was industrial chemistry and who
carried on a large amount of work as consulting
expert for various manufacturing establishments. It
was through her association with him that she was
appointed, in 1884, chemist for the Manufacturers'
Mutual Fire Insurance Company. In this capacity
she did much valuable work bearing upon the danger
from spontaneous combustion of various oils in com-
mercial use. This was pioneer work, and it is said
that in the course of it Mrs. Richards often prophe-
sied that the time would come when every material
used in building would be thoroughly tested. The
great underwriters' laboratories of today show that
she had true prophetic vision.
It was in the course of her work on oils that she
became acquainted with Mr. Edward Atkinson, econ-
omist and philanthropist, who invented the Aladdin
Oven and with whom she later worked out many
problems in the application of heat to food materials
under a grant from the Elizabeth Thompson Fund.
For him, too, she evolved several methods of deter-
mining the impurities in lubricating oils, with special
reference to cottonseed oil, and devised what was
known as the "evaporation test" for non-lubricating
volatile matters. She also made an investigation of
the possibilities of recovering wool grease which
108 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
attracted world-wide attention, and a study of the
composition of cottonseed hulls which proved of
great commercial value. In 1877 she devised a new
method for determining the amount of nickel in vari-
ous ores, and as a result she became an authority on
the subject and frequently acted as referee on dis-
puted points.
It was her special joy to be chosen to help those
in the business world whose faces she believed to be
turned toward a future of better living* conditions.
She was keenly in sympathy with certain progressive
commercial enterprises started by college women in
later years, such as the Sunshine Laundry of Brook-
line and the Laboratory Kitchen of Boston. Shortly
before her death, Mrs. Richards gave a course of
lectures to the employees of the Laboratory Kitchen
upon the general subject of the relation of personal
cleanliness to safe food.
Not the least important of Mrs. Richards's chem-
ical work was that which she did in connection with
Professor Richards's researches. She spent the sum-
mers of 1881 and 1882 with him in the copper regions
of Northern Michigan, where he was making investi-
gations into methods of concentrating and smelting
copper. During these summers she acted as his
chemist, and Professor Richards says that her ex-
treme accuracy and wonderful promptness contrib-
uted largely to the value of the experiments.
In 1876 she became instructor in the Woman's
IN THE LABORATORY 109
Laboratory connected with the Institute, whose
history will be told in a later chapter. In 1884
she was appointed Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry
in the Institute of Technology itself, a position
which she filled until the time of her death. During
the twenty-seven years in which she was in charge .
of this laboratory, she trained a large number of A
young men, who went out to every part of the United
States and to many foreign countries to take charge
of similar laboratories. It was for her classes inl
Sanitary Chemistry that she wrote "Air, Water and
Foody" with the cooperation of Assistant Professor
A. G. Woodman.
In 1890 there was inaugurated at the Institute
of Technology the first systematic and comprehen-
sive course in Sanitary Engineering to be established
in any seat of learning in the world. Much of the
prestige of this course is undoubtedly due directly
to Mrs. Richards's labors, wise advice, and coopera-
tion. In the training of the engineers, Mrs. Rich-
ards, who, as one of her associates has said, would
probably have been an engineer herself if. she had
been a man, always took a very prominent part and
a special pride and joy. Her particular field of in-
struction was in sanitary water and sewage analysis
and their interpretation, and in air analysis, which
was of peculiar value to engineering students spe-
cializing in ventilating work.
The laboratory of Sanitary Chemistry has often
110 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
been called unique because of the exceptional com-
pleteness with which it was equipped, but it was
unique even more in this, that there went forth from
it workers not only thoroughly acquainted with the
technique of water and air analysis, but also inspired
with the desire to serve their fellowmen. The facts
of science were never to Mrs. Richards, nor to those
of her students who caught her spirit, mere facts;
they were above all the possible vehicles of social
service. She sent forth from her laboratory and
classroom "missionaries to a suffering humanity."
CHAPTER VII
IN HER HOME
DURING the four years of her student life at the
Institute of Technology, Miss Swallow continued to
live at 523 Columbus Avenue. At first she "boarded
herself," for economy's sake, but as her income from
chemical work increased she was able to pay for
board as well as for her room, and living became less
of a struggle. She was able also to contribute to
her mother's support. "I have been fixing up
Mother's house for her comfort," we find in her
letter of November 17, 1872, "as she has to do
without me. I go up once in two or three weeks
to spend a night and that is all. She will have to
pay a heavy assessment on insurance of her house
on account of this great fire, and I may need to do
more for her. I have been having $60 a month
besides my evening classes and so could take care
of myself, but I can't tell how the spring will find
me." "I have settled the house upon her," she had
written earlier, "and she has the life insurance
besides, so she will not want. I have the amount
invested in the stone speculation which may bring
me 5 or 10 thousand or not a cent."
ill
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
The fire to which she referred was the great Boston
fire of November, 1872. This she described in a
letter to a friend with the terseness and vividness
which were characteristic of her literary expression :
"It was a strange feeling to stand out in the still
night and see so intense and angry a monster eating
up our stone walls." It was characteristic of her
also that after a few days, having reflected that the
loss was exclusively in material things, she should
have written: "It was only property that was de-
stroyed, and mainly the kind of merchandise that we
put on our bodies, so we can do with less and not
suffer. We ought to realize that as the Lord's
stewards we ought not to wear all that He gives us
to spend for His poor and needy."
Out of the money which her father had invested
in artificial stone, and which she hoped to recover,
she used often to build, not air castles, but arti-
ficial stone castles. "More than anything that has
occurred for a long time," she wrote in Novem-
ber, 1871, to a friend who was in trouble, "your
letter made me wish that my 'Frear-Artificial Stone'
house was built (it is to be out here on Hunting-
ton Avenue which at present is under several feet
of Back Bay water) and in running order. Then
there would be a warm corner and good chance for
you, and no end of bugs and minerals close by. I
would gather a houseful of my wayworn friends
and we'd have such a gay old home of it. But there
IN HER HOME 113
would be plenty of work if I was round. You know
me well enough to believe that."
But the stone house did not materialize, and the
home she made after her marriage and in which for
thirty-six years her wayworn friends found rest and
refreshment for the soul as well as for the body,
and which more than any other one place they asso-
ciate with her, was not on Huntington Avenue, but
in Jamaica Plain, a beautiful outlying subdivision of
Boston.
On June 4, 1875, Miss Swallow was married to
Professor Robert Hallowell Richards, head of the
department of mining engineering in the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology. "Your Professor/'
she had called him in her letters to her mother,
following a pretty way she had of putting the
good things of life away from herself with a little
mental shove, as if of course they rightly belonged
to some one more worthy. Miss Swallow and
Professor Richards, differing widely in tempera-
ment, she being quick to see, to move, and to act,
he slow, deliberate, and judicial in his mental
attitude, had met upon the common ground of in-
t crest in scientific pursuits and had fallen in love
with each other. "Cupid had appeared among
the retorts and receivers," as Miss Swallow's
facetious friend, Mr. Smith, expressed it.
Professor Richards was born on August 26, 1844,
in Gardiner, Maine, the son of Francis Richards and
114 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Anne Hallowell Gardiner. The families from which
he is descended, the Richardses, the Gardiners, the
Hallowells, and the Tudors, have all been prominent
and have played an important part in the life of
their times. The Richards family had at the time
of Professor Richards's marriage been connected
with the famous Howe family through the marriage
of Professor Richards's brother, Henry Richards, to
Laura Elizabeth Howe, daughter of Samuel Gridley
Howe and Julia Ward Howe.
The sons of the Richards family had been classi-
cally educated as a matter of course, and there was
no thought that Robert would be an exception. For
seven years, five of which were spent in England and
two in the United States, an effort was made to
force him into the mold which such a training offers,
the only results being anxiety to his friends and
suffering for himself. In February, 1865, while
at Phillips Exeter Academy studying Latin and
Greek and looking forward to the Harvard en-
trance examinations, he received a letter from
his mother in Boston, saying that her cousin by
marriage, Professor William Barton Rogers, was
about to start a scientific school, and that perhaps
he might want to enter it instead of Harvard.
Professor Richards says now that he hopes he
had politeness enough to say good-by to his head
master, but he is not at all sure, and that if he
did it was the only formality to which he gave
IN HER HOME 115
time before leaving for Boston. Arrived there
he immediately entered the Institute of Tech-
nology, being the seventh pupil to matriculate.
Admitted to classes in geology and chemistry, and
being encouraged to relate what he had learned
to the life about him, the scales fell from his eyes,
and for the first time in all his life he says he "saw."
Like Miss Swallow he had reached his life work
through tribulation of spirit, though the tribulation
had been of a different sort from hers.
Before Professor Richards and Miss Swallow were
married, they had selected a home at 32 Eliot Street,
Jamaica Plain, about four miles from the Institute.
To this house they went directly after a quiet wed-
ding in Union Chapel, a mission church with which
Miss Swallow had connected herself. To the young
married people who lose their heads more or less on
their wedding day, it will be comforting to know
that even the staid professor and his learned wife
made something of a muddle . of their prepara-
tions. "Robert made several blunders in packing
his things," his wife wrote the day after the wed-
ding, "and when he got here he found he had no
necktie but a white one. Before I had done laugh-
ing at him, I found that I had left all my keys in
the closet door at 523 Columbus Avenue, and could
get at no clothes except those I had on." So the
professor had to go in town wearing his wedding
necktie and get the keys which would release his
wife's work-a-day clothes.
116 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
On June 7 they started upon a unique wed-
ding trip to Nova Scotia, accompanied by Pro-
fessor Richards's entire class in mining engineering,
which he was taking out for practical work. On
their return, a Vassar friend who was accom-
panied by some fashionable women, strangers to
Mrs. Richards, happened to meet her on the steps
of the Institute. The strangers refused to believe
that the woman in outing costume, which included
heavy boots and a short skirt, much less familiar
then than now, was in reality a bride, just returned
from her wedding trip.
The details of the housekeeping of the woman
who organized the American Home Economics Asso-
ciation, and who succeeded in making a home and
carrying on a profession at the same time, are, of
course, of general interest. This fact gives an ex-
cuse for piercing the veil of privacy that hangs about
the home, and for asking what manner of house-
keeper Mrs. Richards was and how she ordered her
home life.
In general, it may be said that her home was not
strikingly or obtrusively different from any other
well-conducted home, the differences which existed
being in the amount of attention given to the essen-
tials, in its cleanness which was of the shining
order so far as surfaces were concerned and which
extended to hidden places and even to the air, clean
air being her hobby in its freedom from fads, and
IN HER HOME 117
in the intelligence with which it welcomed any new
household utensil or furnishings or practice which
gave promise of contributing to health and efficiency.
When Mrs. Richards began housekeeping in the
seventies, she furnished her house with carpets as
every one else did. But when for the sake of greater
convenience or safety she changed her methods;
when, for example, she substituted rugs for carpets,
began to use gas instead of coal for cooking, installed
a telephone, or experimented with the vacuum cleaner
for house cleaning, she always counted the cost, not
only in money, but in time and steps. When she
began to use a gas stove she had a meter placed in
her kitchen, and with the assistance of a young engi-
neer who was living in her home made a thorough
study of the amount of gas required for preparing
different dishes and for carrying on various house-
hold processes. She carefully computed, too, the
amount of time involved in caring for rugs and
hardwood floors as compared with carpets. In her
last public address, which was at Ford Hall, Boston,
on the subject, "Is the Increased Cost of Living
a Sign of Social Advance?" and in which she re-
viewed her housekeeping experiences of thirty-five
years, showing that the cost had doubled in that
time, she gave abundant proof that she understood
her own problems, not only in their relation to her
family life, but also in their social bearings.
When Professor and Mrs. Richards went to house-
118
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
keeping, Jamaica Plain was connected with Boston
by a very slow, one-track street railway and by
a steam railway whose station was about three-
quarters of a mile from the house. They made a
The Porch at 32 Eliot Street
sacrifice of time, therefore, in order to live in
a place where they could have a detached house
and a garden. A house with a roof of its own
unconnected with other roofs Mrs. Richards always
IN HER HOME 119
considered essential to the best family life. Their
house stands on a corner lot and has air and light
on all sides and also sun, this last because it faces
a street which runs diagonally.
In 1883 a small Sanitary Science Club was
formed in Boston in connection with the newly
organized Association of Collegiate Alumnae. Each
member of the club made a study of her own home,
and in addition Mrs. Richards threw open her home
for a study by the entire club. She often said laugh-
ingly, afterward, that that study cost her five hun-
dred dollars because of the changes which it led her
to make. One permanent result of the work of this
club was a little book, "Home Sanitation," edited
by Mrs. Richards and Miss Marion Talbot, one of
the most helpful features of which was a series
of illuminating questions which the housewife might
put to herself with reference to her home. This was
only one of the many cases in which Mrs. Richards
put into permanent and available form work which
other people allow to be lost to the world.
In the summer of 1908 I was visiting at her
house when she received from Professor John R.
Commons an advance copy of his Score Card for
Houses, with a request that she criticise it. She
handed it to me and asked me to score her own
house; and having made the necessary examination
and measurements, I had the pleasure of handing it
back to her with a perfect score marked upon it.
120 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
The following prosaic details are given because
there are young people all over the country who
have looked to Mrs. Richards for guidance in small
matters as well as in large, and who will value more
minute particulars.
The house is heated by a furnace and ventilated
by means of a skylight in the third floor hall, which
is kept open except in the most inclement weather,
thus insuring the passage of clean, fresh air, even
when the windows are closed. The extra fuel which
this involves is not considered a luxury but a neces-
sity. In places where the air is peculiarly liable to
pollution there are extra provisions for ventilation.
In the kitchen, there is not only a hood over the
gas stove, and screens in the tops of the windows
so that they can be lowered as well as raised, but
also two holes cut in the very top outer walls and
fitted with registers which can be opened or closed
by means of cords. There is a similar ventilator at
the highest point on the back staircase which leads
up to a back hall separated from the rest of the
house by a door. Thus any odors which escape
from the kitchen when the door into the stairway
is open find an easy means of escape. The fireplace
in the living room has a drop for the ashes which
leads into a closely bricked compartment in the
cellar. Many years ago, when most people were
going without hot water when there was no fire in
the kitchen stove, she installed a small heater in the
IN HER HOME
casement for summer use and a water back in
;he furnace for winter use, which supply an abun-
lance of hot water all the year round and with very
ittle fuel.
Over the chandelier in the study, where the most
*as is burned for illuminating purposes, there is a
ventilator designed by Professor and Mrs. Richards,
[t consists of a cylinder with three branches, one
jver each burner. The main pipe or cylinder is
carried through the ceiling, then through the beams
and side walls of the house to the attic, where it is
connected with the chimney. This carries off the
products of combustion and also acts as a ventilator.
There are no curtains in the house, with the
exception of short washable ones in the bedrooms
and bathroom, but many of the windows are full
of plants and vines. Shortly after Professor and
Mrs. Richards moved into the house, they enlarged
the dining room, making a place for plants at the
back which serves the purposes of a conservatory,
but which because of its accessibility is much more
practicable for a home where little help is employed.
This extension, which looks toward the southwest,
is supplied with a water tap so arranged that the
plants can be sprinkled by means of a hose without
danger of injuring any of the furnishings of the
room. No draperies ever gave to a room the beauty
which Mrs. Richards's flowers gave to her dining
room. *
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
The food served at Mrs. Richards's dining table
was always determined with reference to its effect
upon efficiency in work. If after a fair trial a given
food seemed to leave the brain dull and the body
unfit for labor, it was rejected. This process of
The Vine-Covered Dining Room
elimination disposed, in the course of time, of most
of what are known as "made dishes." There were
few rich gravies in her bills of fare, few complicated
salads, and little pastry. The bills of fare were
made up chiefly of meat, which, however, she never
used in very large quantities, of good homemade
bread, fruit, and vegetables. Fruit or simple ice
IN HER HOME 123
cream usually constituted the dessert. As time
went on and life grew complicated, Mrs. Richards
was forced to adopt what she considered unnecessary
elaborations, but her ideal was always simplicity.
Established in their new home, Mrs. Richards
decided not to pass the housework over to the usual
hired helper, but to make a home for girls who
were anxious to get an education and to allow them
to work for their board. For several years this
arrangement continued, until the pressure of outside
work made it necessary for her to have regular help.
During all this time, however, she had the additional
assistance of a little girl who came at first to help
after school, and later was sent by Mrs. Richards
to cooking school and became so expert that she
took full charge of the housekeeping. When she was
married, in 1884, Mrs. Richards, instead of mourn-
ing over her loss, rejoiced that she had had a part
in the training of a good home maker. As Pro-
fessor Richards once said, after telling me that they
had found it somewhat expensive to help students by
giving them work at their home and in their offices
and laboratories, "But we decided that that was
"what we were here for."
"Yes, I think my housekeeping is a success," we
find in a letter of March 11, 1878. "My first
young woman is now in Smith College by its means.
I have six in the family this winter. My mother has
come to live with us and I have two young women
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
paying their way both here and in the Laboratory.
The result is that we are doing good and the cost
of housekeeping is not a mere outgo. We have
pleasant people around us and willing hands and
quick brains for any emergency."
Mrs. Richards's second regular helper came to
her in 1884 and stayed with her almost continu-
ously for twenty-six years. After she had been
there about ten years, a terrible tragedy left her
and her mother the only members of their family.
Mrs. Richards immediately took the mother into her
home and gave her the room which had formerly been
occupied by her own mother, who had died a short
time before.
In the autumn of 1910, when it became necessary
for Mrs. Richards to make a new arrangement for
her housework, her skillful management became very
apparent. Having selected two new girls, she put
into their hands typewritten directions, telling them
where to find things, where to order things, and where
to telephone in case of emergencies of various kinds
accidents to plumbing, for example. She made
note of the regular engagements of the family, the
general character of the meals which she wished to
have served, and other details of this kind. The most
interesting fact about these directions is that they
embodied just enough information to keep the house-
hold running smoothly until the girls could adjust
themselves to their new surroundings, but not enough
IN HER HOME 125
particulars to be confusing. No wonder that a
graduate of the Institute of Technology, who had
lived for a year in Mrs. Richards's family, wrote
of her recently: "She had mastered the principles
of scientific management long before they became
the subject of discussion in the industrial world."
, One of the characteristic features of her house-
keeping was the regular weekly program which she
laid out and which contributed very greatly to the
economy not only of her own but of other people's
time. Tuesday afternoon she always remained at
home. In the intervals between calls she brought
her housekeeping up to date and made plans for the
coming week. On that evening, Professor Richards's
brother, Mr. George H. Richards, who lives in Bos-
ton, always dined at the house. This insured a weekly
visit with him without the necessity for correspond-
ence or arrangement of dates. If there were dinner
parties, they were always arranged for Tuesday
night. Monday evenings for a great many years
were regularly given to an uncle of Professor Rich-
ards, Mr. Richard Sullivan, who was an invalid and
finally became blind. He, like Mrs. Richards herself,
was interested in the progress of science. She read
to him popular treatises on science, periodicals, and
books of travel. This engagement she never broke
during all the years of his invalidism. If she were
out of town, she wrote to him a long letter on Mon-
day evening, telling him of her work and her plans.
126 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Her devotion to "Uncle Richard" makes a beautiful
chapter of her life and one with which few people
are acquainted.
About twenty years after her marriage, she so far
overcame the Puritan prejudices of her early years
as to become interested in the theater, and Friday
evenings were given by her and Professor Richards
to this form of entertainment. Their friends knew
that they would be going to the theater on that
evening, and frequently arranged to take seats near
them in order to get the opportunity for a short
visit.
Not only were the weeks carefully planned for,
but also the days. Each night she wrote out brief
notes of the different things to be done the next day,
and the order in which they were to be taken up.
No description of Mrs. Richards's home life is
complete without an account of the help which she
constantly gave to Professor Richards in his pro-
fessional work. It was his somewhat unusual task
to develop a department of mining engineering many
miles away from any of the mines. This task he per-
formed so successfully as to make his department
one of the strongest in the country, and in the up-
building of the work he had not only her sympathy
but her active help. Her quickness in reading
extended to other languages than English, and
by following foreign journals and books she was of
invaluable assistance to him.
IN HER HOME 127
Mrs. Richards's skillful planning of her days and
hours left time for abundant hospitality. This
hospitality, as it went out to friends from out of
town, was quite her own. She never gave up her
regular work for them, but always had them on her
nind, and seemed to know by intuition just what
?ach particular person would want to see in Boston
ind just how to direct him or her so as to economize
time. Those who have experienced this hospitality
}f hers well remember the little maps which she used
to draw for their convenience. These maps were
^ike her handwriting. They had just enough lines
3n them to serve their purpose, but not one to
pare. In making them, as in forming a word, she
knew what could be left out as well as what must
3e put in.
But there were those who shared in the hospitality
>f this home in more intimate ways. One of them,
i niece of Professor Richards, says: "The hospital-
ty of her home was literally unbounded. This kind
loor was always open. No piled-up amount of work,
10 complication of engagements, interfered with the
velcome that was always shining and ready. Think
rvhat it is to be able to say of a house that there
Dne felt that one could never come at the wrong time
:>r be in the >Vay ! Such hospitality is hard enough
:o accomplish in one of the great modern country
louses, with endless guest rooms and a host of serv-
ants ; but here more often than not the guest, with-
128 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
out ever knowing it, had the hostess's room. I have
known her, at the time of a family reunion, to fill
every room in the house with relatives. 'They can
all see each other more comfortably here, and some
of them might find the expenses of a hotel difficult
to meet,' she would say. After a merry evening,
she would bid them a smiling good-night, slip in town
herself for a bed at the College Club or elsewhere,
and be back in time to greet her happy and uncon-
scious guests at breakfast.
"I think that to every one who had the privilege
of knowing her in her own house, the thought of her
brings with it, as a matter of course, a picture of
that house. It was an expression of herself, and it is
hard to find words to express at all adequately the
sense of restfulness, of peace, which seemed a part
of it. It was like breathing clearer air to come to it.
The dust of non-essentials had been swept away ; and
not only this, but the life-giving supply of oxygen
seemed greater here than elsewhere, and one breathed
an air at once restful and invigorating. Persons
leading perforce a complex city life, beset with under-
takings overtaxing time and strength, came here as
to a refuge, not only for dear affection, but for re-
freshment and rest for actual strength. No house
of leisure that I know gave the sense of quiet and
tranquillity that this house of keen and arduous work
did work which never paused and yet was never
hurried 'Ohne hast, ohne ruh.' Truly it showed
IN HER HOME 129
hat
* In the house of labour best
Can I build the house of rest.'
cannot tell how often just the thought of this
ouse has brought to me a sense of clearness when
have felt overdriven and harassed."
Besides making her home a happy gathering place
or intimate friends and relatives, and a Mecca for
hose who were interested in the lines of work in
r hich she was engaged, and who lived in other places,
Irs. Richards made it a meeting place for the faculty
nd students of the Institute of Technology. She
ntertained the members of her own and Professor
lichards's classes every year not at formal recep-
ions, but at good old-fashioned suppers, where there
as enough to eat to rejoice the heart of the boys,
:ul always an original entertainment afterwards. In
ddition to entertaining all of their students in this
ay, Professor and Mrs. Richards always invited to
inner any young man or young woman who was
pecially introduced to them or who had any special
onnection with them sons and daughters of their
id schoolmates, for example, or of their old friends.
Irs. Richards had a purpose in doing this, in addi-
ion to that of promoting sociability. She looked
ith great solicitude upon the growing complications
f life and the high standards of living which made
oung people of small incomes hesitate to marry.
I like to show them what they can have with very
130 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
simple means," she said once, in writing to a friend
about the young people she invited to her house.
At the memorial meeting held by the American
Home Economics Association in San Francisco dur-
ing the summer of 1911, a student of the Institute
of Technology, who lives in California, asked the
privilege of saying something about Mrs. Richards
in her personal relations. Having been given a place
on the program, he made this beautiful tribute to
her:
"It was in 1908 that I first reached Boston, a
perfect stranger, with only a letter of introduction
to Mrs. Ellen H. Richards. I took the first oppor-
tunity to present this letter, and the impression that
Mrs. Richards made upon me was so striking that it
will last as long as does my memory. I would like
to tell those who never saw her how she appeared.
Mrs. Richards was a small woman with a thin face,
white hair, very black eyebrows, and eyes that
sparkled with life like gems. She was active, bub-
bling over with energy, but most of all, she was kind.
"The previous speakers have told you how great
Mrs. Richards was as an educator and as a woman,
but to us, the strangers at Tech, she was greatest
as a friend. Every year she had at her house an
entertainment for those who came from distant parts
of the world. These evenings were always informal;
the men smoked and we came to know each other and
Professor and Mrs. Richards. After dinner, Pro-
IN HER HOME
sssor Richards would give an exhibition of glass-
lowing, and he always made a water hammer which
,ter in the evening would be raffled off amidst great
nusement.
"But it was nqt only at these little parties that
le men came to know Mrs. Richards ; we were always
elcome at that pleasant, old-fashioned Jamaica
lain home, and I think hardly a Sunday afternoon
assed but what some of the boys would call.
"In all, Mrs. Richards was a sweet and inspiring
iend to us. Her hospitality was unlimited, and
?r kindness is a priceless memory."
This was the manner of the home-making of the
mnder of the American Home Economics Associa-
on; it may well serve as a model for other women
ho wish to have homes and professions also.
The Hospitable Gate
CHAPTER VIII
MRS. RICHARDS'S marriage, by relieving her of the
necessity of self-support, put her in a new economic
position, and very much enlarged for her what she
used to call the "region of choice." She had known
what it was to be poor and to be obliged to earn
her own living. Now she was to know the problems
of decision which come to those who are free to
choose what they will do with their time and their
strength.
What she chose to do with part of her new-found
time was, as we have seen, to continue her work as
an analyst. In a letter written on February 15,
1876, she said that in the three preceding months
she had earned two hundred and ten dollars "in her
old line." But having struggled hard for her own
education, and particularly for her scientific train-
ing, she wanted to bring opportunities for scientific
study within easier reach of other women, and it
was toward this end that a large part of her
energy was directed during the next eight years. In
November, 1876, largely through her efforts, a
Roman's Laboratory was opened at the Institute
of Technology.
THE WOMAN'S LABORATORY 133
For the history of the movement which led up
to the establishment of this laboratory we are de-
pendent largely upon a letter that Mrs. Richards
wrote in 1878. The purpose of this letter was to
create interest in the laboratory and to raise money
for its support; and while it was addressed to Mr.
Edward Atkinson, it was evidently meant for the
public. In it Mrs. Richards said that from its be-
ginning, in 1865, the Institute of Technology had
offered, in addition to its regular courses, the Lowell
Free Lectures, which were open to women as well as
to men. As early as 1867 these Lowell lectures had
included a course in chemistry conducted by Pro-
fessor Charles W. Eliot, who later became president
of Harvard University, and by his associate, Pro-
fessor Frank H. Storer. The following year labora-
tory exercises were added to the lectures, and as time
wont on a course in qualitative analysis was offered
to those who had completed the course in general
chemistry, each course, however, consisting of but
fifteen lessons.
During the sixties, Mrs. Richards says in this
letter, there had been a growing demand for labora-
tory instruction in science in the high schools and
academies of New England, and this had been greatly
stimulated by the publication in 1868 of Eliot and
Storer's Manual of Chemistry. The result was that
large numbers of women were called upon to teach
chemistry and other sciences, and found themselves
134 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
unprepared, particularly in laboratory methods.
Almost their only opportunity to study science was
in the Lowell Free Lectures.
In the fall of 1872, without previous announce-
ment, the Lowell courses in chemistry were omitted.
That fall a young woman medical student came to
Boston to get instruction in qualitative analysis,
only to meet with disappointment. Her case was
laid before Professor James M. Crafts, of the Chem-
ical Department of the Institute of Technology, and
by him before Dr. Samuel Eliot, head master of the
Girls' High School of Boston. Dr. Eliot brought
the matter to the attention of the Woman's Educa-
tion Association, a society of public-spirited women
which had been organized less than a year before
with a big purpose stated in a few words, that of
"promoting the better education of women."
In an enthusiastic address before the Association,
Dr. Eliot offered the use of the newly equipped
chemical laboratory in his school for a class in ad-
vanced chemistry, providing the Association would
raise four or five hundred dollars toward the cost
of instruction and of materials for experiment. To
this the Association agreed, and the class was formed
in February, 1*873, with Miss B. T. Capen, of the
Girls' High School, and Miss Swallow, of the Insti-
tute of Technology, as instructors. According to
the records of the Association, the class "consisted
of sixteen young women who, with perhaps two or
THE WOMAN'S LABORATORY 135
three exceptions, were rather over than under twenty-
two years of age. Fully half of them were actually
engaged in teaching at the same time."
All these seem like small events when viewed from
this distance, and at the time they probably passed
almost unnoticed by the public; but the result of
them was to bring to the attention of a strong
organization the meager opportunities for scientific
study offered to women, to acquaint this organiza-
tion with Miss Swallow's ability as a teacher, and
to win for its work her lifelong interest and support.
The following year the Lowell lectures in chem-
istry were resumed, but in view of the growing de-
mand for teachers, their inadequacy became yearly
more apparent. Realizing the increasing injustice
of the situation, Mrs. Richards appeared before the
Woman's Education Association on November 11,
1875, and in an address which made a deep impres-
sion set forth the needs of women. She expressed
the belief that the governing board of the Institute
of Technology would give space for a woman's
laboratory if the Association would supply the
necessary money for instruments, apparatus, and
books. Scholarships also would be almost indispen-
sable, she said. The Association appointed a com-
mittee to enter into communication with the Institute
of Technology, with the result that the Institute
offered space for a laboratory in a small frame build-
ing it was about to erect for a gymnasium, and the
136 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Woman's Education Association agreed to raise
money for equipment.
How much all this meant to Mrs. Richards, and
how eagerly she followed each step, we learn from
her personal letters. One dated February 15, 1876,
shows the project just begun. "Now I need only
two thousand dollars to have a special room fitted
up for ten or twelve women," she wrote. "I am
making a strong effort to interest people in it, and
hope to see it accomplished before I leave for Europe
in June." On May 11, success was assured. The
government of the Institute had only the day before
passed a vote "that hereafter special students in
Chemistry shall be admitted without regard to sex."
It had authorized a space to be fitted up for women,
to be ready for use in' October. Under the date of
June 1, there is a happy letter reading: "We sail
for Europe June 3. Miss Capen and I expect to
spend lots of money in Jena for instruments. I am
to purchase for the Woman's Laboratory, which is
a sure thing now. All has prospered beyond my
expectations."
The new laboratory was opened in November, and
was placed in charge of Professor John M. Ordway,
of the Institute of Technology, with Mrs. Richards
as assistant. In April, 1877, Mrs. Richards re-
ported to the Association the success of the work,
saying that twenty-three students, most of whom
were teachers, had been admitted. This report the
THE WOMAN'S LABORATORY 137
president of the Association supplemented "with
several important facts that Mrs.Richards's modesty
rendered her reluctant to mention." These included
the devotion of her whole time to the service of the
students, "with no compensation whatever," the gift
of two hundred and forty dollars for instruments,
and last, but not least, "the payment of fifty dollars
for sweeping the laboratory." We see incidentally
that while the time had passed when Mrs. Richards
was obliged to sweep her laboratory herself, she still
found it necessary to reach down into her pocket
for money with which to have it cleaned according
to her standards. It should in fairness be said that
the Institute of Technology was at this time passing
through a financial crisis which threatened its very
existence. Professor Ordway, too, gave all his avail-
able time to the laboratory without remuneration,
and contributed several hundred dollars.
During the next seven years, Mrs. Richards not
only worked in the Woman's Laboratory without
salary, but gave an average of one thousand dollars
yearly to its support.
But money was the least of all that she gave to
make the laboratory a success. In those days it was
necessary to help women and girls to prepare them-
selves to take advantage of educational opportuni-
ties, as well as to create the opportunities. We need
only read letters written at the time to be reminded
that what may b.e called the habit of ill health had
138 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
taken hold of a large portion of the people, espe-
cially the women. This condition of affairs was due
in part, no doubt, to helplessness in the presence of
sickness ; for many diseases tuberculosis in particu-
lar which have now come under control were then
quite unchecked, and there was little known and con-
sequently little taught about sanitation or hygiene.
But whatever the cause, weakness and not health
was considered the normal condition of women. It
was Mrs. Richards's task, therefore, to help those
who were really sick and weak, and at the same time
to inspire with courage and ambition those who had
fallen into the prevailing habit of thought. In doing
this she showed to a very unusual degree the power
to maintain the highest standard for the average
women, without failing to sympathize with the suffer-
ings of the individual woman. She advised with the
students about their health, cared for them when
they were sick, and took one of them, a helpless vic-
tim of tuberculosis, into her home and nursed her
until her death. To another who suffered a serious
nervous breakdown she gave an opportunity to go
about the state and collect samples of groceries for
analysis, a work which kept her much in the open
air. Thus wisely did she fit special help to special
needs.
Besides being handicapped by ill health, women of
those days were hindered even more than now by lack
of money. Parents seldom thought it so necessary
THE WOMAN'S LABORATORY 139
that girls should be educated as that boys should be,
and besides, when a girl tried to earn money for her
own education she was handicapped by the smallness
of her pay. Seeing the financial burden, therefore,
under which many ambitious young women labored,
Mrs. Richards set about securing assistance for
them. We have already seen that many of the young
women who studied in the laboratory during the
early days were taken into her home. Several of
them, too, were given opportunities to help in her
professional work. In addition to this, she was con-
stantly placing before the Woman's Education
Association and before philanthropic individuals
cases of special promise or urgent need. As time
went on several scholarships were established and
large sums of money were given to Mrs. Richards
to be used in paying the expenses of the students.
Among her papers have been found receipts for
sums amounting to several thousand dollars which
had been used for the tuition of students in the
Woman's Laboratory and later for women students
in the Institute of Technology itself.
But there were some students who needed neither
financial help nor advice about their health, for the
opportunities of the laboratory were sought by
women of leisure as well as by teachers. One of
these women who came into the Woman's Labora-
tory after having graduated from college tells a
story which shows how Mrs. Richards adapted to
140 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
circumstances the assistance that she gave. One day
this student was carrying on a long series of weigh-
ings when she became conscious that Mrs. Richards's
eye was on her. Finally Mrs. Richards came to her
and said, "You are wasting motions." She had no-
ticed that the student's hand was making two trips
between the balance and the box of weights when one
would have been sufficient. It was a lesson that was
never forgotten, and another proof that Mrs. Rich-
ards early understood the principles of efficiency.
There were still other forms of assistance which
women students of science needed in those days.
It is difficult for us who live in these years of com-
parative freedom to realize how women who chose
to walk new paths were looked upon in the days of
the Woman's Laboratory. To illustrate: When, in
1876, a Boston branch of the organization now
known as the Associate Alumnae of Vassar College
, was formed, it was thought unwise to have the meet-
\ ing for organization in a hotel, because the story
\that college women, who were already looked upon
as a strange order of beings, had held a meeting in
Jt public place might get into the newspapers and,
by bringing added reproach, endanger the new pro-
ject. As there was no private house available, it
was finally decided to meet in a building which had
been a private residence, but which had passed into
the hands of a person who was renting it for enter-
tainments. But even this place was semi-public, and
for that reason secrecy was maintained.
THE WOMAN'S LABORATORY 141
In view of the attitude toward college women
shown by this incident, it was necessary for those
who were interested in securing the admission of girls
to the Institute of Technology to proceed most cau-
tiously, for through a little carelessness all the
privileges that had been won might be forfeited.
Mrs. Richards was therefore always on guard, not
so much to prevent misconduct as to prevent the girls
from being misunderstood and misrepresented. Her
papers show that she was constantly working, often-
times in such ways as to conceal her own connection,
to keep the students from attracting unfavorable
attention. The fact that such watchful care must
have been extremely irksome to a person of her inde-
pendent spirit indicates the magnitude of the sacrifice
that she was willing to make in the cause of women's
education.
In October, 1877, Mrs. Richards made the follow-
ing report to the Woman's Education Association:
"Greater results have already accrued from the
opening of the laboratory than could have been
thought possible a year ago, since every department
of the Institute of Technology is open to young
women and any one who can pay her fees and pass
the test examination can there obtain scientific edu-
cation." As a result of this action on the part of
the authorities of the Institute, several of the special
students in the Woman's Laboratory entered regular
courses and graduated, and from that time on women
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
have been on the roll of students. But from all parts
of the country women, particularly teachers, were
coming to get special help. Partly for this reason,
and partly because the other laboratories were
crowded, the Woman's Laboratory was maintained
until the year 1883, when a new building which had
been erected by the Institute gave space for all the
students, women as well as men.
From the circumstances under which the Woman's
Laboratory was started, it was natural that the
students whom it drew should need much individual
attention. There was little uniformity either in the
character of the preparation that they had received
or in the amount of time they were able to devote
to the work. In the letter of 1878 to which refer-
ence was made early in this chapter, Mrs. Richards
stated that she believed that such conditions must
exist for many years. She wrote: "The methods of
instruction are at present adapted to the individual
and to the length of time at her disposal. For the
next ten years the teaching must be largely of this
special and unusual character if it is to do the most
good. Women of twenty-five years of age have
missed the scientific education of the present day,
yet they ask for and must have the knowledge of the
present. The laboratory was opened to meet this
very want, and while it will strive to create new and
wider fields for women's work in the professional
branches of applied chemistry, it will hold as its first
THE WOMAN'S LABORATORY
duty the teaching of those who cannot go back into
the schools and colleges."
The following letters show how valuable the labo-
ratory was to the teachers of that time.
Miss Cora Pike, formerly of Wheaton Seminary,
writes: "During the sixties, the study of chemistry
at Wheaton Seminary was mostly confined to the
text-book, supplemented once a year by a course of
lectures from an itinerant expert, who with his tanks
of various gases produced highly spectacular effects.
"It was during the seventies that news of Mrs.
Richards's laboratory for women reached the Semi-
nary. The teacher of chemistry at once appealed
to Mrs. Richards for advice. She cordially invited
her to come to Boston on Saturdays, offering all
assistance possible. Mrs. Richards must have felt
it an additional tax upon herself, for the laboratory
was filled to overflowing with regular students; but
there were no intimations of the kind, and a course
of independent work was planned with special refer-
ence to the classes at Wheaton.
"So much, indeed, was interest in experimental
science awakened by work with Mrs. Richards in
Boston and at the Seminary, that in 1878 it was
decided to build a chemical laboratory for the school.
Plans for it were suggested by Mrs. Richards, and
her enthusiastic interest in all the natural sciences
led to the construction of a room where classes in
chemistry, mineralogy, botany, physics, and biology
144 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
could be equally well accommodated. After a few
years, the old order at Wheaton Seminary was
changed by Mrs. Richards's guiding hand, and nat-
ural science was studied in the light of individual
experiment."
Miss Anna George, who at the time of Mrs. Rich-
ards's death was eighty-six years old and had been
blind for many years, wrote: "It was during the
seventies, while I was a teacher in the Brighton
High School, that it was my great privilege to study
chemistry with Mrs. Richards. How memory leaps
over the years as I try to recall her as she then was,
so alert and enthusiastic and so kind and friendly!
To her 'life was real, life was earnest,' and how she
strove to impress upon us the importance of turn-
ing to good account all the knowledge we gained!
My experience in teaching chemistry was a very
happy and successful one, and I am sure this was
largely owing to the inspiration as well as to the
excellent qualities of the instruction received from
my teacher."
Miss Mary Evans, for many years president of
Lake Erie College at Painesville, Ohio, says: "The
connection of Mrs. Richards with Lake Erie College
began during the early years of the Woman's Labo-
ratory. I was deeply interested in new opportuni-
ties in science for women, and the interest was tak-
ing a practical form, for we were building, in 1876,
our first addition and were planning space in it for
THE WOMAN'S LABORATORY 145
a chemical laboratory and a museum. We were en-
larging all our courses, and in 1878 our teacher of
chemistry and botany was given leave of absence
to study at the Institute of Technology. Through
letters from her we had our first glimpse of
Mrs. Richards as a woman of broad vision and
executive ability, and of the home at Jamaica Plain,
with its cordial welcome to students, its flowers and
pets and atmosphere of ordered peace, a type and
prophecy of homes to be influenced hereafter by the
voice and pen of Mrs. Richards. Later others of
our teachers studied at the Institute of Technology,
and our admiration for Mrs. Richards deepened and
her name became a household word in later years."
Among the other institutions to which teachers
went out from the Woman's Laboratory were Welles-
ley College, Smith College, Pennsylvania College, the
Framingham Normal School, Bradford Seminary,
Quincy Mansion School, the Mary A. Burnham
Classical School, and high schools in Boston and
elsewhere.
The Woman's Laboratory having been established
and put upon a firm basis so far as standards of
instruction were concerned, the attention of the stu-
dents was directed towards women's special problems.
It was Mrs. Richards's hope that many of them
would devote themselves to the analysis of foods and
of cleaning materials. She herself was doing some
work in this line at the time, the result of which was
146 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
the publication of two small books, "The Chemistry
of Cooking and Cleaning," and "Food Materials
and Their Adulterations." In preparing these books,
Mrs. Richards was so farsighted that although they
were published in 1881 and 1885, there is after
thirty years an increasing demand for them in re-
vised editions.
It would be unwise, of course, to hazard an opinion
as to what might have happened if this work in
household chemistry had been taken up by a large
number of women and pursued with that enthusiasm
which Mrs. Richards felt for it at the time. It is
safe to say, however, that if the work had extended
as she hoped it would, upward as well as downward
in the schools, the practice of sophisticating foods
which has owed its baneful success largely to women's
ignorance would never have reached its present large
and wasteful proportions. As a matter of fact, so
far as knowledge of food materials is concerned,
women are not far in advance of the position they
held at the time when Mrs. Richards was making this
strenuous effort to lead them to do serious scientific
work upon their own problems.
With the action of the Institute of Technology
taken in 1878, by which girls were admitted to
the Institute on exactly the same footing as boys,
Mrs. Richards was not in full sympathy. She be-
lieved that it would be wiser not to admit them until
the third year. She was overruled, and wisely per-
THE WOMAN'S LABORATORY 147
haps, but her objections, though based on an en-
thusiastic overestimate of the demand for scientific
education, were very characteristic of her attitude
of mind.
Her first objection had its root in her fixed belief
that it was unwise for women to demand special
privileges. "Military drill is required for the first
and second years. No one would wish the women to
drill, and the presence of any favored class in any
institution is unprofitable."
Her second objection was based on an apprecia-
tion of the dangers of intermittent coeducation.
Then, as now, girls and boys were separated in the
grammar and high schools of Boston. "7 believe
most heartily in coeducation from the earliest child-
hood, but have seen enough to convince me that it
must be continuous and not have an interregnum
of the years from seven to fifteen and then begin."
It is significant that more than thirty years after
she made this statement, the same arguments were
brought up in Boston with reference to bringing the
boys and girls together in the high schools after
they had been separated in the lower grades.
"Finally," she said, "and to my mind the most
fundamental of all, though it grieves me to say it,
the present state of public opinion among women
themselves does not give reason to believe that, of
one hundred young girls of sixteen who might enter
if the opportunity was offered, ten would carry the
148 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
course through. It is demoralizing to have such re-
sults in the early stage of scientific education for
women." Exactly what Mrs. Richards meant by
"the present state of public opinion" cannot be
known, but it is probable that she had in mind not
only the accepted belief that women had little physi-
cal endurance, but also the fact that unreasonable
demands upon their time and foolish social conven-
tions were allowed to interfere with their opportu-
nity to make systematic preparation for professional
work.
In 1882, when a new building for the chemical
laboratory was finally assured, Mrs. Richards wrote
the following letter, most of which was afterwards
embodied in a circular: "The question of space in
the new building for the suitable accommodation of
women students has been weighing upon my mind for
the last two or three weeks, and after consultation
with General Walker, Miss Crocker, Miss Abby May,
and Miss Florence Gushing, we have made ourselves
a self-constituted committee to obtain subscriptions
from women interested in the education of women
toward a small sum, say eight or ten thousand dol-
lars, which may be put into the hands of the cor-
poration, in order that they may feel justified in
including in the plans suitable toilet rooms in con-
nection with each of the laboratories and a reception
room somewhere in the building which shall be for
their use only. If this can be done, the Institute
THE WOMAN'S LABORATORY 149
can then say that it is in a condition to receive
women."
Before the necessary sum of money was raised,
one of the first and most promising students of the
Woman's Laboratory, Miss Margaret Cheney, the
only child of Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, a great-souled
woman of Boston, interested in every phase of the
battle for human freedom, died suddenly. In her
honor the rest room in the building was named The
Margaret Cheney Room. Money was contributed by
many people, but the work of planning the room,
of selecting its pictures and furnishings, and of
carrying on the voluminous correspondence which
always attends cooperative undertakings, fell to
Mrs. Richards. The Margaret Cheney Room has
ever since been the center of the life of the women
students of the Institute of Technology.
In 1883, the Woman's Laboratory building was
torn down, and the special service which Mrs. Rich-
ards did in superintending its work came to an end.
On July of that year, weary from her overwhelming
labors, she wrote this pathetic letter: "I feel like a
woman whose children are all about to be married
and leave her alone, so that she is to move into a
smaller house and a new neighborhood. You see it
is quite a change for me, and though I knew it was
coming, I cannot at once fit all the corners. My
work is done and happily done, but the energy will
have to be used somehow and that is the question.
150 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
The case is this: We women have raised ten thou-
sand dollars and given to the Institute to make suit-
able provision for women students in all depart-
ments. The new building, equal in size nearly to the
old, is to be ready in October. In that are to be
the chemical laboratories, the ladies' parlor and read-
ing room, etc. Our present women's laboratory will
be torn down and my duties will be gone, as I shall
not go into the new laboratory. Now I would not
mind if I was away at the Lake out of it all or if I
knew where to store my apparatus, but everything is
so unsettled, owing to the uncertainty, as I do not
know that I shall have anything to do or anywhere
to work. Professor Richards is to have a new min-
ing laboratory and Professor Ordway a new indus-
trial chemical laboratory and I shall have some sort
of work between them, but that will not be this
year.
"Then changes always disturb me. Professor
Richards's work this summer is on an electrical proc-
ess and I cannot help him much, and he can't give me
time to go to drive or to look over the library papers
and drawers and my day does not seem to amount to
anything. ... I should be perfectly happy anywhere
if I could have him with me, for we always harmonize ;
but to have him charged with electricity so that he
cannot think of anything else and to have no definite
plans and heaps of things to do and no life to do
them is a little hard. . . . Everything seems to fall
THE WOMAN'S LABORATORY 151
flat and I have a sense of impending fate which is
paralyzing."
Soon afterward Mrs. Richards was given a place
on the faculty of the Institute of Technology, and
from that time on she performed, in addition to her
instructional work, all the duties of Dean of Women,
although she was never given that title. Nor did she
ever wish it. She has left on record her belief that
"a Dean of Women is out of place in a coeducational
institution." She continued, however, to watch over
women students in sickness and in health, in their
work and in their pleasures. She sought financial
aid for them and opportunities for them to earn
money; chaperoned their parties, often remaining
far into the evening after a long day's work, and,
more often than they suspected, paying all the ex-
penses of the entertainment; raised money for a
woman's gymnasium and superintended its construc-
tion; watched the papers for unfavorable criticism
of the students and sought every means of bringing
their work to the attention of the people in helpful
ways; secured positions for them and advised them
after they entered upon their professional work.
She was, in short, as one of them has said, "their
elder sister and their foster mother."
CHAPTER IX
TEACHING BY CORRESPONDENCE
WHAT Mrs. Richards did for the education of
those who were able to go to college or who needed
only a little encouragement or a little financial as-
sistance to enable them to do so is but a fraction of
what she did for women's education. She herself,
as we know, had remained at home in a small country
town until she was twenty-five years of age, longing
for a broader view, hungering and thirsting after
knowledge. It was not surprising, therefore, consid-
ering her early experiences and her missionary spirit,
that when shortly after her marriage she was asked
to take part in the work of a society for the en-
couragement of studies at home she gladly accepted
the opportunity. It may be, too, that the newness
of the venture and its novelty, at a time when teach-
ing by correspondence was almost unknown, appealed
to her adventurous spirit, and offered her an alluring
chance to pioneer.
The Society to Encourage Studies at Home, which
came to be known among busy people as Studies at
Home, or merely by its initials, S.H., was founded
in 1873 chiefly through the instrumentality of Miss
152
TEACHING BY CORRESPONDENCE 153
Anna Eliot Ticknor, daughter of the historian, a
woman to whom much had been given in the way of
educational advantages and contact with intellectual
people, and who recognized her own obligations to
give much to others in return. The headquarters of
the society were for many years in the Ticknor
home, a historic building which, though now trans-
formed into a business block, still stands at 9 Park
Street, in one of the most conspicuous situations on
Beacon Hill.
Papers from an English organization called The
Society for Encouragement of Home Study fell into
Miss Ticknor's hands at a time when the intellectual
needs of isolated women and those who were neces-
sarily kept much at home were uppermost in her
mind. She was quick to act, and the result was
the organization of the American society which for
twenty-five years proved a source of help and en-
couragement to thousands of women. Miss Ticknor
acted as secretary until the time of her death, in
1896, when the society was discontinued.
The American society differed from the English
in not confining its benefits to rich women of leisure.
In fact, it sought chiefly to help busy women by
showing them how to make profitable use of the small
amount of time at their disposal for systematic read-
ing. Nor did it make the mistake of supposing that
isolated women are to be found only in rural districts.
"The craving mind," said Mrs. Richards in one of
154 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
her annual reports, "may be as isolated in a city full
of all the advantages which it desires as if it were
far from books, museums, and kindred minds."
The organizers of the society, ten in number, were
themselves women of broad education, and they had
the benefit of advice and assistance from many prom-
inent educators. When Mrs. Richards associated
herself with it, therefore, she found it doing thor-
ough, systematic, scholarly work. This was, how-
ever, chiefly in the subjects that can most easily be
taught by correspondence history, language, and
literature. It was for her to devise a plan for teach-
ing those subjects that demand laboratory methods.
The organization of its work in science was her most
important contribution to the society. In this, as in
every other line of education, she exhibited a remark-
able combination of high ideals and standards for
the work itself and of sympathy with the trials,
shortcomings, and failures of individual students.
The beginnings of the Science Section are thus
described in a memorial volume published after
Miss Ticknor's death: "In view of the fact that
in 1873 science was only partially recognized as an
element in a liberal education, and the laboratory
method was yet in its infancy, it seems an almost
prophetic insight which included science in the list
of topics upon which courses were offered. It is un-
doubtedly due to the influence of that great teacher,
Louis Agassiz, that this forward step was taken, and
TEACHING BY CORRESPONDENCE 155
it was by his advice, and with his persuasion, that
the charge of the course was taken for the first two
years by the woman who was at that time a most
ardent advocate of the study of science as an ele-
vating and enriching factor in education. Miss
Lucretia Crocker had imbibed deeply of the spirit
of Agassiz's teaching, and from the first adopted
his watchword, 'Study from specimens, not from
books.' "
The Science Department came into Mrs. Rich-
ards's hands in January, 1876, after Miss Crocker
had been appointed Supervisor of Schools in Boston,
and in September of the same year, upon the re-
organization of the work, she became head of what
was known as the Science Section. She taught geol-
ogy, mineralogy, and physical geography, and had
general supervision of the teaching of botany, geol-
ogy, and mathematics.
Books, microscopes and other apparatus, labora-
tory material minerals and herbariums were sent
by mail. With these in the students' hands the corre-
spondence opened. "We aim to unclasp for our
students the book of nature," Mrs. Richards said
in one of her annual reports, "and bid them look
within. We hope to inspire a love for the truths of
nature, as well as stimulate a search for facts. In
method, the study of science might be defined as the
art of asking questions not as the spoiled child
asks, for the sake of getting answers; and, while
156 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
students are taught to question the things them-
selves, the teacher always leaves an open door for
questions on ways of investigating and on the mean-
ings of observations."
Into the teaching of science and "the unclasping
of the book of nature" for others, Mrs. Richards
seems to have entered with all the enthusiasm with
which she had entered upon her own studies. The
great majority of the students in the society were,
of course, in the sections devoted to the humanities,
but the science students, though few in number,
caught their leader's spirit. "I took up this new
study (mineralogy)," wrote one of them in 1883,
"because I wanted to know something about it and
also that I might be one of the enthusiasts in the
'science corner' at the annual meetings of the soci-
ety. The enthusiasm of the few in your department
was so inspiring that I have wanted for two years
to join the band, and now find leisure to do so."
"I received the portfolio on Saturday," wrote
another. "... It has supplied a want I had to see a
herbarium started." And another, "This year every
bud was interesting, and I shall hope to continue
next year." And still another: "What a revelation!
The horse-chestnut had never been a favorite of
mine, and now every little twig has a meaning."
A student who has since made a name for herself
and contributed much to the solution of problems
of public health wrote: "The explanations you sent
TEACHING BY CORRESPONDENCE 157
me were very clear and just what I wanted, and I
am very much obliged for them. Indeed I cannot
tell you how very grateful I feel for this help you
give me. To take so much interest in a complete
stranger and to give up so much time and trouble
to me ! I only hope I shall some day know enough to
be able to help some girl as you are helping me, for
that is the only way I could ever pay off my obliga-
tion to you."
One woman who, because of the unconventional
mode of life adopted by her family, was completely
ostracized during the years of her young woman-
hood writes: "For a number of years I corresponded
with her. How could she ever have spared the time !
Bless her ! Her correspondence and interest were
my mainstay through the most difficult years of my
girlhood and lasted into middle life."
Another student, a clerk and bookkeeper in a
general backwoods store, who wrote when she joined
the society, "It is no use to go on geological trips,
for there are not any rocks about here (you must
remember that I live in the woods)," sent on a little
later twenty specimens, among which were several
varieties of fossil corals. In her subsequent letters
she often spoke of "something new" which she had
found while walking or riding. Still another stu-
dent found fossils in a marble mantelpiece. Another
wrote, "I have eyes to see now what I have never
seen before."
158 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
There was apparently no limit to the help which
poured from Mrs. Richards's study in Boston to
struggling, perplexed women. She drew diagrams
of convenient house plans and of sanitary arrange-
ments for drainage and plumbing. She helped them
to plan their dress. "If it is a relief to take your
clothes off at night," she wrote to one after giving
specific directions for healthful dressing, "be sure
that something is wrong. I know of no better rule
to go by. Clothes should not be a burden. They
should be a comfort and a protection." And to
others :
"As to dress, I find - - a very helpful publi-
cation. It is much more suitable than most such
papers, and the letters from Paris give one an idea
of the general principle of dress often a year before
they are seen on the street ; and while there are few
costumes that I should want to wear, yet hints can
be gleaned which with a little adaptation serve to
keep one from going so far from the usual way as
to be remarked. I believe in using materials one likes
and in keeping one's self comfortable, but it is very
wise to go unremarked in a crowd."
"You are quite right to give up a parlor. I think
it is the mistake of our country people to shut up
one room for company. You can easily manage
your dining room to serve as a sitting room, and if
people come at meal time, well, let them. What
TEACHING BY CORRESPONDENCE 159
matter such trifles after all. They won't mind if you
don't. There is the point do what you think wise
and stick to it; never mind. If you keep your
feathers well oiled the water of criticism will run off
as from a duck's back. Write again, please."
In addition to help in these specific problems, she
sent cheer and encouragement. To one who had
passed through harrowing trials she wrote: "Your
notes are very good indeed, and even though you
may feel that they do not represent much work done,
yet a little is something, and often an occupation of
the mind helps the body. I know that we cannot
always overcome physical weakness; indeed, I have
had experience this winter; but we can avoid many
troubles by a proper mental condition. I do not
wonder you are not strong now, and you must re-
member that when the mind has been strained it
loses its control of the body, and the way to come
back is to bring the body into as good a condition
as possible. A little change is the best thing, but
with Baby to care for, that is not easy to get. Still,
if possible, get it after a fashion. Now that spring
is here, get out of doors."
To another whose work had been interrupted by
weeks of illness, and who sent a regretful explanation
instead of her usual monthly report, she wrote:
"The Society for Home Study is to encourage, not
to urge. You must not get discouraged. I often
160 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
think that all the difficulties we encounter only give
us the more strength if we keep hold of our work,
and we must not now give up while in the prime of
life. It is best to keep trying, and by and by the
opportunity will come. If we have given up, then
we shall not be ready for it when it does come."
To others she sent such cheering messages as
these :
"I do not see why you should give up. What if
you get only three afternoons in the month to work ;
is that not something? If I have an expectation of
hearing from you once a month, will not that be a
help? It is only two months more, and it seems
a pity to quite give up. You know our society is
for just such people, to give what aid and sympathy
is required."
"We never can tell how our lives may work to
the account of the general good, and we are not wise
enough to know if we have fulfilled our mission or
not. How do you know that your unsatisfied long-
ings may not be so transmuted in your little daugh-
ter as to make her a pioneer or a leader in some
great work for the good of mankind? If you had
had all you wanted, you could not have given her
the wish, the strength perhaps, to be what she may
be now. Most heroes and heroines have sprung from
such homes as yours. I have just been reading
Besant's 'Inner House,' and I have been especially
TEACHING BY CORRESPONDENCE 161
struck with the thought there brought out that all
progress and even all enjoyment is dependent upon
the frailty of human life and human desires that
if we were to have all we want and to live forever,
all enjoyment would be gone."
It must be remembered that this work was carried
on without a stenographer. The mere physical effort
must have been a severe drain upon her strength,
but there is no suggestion that explanation or advice
was ever curtailed to save herself.
In looking over Mrs. Richards's papers I contin-
ually found references to people living in regions
remote from Boston, in Canada and the far West,
some of them in isolated mountain regions or on
ranches, and I wondered what had brought them to
her acquaintance. Many of them proved to be
friends whom she had made on the trips taken with
Professor Richards in connection with his engineer-
ing work, but a surprisingly large number proved
to be students in Studies at Home. In a majority
of the cases, the friendships thus started were kept
up, and Mrs. Richards did much to cement them by
seeking out her former pupils as she traveled from
place to place.
Miss Margaret Sheppard, of Philadelphia, who
came to be an intimate friend, writes: "For nearly
eight years it was my privilege to be an instructor
in the Society for Home Study, with Mrs. Richards
162 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
as my chief. Warmly interested, from its start, in
the success of the society, it was wonderful how,
amid her many claims, she made time to put so much
of herself into its work. The teachers under her
found her an ever-ready helper, and the student's
problems she made her own. The Boston girl who
discovered crinoid stems in the marble mantel de-
lighted her ; and she was equally interested in the
woman on a farm who propped her book open to
study while scrubbing the floor.
"At that time I had pupils also in a Philadel-
phia Society for Home Culture which admitted
young men to its ranks. One of these, a Western
farmer with unique experiences, strongly attracted
Mrs. Richards, and frequently when we met she would
ask, 'How is A No. 1?' Once when I was at a loss
how to give this youth the instruction in blowpipe
work which he desired, she generously wrote nearly
six pages of diagrams and explanations, showing
where the flame was hottest and how the blowpipe
could be used to best advantage."
But the joy that was brought into homes by means
of the teaching of science or of nature study, if you
will, was not confined to the older people. In 1881
a student wrote: "I find the little I have learned a
great delight to the children, twelve, six, and three
years of age. The six-year-old boy pores over the
specimens with the glass, and often insists upon my
leaving my work to 'come and see this remarkable
thing God has made.'"
TEACHING BY CORRESPONDENCE 163
In many cases the students were " shut-ins. " One
of these, writing to Mrs. Richards, said: "I am
grateful for your kind, interesting letter received a
few days ago. I will try to give you some idea of
my life as you wish. ... I have been an invalid, con-
fined to the house a greater part of the time, for nine
years. I do not go out at all through the winter,
but am able to go around the yard and fields some
of the time through the summer."
As time went on, the same difficulty arose in con-
nection with the Society to Encourage Studies at
Home that had arisen in connection with the higher
education of women. Few were able to do continu-
ous work, and excuses on the ground of ill health
came with almost every letter. This troubled every
one interested in the welfare of the society, and the
result was the publication of a carefully prepared
tract on Health, which, though it does not bear
Mrs. Richards's name, was written by her. Those
who were connected with the earlier work of the
society say that this tract, as it left her hands, was
much more extended and much more plainspoken
than it was when it finally appeared. While it may
not, therefore, have been in its completed form all
that she would have had it, it carried helpful sug-
gestions and valuable advice to thousands of homes.
It was sent to every student who was enrolled, and
had a somewhat extended sale outside of the society.
It treated not only of the external conditions for
164 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
right living, of fresh air, sunlight, good food, and
healthful dress, but also, and in a way which was
much in advance of the times, of certain mental con-
ditions affecting health, as the following extracts
show :
"By nature the nervous organization of women,
particularly of American women, is more sensitive
than that of men, and many things in the present
system of education and of living tend to make it
still more so.
"Contrast the lives of schoolgirls and schoolboys
out of school hours. A boy, not only by his own
instinct, but by command of those who wish to get
rid of his restless presence in the house, is out of
doors every free moment, and usually in active
motion. A girl, after school is over, is apt to be
told, 'You must have some exercise, I suppose, so go
now and take a walk, but do not be gone long; and
remember you have an hour's practicing to do, and
then you must work on the trimming for your dress,
or it will not be finished in time.' The girl naturally
returns to her lessons with nerves a little more weary
than when she left them.
"After school days are over, the girls, whom the
present system of education, culminating in public
exhibition and competition, has left to suffer from
reaction, find no natural connection between their
school life and the new one on which they enter, and
are apt to be aimless, if not listless, needing external
TEACHING BY CORRESPONDENCE 165
stimulus, and finding it only prepared for them, it
may be, in some form of social excitement.
"Schoolgirls, then, need out-of-door life; girls
after leaving school need intellectual interests, well
regulated and not encroaching on home duties. 'We
must suppress the inordinate desire for acquiring
knowledge from books and schools in infancy and
childhood, and stimulate those who have passed their
youth to apply themselves with great vigor to mental
improvement.'
"There are women in middle life, whose days are
crowded with practical duties, physical strain, and
moral responsibility, who need this last injunction;
for they fail to see that some use of the mind, in
solid reading or in study, would refresh them by its
contrast with carking cares, and would prepare
interest and pleasure for their later years. Such
women often sink into depression, as their cares fall
away from them, and many even become insane.
They are mentally starved to death.
"There is still an extremely important division of
the subject to be touched upon," she said toward
the close. "This is the study and acceptance of
personal limitations. For want of this grasp of
one's individual situation, many a life is wasted. By
a quiet and sensible appreciation of it, man} 7 feeble
lives and narrow abilities have been made useful,
some even distinguished. ... A mistaken view of
166 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
duty is also to be guarded against. It is cowardly
to fly from natural duties and take up those that
suit our taste or temperament better; but it is also
unwise to take an exaggerated view of personal
duties, which shuts out the proper care of the mind
and body entrusted to us.
"Lest these remarks sound vague, let us illustrate
them: A woman, busy with the cares of her family,
fails to study and to place at their true value her
duties to her mind as well as to her body and to
her household. She makes no mental progress as the
years go on, loses the power of companionship with
her children, grows discontented and fretful, and
passes the last years of her life in dull, ignorant
unhappiness. Had she seen the limitations and laws
of her physical and mental nature, she would have
known that it was not selfish to snatch a half-hour
every day for the refreshment of her mind in a
botanizing walk, or a quiet time for thinking in the
open air, or to lock her chamber door while she read
two or three pages of a good author. . . .
"In short, if we would be and do all that as a
rational being we should desire, we must resolve to
govern ourselves ; we must seek diversity of interests ;
dread to be without an object and without mental
occupation; and try to balance work for the body
and work for the mind."
In 1886 a new section, Sanitary Science, was
established in the society. The plan of this course
TEACHING BY CORRESPONDENCE 167
was an original idea with Mrs. Richards. It was
at a time when household conveniences employing
water, gas, or electricity were becoming general, but
housekeepers seldom understood what dangers and
difficulties attended the ignorant use of the new
arrangements. She saw that instruction was needed,
and was glad to make the society a means to that end
and to spread abroad knowledge of the possibilities of
organizing the house on truly scientific principles.
The subject at once aroused .great enthusiasm. A
student wrote that she found it so full of interest
that she dropped all other studies in order to devote
herself to Sanitary Science in its most practical
applications. Another, already at work along these
lines in her home city, found books recommended by
her correspondent of greatest help in her study
groups organized in every ward of her city. Many
other students became centers from which started
widening circles of intelligent interest in right living.
If we were to try to sum up Mrs. Richards's con-
tributions to the society, we should find included
not only her work of planning and teaching, and
her unmeasured and immeasurable acts of kindness
to individual students, but also wise advice given as
a member of the Executive Committee in the coun-
cils of the society. - Here she always insisted on high
standards of work. "It seems to me," she said to a
fellow-instructor, "that influence which is exerted
in so many centers ought to be the best possible. We
168 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
ought to be scientific in our methods, and we ought
to require scientific execution on the part of students.
I am now ready to make more strict plans. My stu-
dents have shown themselves capable of good work,
work of which I am not ashamed. Shall we not
endeavor to bring our standards a little higher?"'
It was through her advice that the work of the
society was so modified and extended as to make it
meet the needs of college graduates. In 1883, when
the recently organized Association of Collegiate
Alumnae was endeavoring to promote graduate study
among its members, there were few opportunities for
such study in the colleges themserves, and Mrs. Rich-
ards laid before the association a plan for inducing
alumnse to join the Society for Encouraging Studies
at Home; to the society itself she proposed certain
changes in the routine of its work which would adapt
it better to this purpose. As a result, a Correspond-
ence University was started in connection with the
society. This soon passed beyond its usefulness
because of enlarging opportunities offered by uni-
versities, but for a time it met a great need.
At every step in the work, whether it involved a
change in methods of teaching or the adoption of
a new text-book, Mrs. Richards consulted the very
best authorities on the subject in the country. In
her own work on minerals she was in constant corre-
spondence with Richard H. Dana, the geologist. No
opportunity to gain information was ever lost. The
TEACHING BY CORRESPONDENCE 169
woman who wrote to her from Germany to know of
the work of the society received abundant assistance,
but she must have soon become aware that she had
entered into correspondence with a woman as eager
for information as herself, for Mrs. Richards plied
her with questions concerning the conditions of
correspondence work in her own country.
In 1893, when Mrs. Richards had charge of the
Rumford Kitchen at the World's Fair in Chicago,
she accepted the added work and responsibility of
arranging an exhibition of the work of Studies at
Home. "Your letter came this morning," wrote
Miss Ticknor on September 5, 1893, "and I look
with awe at nil your preparations and the work be-
fore you at Chicago. It is fine that you can accom-
plish so much and so serenely. The work of S. H.
goes on well, but we do not feel quite made up and
shall not until you come back."
But work and workers always react, one upon the
other, and as I have studied Mrs. Richards's connec-
tion with this correspondence work, it has been with
a growing sense of its important bearing upon her
own later activities. For many years after she left
home to attend college, her life was spent chiefly in
academic institutions and among highly educated
people. To a certain extent it had tended to shut
out the problems of the cvery-day life with which the
great masses of the people were struggling. Her
teaching by correspondence doubtless served to bring
170 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
before her in very vivid manner the needs of the
average home. May it not be that in Studies at
Home lay the foundation of her great work of later
years ?
CHAPTER X
BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS
CONVICTION that the world was full of unneces-
sary sickness, and that men and women were falling
far short of the joy of living and of doing which
ought to be theirs, grew upon Mrs. Richards with
her experiences in the Woman's Laboratory and
with her insight through correspondence into tho
home life of America. With the conviction came the
desire to have a part in removing this deplorable
handicap. " We must see to that," she once wrote in
her diary, after recording a grievous social injustice
which had been brought to her attention. "See to
it" she did in the matter of preventable disease, for
from the moment of her own conviction she labored
unceasingly wherever and with whomsoever she saw
an opportunity to improve the material conditions
of living. She came in the course of time to be
prominently identified with the Home Economics
movement. But this was only part of the great, ab-
sorbing interest of her life, which included the bet-
tering of conditions in the community, in the school,
and in the factory, as well as in the home. This
larger and more inclusive interest, though neither
171
172 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
named nor defined by her until shortly before her
death, early took full possession of her powers, and
the last thirty years of her life were given to devel-
oping the "science of controllable environment," for
which she coined the name "Euthenics."
Her preparation for leadership in this work had
been begun in the careful training that she received
from her mother in the household arts. This physi-
cal education she considered an essential element in
the control of external things, and repeatedly dur-
ing her later life she attributed the failure of individ-
uals to reach their highest efficiency to the fact that
they had not received in early life the necessary
muscle training. In speaking of college women who,
when they become housekeepers, expect that tasks
involving manual dexterity will come easy to them
because of what they consider their comprehensive
preparation for life, she said: "The head can save
the heels only when the heels have had practice
young and remember without telling what to do at
the slightest hint. In other words, housework is a
trade to be prepared for by manual exercise, as
housekeeping is a profession to be prepared for by
mental exercise." Again she said in connection with
an abortive attempt to train educated and intelli-
gent but inexperienced women as "Household Aids,"
and thus to dignify domestic service, "Intelligence
did not make up for lack of early muscle training."
As a result of the great importance which she at-
BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS 173
tached to the early education of the hand, she be-
came one of the first advocates of manual training
in the public schools, and throughout her life she
was interested, not only in the introduction of such
work, but in the improvement of its methods and in
its adjustment to other departments of school work.
As early as 1881, when the Associated Charities of
Boston was urging the introduction of manual train-
ing into the schools, its secretary submitted to her a
list of questions. These questions and her unequiv-
ocal and farseeing answers follow :
Question. When should industrial education begin ?
Answer. As early as anything is taught. Children
are always eager to do something. The girl of four
or five years tries to cut out her dolFs clothes or
to do anything that she sees done. The boy of the
same age is always eager for a jackknife and a
hammer. It would seem as if Nature pointed the
way in this instinct to use the hands first. It is
cruelty to children to keep five-year-olds sitting still,
gazing into vacancy even for one hour at a time.
We have little idea of the torture we thus inflict.
Question. With what methods, the "Russian" or
a more direct plan? Answer. The principle of the
Russian method, to use whatever will train the hand
and eye without regard to the product, seems to be
the only one adapted to children from five to ten
years of age. No finished product can be expected
from the little hands, and they should be allowed
174 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
free scope, not scolded and punished because they
spoil the material. Do not older people learn most
by their mistakes? Hence the end of first instruc-
tion should be the child's own improvement regard-
less of the material used. After these four or five
years of training, particular branches may well be
taught. Experience only can answer just when this
teaching can best begin, for in the first step in
manual training the work must be subordinate to the
child.
Question. Might not some of the more purely
scholastic studies be profitably eliminated in favor
of eye and hand training? Answer. At first they
may need to be at least postponed, but it is my firm
conviction that the industrial training from five to
ten years of age will so quicken the powers of body
and mind that the studies now deemed irksome will
be carried on with great ease and pleasure in con-
junction with manual exercises.
Question. Would a supplementary course be de-
sirable, or should it be a part of the regular course?
Answer. I believe that it should form an essential
part of the regular course. This is the view from
a purely educational standpoint, without consider-
ing the trouble of moving the present elaborate
structure of our schools. A supplementary course
may be the wiser plan to begin; it would be wiser
than none.
BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS 175
This earnest plea for the training which enables
the body to do the bidding of the mind, and which
tends to bring it under subjection to the will, was
in line with her steadfast belief that education
should make man master of his environment. But
she urged also, and from the very first of her inter-
est in schools, that scientific education which teaches
how natural forces may be directed toward chosen
ends was also essential to the control of material
things* This conviction had its beginning, no doubt,
in the instruction which she received at Vassar under
Professor Farrar. Hardly a week of her college life
passed when she did not record some interesting
connection which she had discovered between the
facts and discoveries of science and the phenomena
and problems of common life.
One letter showed that she had discovered why
fresh bread was indigestible, and another why it is
possible to beat the whites of eggs into a foam. The
lectures on air, too, found an appreciative listener.
"Professor Farrar has been telling us some interest-
ing and startling facts with reference to air and the
subject of ventilation. . . . He had a bedroom with
glass sides about three feet high and wide, in which
he put six people to bed (six wax tapers at different
heights), one in a trundle bed near the floor, another
a little higher, and so on, up to a high bed near
the ceiling. He shut all the windows to keep out the
night air. They lived from one-half to one minute.
176 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Then he opened the windows at the top, as people
generally do, and they lived only a minute at the
bottom, though the highest ones lived some time
longer. Again he shut the top windows and opened
the bottom; about the same result, only the lower
one lived longest. With a current of air from top to
bottom, all lived indefinitely.
"Consumption is the result of the tight building
of the present day. We should all die if people could
succeed as they wish. A fireplace is better than life
insurance. . . . Dr. Bell, of Boston, found that every
one of the people in Massachusetts who was over one
hundred years old was brought up in an open fire-
place. (When the girls laughed, Professor Farrar
said he could say so, for the favorite corner of the
children used to be in the chimney corner, where they
could study astronomy.)"
But even more important than this awakened
interest in the relation of science to practical affairs
was a realization of the possibility of controlling
external conditions in a large way and for the benefit
of all the people. This came a little later through
the analytical work which she did upon air and food
for the State Board of Health. The chain was now
nearly complete; she was almost ready to set forth
as teacher and preacher. Toward this end the con-
stant challenge which came to her from friends and
associates to prove the value of the knowledge which
she was accumulating may have contributed. About
BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS 177
two years after she entered the Institute of Tech-
nology, her old friend and teacher at Westford
Academy, Mr. Addison Smith, wrote: "I suppose
you are at work in the dirt yet" (referring doubt-
less to her mineralogical work). "You will turn out
a professor of dust and ashes, I presume, and be
glad some time to accept an offer to keep some old
widower's premises clean with the aid of a broom,
dustpan, mop, etc. Then you can analyze the
contents of the dustpan and be able to solve some
problem in the chemistry of cuisine." The follow-
ing year he wrote: "Haven't you nearly learned
out? Can you analyze a loaf of bread yet? I bet
you can't make a good loaf." Of course the joke
was the other way, for she was an efficient house-
keeper as well as a chemist, and the only effect on
her of these pleasantries was to make her search
more deeply for the connection between the facts
of science and the needs of life.
The time had, in fact, come when neither more
knowledge nor a clearer understanding of conditions
was necessary to her preparation for leadership, but
a motive strong enough to compel her to formulate
her own ideas and plans. This came in the winter
of 1879, when Maria Mitchell invited her to give
an address before the women of Poughkeepsie on
"Chemistry in Relation to Household Economy."
The address was delivered before three hundred
women in March of that year, and so successfully
178 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
that Maria Mitchell used often to say, "I discov-
ered Mrs. Richards." The following is the sub-
stance of this lecture, which though given more
than thirty years ago might have been acceptably
given yesterday:
"It may interest some of your number, those who
like to follow out the evolution of thought, to know
how and why this idea of the application of science
in general, and chemistry in particular, came to take
so strong a hold upon my mind. You will see that,
as is often the case, it was partly due to contrari-
ness. We often overlook the bearing of our work
until some one who does not believe in it shows us
how much we might do. One day some one said to
me, 'What good do you expect this will do in the
kitchen?' I have never succeeded in banishing the
ring of that question from my ears. Indeed, it has
been repeated in other forms so many times since
that I have had little opportunity to forget.
"A few weeks since, the door of the laboratory
opened to admit two women a little past middle life,
though not old. They came in with wondering looks,
as they saw several young women at work in the
room. ... I attempted to satisfy their curiosity by
speaking of those who studied chemistry for the
purpose of knowing something of its principles and
applications. They did not seem to understand this
motive, and I proceeded to tell them of the teachers
who were now required to teach science and who
BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS 179
must learn laboratory work in order to secure better
salaries. This fact appealed to them somewhat, but
one immediately asked, 'What good is it going to do
for domestic women?' To this question, which doubt-
less comes first to many when the subject of scientific
teaching for girls is discussed, 'What good will it
do for domestic women?' I shall try to suggest an
answer, at least in part.
"Now it is often stated that our educational sys-
tem unfits the girls for their work in life, which is
largely that of housekeepers. It cannot be the
knowledge which unfits them. One can never know
too much of things which one is to handle. Can a
railroad engineer know too much about the parts
of his engine? Can the cotton manufacturer know
too much about cotton fiber? Can a cook know too
much about the composition and nutritive value of
the meats and vegetables which she uses? Can a
housekeeper know too much of the effect of fresh air
on the human system, of the danger of sewer gas,
of foul water?
"It cannot be the knowledge of things which unfits
the youth to handle the things themselves. It must
be that some sort of false logic has crept into our
schools, for the people whom I have seen doing house-
work or cooking know nothing of botany or chemis-
try, and the people who know botany and chemistry
do not cook or sweep. The conclusion seems to be,
if one knows chemistry she must not cook or do
housework.
180 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
"If we look narrowly at the teaching of botany
and chemistry and the other so-called natural sci-
ences in most of our public schools, we may wonder
less that this reasoning has gained a foothold.
(Then follows an arraignment of the schools for not
teaching the application of the sciences.)
"Scientific facts are taught, to be sure, but in just
the same way and often by the same teachers as
historical facts are taught. Girls, and boys too, may
learn that there is such a thing as a soluble oxalate
of iron, without learning that because ink contains
iron, oxalic acid will therefore form a soluble com-
pound with ink stains. The trouble lies in the lack
of actual knowledge of things, and the attempt to
supply this lack by certain theoretical ideas which
have no more relation to every-day life than the wars
of the Crusaders now have.
"Girls may learn that rice is a carbohydrate, and
that peas and beans are not only carbohydrates but
also albuminoids, without learning the connection of
these facts with every-day life. The best authorities
who have studied the nutritive value of various foods
state that a strong working man requires, per day,
420 grams of carbohydrates to keep up the animal
heat and 120 grams of albuminoids to repair the
waste of tissue. Two pounds of peas or beans will
much more than furnish these constituents at a cost
of about ten cents at ordinary prices. Six or seven
eggs and one pound of rice will come near furnish-
BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS 181
ing both, but at an average cost of fourteen cents
to twenty-one cents. Three-quarters of a pound of
cheese will give the albuminoids at a cost of, say
eighteen cents. Four pounds of potatoes will give
the starch, but twenty-five pounds of potatoes will
be required for the albuminoids. Hence potatoes are
very insufficient for nutrition and also very costly,
from twenty-five to fifty cents' worth giving only the
value of ten cents' worth of beans. Is this sort of
science of no value to the girl who is to be a house-
keeper? Does it not aid in impressing on her mind
all the other more abstract truths? The true value
of science teaching, the knowing for certainty, the
investigation for one's self, in contrast to mere belief
or blind acceptance of statements, is missed in much
popular teaching.
^"We must awaken a spirit of investigation in our
girls, as it is often awakened in our boys, but al-
ways, I think, in spite of the school training. We
must show to the girls who are studying science in
our schools that it has a very close relation to our
every-day life. We must train them by it to judge
for themselves, and not to do everything just as their
grandmothers did, just because their grandmothers
did it
, . "But you are asking, what has all this to do with
domestic economy? Everything, I answer, because
if you train the young housekeeper to think, to
reason, from the known facts to the unknown results,
182 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
she will not only make a better housekeeper, but she
will be a more contented one; she will find a field
wide enough for all her abilities and a field almost
unoccupied. The zest of intelligent experiment will
add a great charm to the otherwise monotonous
duties of housekeeping.
"So much for the educational side of the question.
We must now consider the field itself. You will at
once call to mind the great advance in the few years
past in all mechanical devices which render travel
comfortable, communication easy and rapid ; also the
great advance in metallurgy, which has given us
Bessemer iron or steel, and rendered much possible
that before seemed impossible. Chemistry has given
us new fabrics, new dyes, and has been the right
hand of metallurgy.
"We must say that of the improvements that
affect our daily life, the most result from the appli-
cations of mechanics and chemistry. Now let us
consider how much these have contributed to house-
hold economy. We have our carpet sweepers, knife
scourers, clothes wringers, too often, alas, rendered
almost useless by the ignorance of those into whose
hands we put them; we have sewing machines and
their accessories.
"Where are the fruits of chemical science? In
self-raising flour, in bread powders, in washing
powders, in glove cleaners, and in a hundred patent
nostrums ; but where are the substantial advantages
BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS 183
commensurate with the improvements in manufac-
turing establishments and metallurgical works? Is
housekeeping any easier, any more scientific, than
it was thirty years ago? Our cooking is proverbially
bad. The ventilation and drainage of many of our
houses could not well be worse. Why is it? Why
do not our housekeepers keep pace with our machine
shops? Why do we notice such a pleasant contrast
when we enter the wards of a well-ordered hospital?
Why has not the knowledge of sanitary laws filtered
down through the community as rapidly as the knowl-
edge of mechanical laws ? Go where you will into the
country and you will find the sewing machine uni-
versal, but alas! just as poor bread, just as much
fried pork, just the same open sink drain under the
kitchen window, just the same damp, dark cellar,
just as much fear of fresh air, as you would have
found thirty years ago. And in the cities, how much
better is it ; rather, how much worse? The architects
have learned to build houses with fewer cracks to
let in air, with furnaces and no open fires, with a
sort of plumbing system peculiarly sensitive to use.
"If, then, we grant, as we must, that chemical
and sanitary science has not borne its due fruits
in household economy, we must also grant that it
must be because women have not, as yet, availed
themselves of its possibilities.
"There is no place into which chemistry might
not be profitably introduced. Let us consider in
184 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
what respects there is an opening for improvement.
Three reasons occur to me why science should be
brought into household affairs. 1st. It would bene-
fit health. 2d. It would save labor and the wear of
material. 3d. It would show us how to obtain the
most for our money of the staple articles of daily
consumption.
"In the first case, a few r words will suffice. The
housekeeper is the one person who visits all parts
of the house daily. She alone is in a position to
detect the first trace of the escape of sewer gas,
to notice the neglected corner of the cellar, to test
the cream of tartar if the biscuits come to the table
yellow and alkaline, and she should know enough of
science to do all this and more.
"In the second case, the saving of labor and wear
of material. The management of washing is the
best illustration. If we go into any grocery and
ask for a cleaning soap or washing powder, an array
of perhaps a dozen different kinds is spread before
us, each kind claiming perfection. The cleaning soap
may be eighty per cent firie sand pressed into a cake
with sal-soda (washing soda). The washing powders
are either crude soda with sometimes a pinch of
borax, or a mixture of hard soap and washing soda.
Some of the latter articles are very white hard soap
with the soda, and are really very nice. But if the
laundress reads the label of her washing powder and
finds on it an emphasized caution against the use
BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS 185
of sal-soda, as it injures the clothing, she naturally
concludes that this powder is innocent of any such
harmful property. Hence she uses it with unsparing
hand, to the detriment of her washing.
"The third case, that of economy, will be most
readily appreciated. If the housekeeper knows that
she is paying twelve or fourteen cents a pound for
brown soap and sal-soda, when she might purchase
the same things for four or five cents, will she go
on paying double price, rather than take a little
pains to instruct her servants in the use and abuse
of sal-soda?
"Perhaps the day will come when an association
of housekeepers will be formed in each large town
or city, with one of their number as a chemist. Some
similar arrangement would be far more effective in
checking adulteration than a dozen acts passed by
Congress.
"The power of chemical knowledge is appreciated
by manufacturers. They take advantage of every
new step in science. The housekeeper must know
something of chemistry in self-defense. If the dealer
knows that his articles are subjected to even the
simple tests possible to every woman at the head of
her house, he would be far more careful to secure
the best articles. Then the housekeeper should know
when to be frightened.
"What an economy it would be if we could have
our houses built and our utensils made on scientific
186 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
principles. If women in general understood mechan-
ical and physical laws, would they long endure the
present style of architecture found even in the
suburbs of Boston, which requires the coal to be
shoveled down cellar only for the servants to bring
up again to the kitchen range, and necessitates the
carrying of the ashes down, only for somebody to
bring up again? Other examples will occur to you,
of ways in which labor is wasted about a house in a
manner which would ruin any business or workshop.
No wonder that living is so expensive. Men do not
often think about these things, and it is for women
to institute reforms.
"If, then, science introduced into our houses will
enable us to live comfortably, if it will enable us to
save in the wear and tear of furniture, to avoid great
outlay of time or money in the repair of inevitable
damages, to save cost on the various materials of
daily use, the sum of these savings will be an amount
worth considering in household economy, to say
nothing of the improvement in the comfort and
temper of both mistress and maids.
"The first question that will occur to any one
will be, how can all this saving be accomplished?
My answer is the proverbial Yankee one, another
question. How have the many economies in the
machine shops and metallurgical works been accom-
plished? I think the answer to the last question will
be: first, by the introduction of systematic manage-
BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS 187
ment of every detail ; second, by the employment of
skilled labor.
"An English writer recently made the statement
that the chief reason why the American inventions
were coming upon the world with such startling
rapidity and perfection was that a better class of
workmen are at co'mmand here. If American men
have been able by their perseverance, energy, and
ingenuity to outstrip the world in the management
of their shops, shall American women be less success-
ful in the management of their houses?
"It is not an easy task that we have before us.
We have been making great improvements in our
front halls, drawing rooms, and dining rooms within
the past few years, but we have not yet invaded the
kitchen and pantry. We must have the careful sys-
tem and the skilled labor of the shop in our kitchens
before we can have the beneficial results which the
shops produce.
"So long as we are content with ignorance in our
kitchens, so long we shall have ignorance; but when
we follow in the footsteps of our brothers and de-
mand knowledge, because we know the value of knowl-
edge, then we shall succeed in obtaining skilled labor
as they have succeeded; and let it not be said that
American women have less energy and perseverance
in their department than American men have shown
in their business."
This was the first of hundreds, I might almost say
188 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
thousands, of lectures that Mrs. Richards gave dur-
ing the remaining years of her life. It has special
significance for this reason, and also because it shows
how clearly she foresaw, back in the year 1879, the
dangers that were to arise from the adulterations
of food.
Mrs. Richards was firmly convinced, and even
more firmly as time went on, that if women were
finally to get control over the conditions of their
own lives, a beginning must be made in childhood.
She interested herself actively, therefore, in the in-
troduction of science instruction in the public schools
of Boston. The opportunity to do this came through
an acquaintance which she formed in the course of the
Studies at Home work with Miss Lucretia Crocker.
Miss Crocker was one of the first women to be elected
a member of the Boston School Committee. She was
elected in 1875, but soon afterward resigned to be-
come Supervisor of Schools. As we have seen, she
was a friend of Agassiz's and an enthusiast for the
introduction of Nature Study in the schools. This
enthusiasm Mrs. Richards came to share. At a time
when she had a comparatively large amount of
leisure, just before she was appointed instructor
in Sanitary Chemistry, she made an experiment in
teaching mineralogy to public school children. In
this she cooperated closely with Miss Crocker.
Mrs. Richards prepared the material and got to-
gether the apparatus, while Miss Crocker made
BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS 189
suggestions from her pedagogical experience as to
methods of presentation. In 1884, Mrs. Richards
wrote a small pamphlet called "First Lessons in
Minerals," which was published by the Boston
Natural History Society as a companion volume to
similar treatises on plants and animals.
During the time when Mrs. Richards was teaching
mineralogy, she made the interesting experiment of
giving the same set of lessons to public school chil-
dren and to a class of undergraduates at Harvard.
The results were rather surprising, though probably
not so much so to her as to others. The children
trusted to their own observation instead of turning
to books for their conclusions, and were able much
sooner than the older pupils to identify and classify
minerals.
In speaking before the Woman's Education Asso-
ciation about the value of scientific work for young
pupils, she said, "If the only object is to make the
child quick to observe, sure to remember, keen in
reasoning, send him into the streets as a bootblack
or a newsboy ; but if we consider the moral effect as
well, we shall choose the classroom.
"But we do not wish to make a dull, sullen boy
where the streets would have made a wide-awake
business man. When we think of the fascination of
the city thoroughfare, the motion, the noise, the
amusing incidents, we do not wonder that the bright
boy chafes at being cooped up in a close room and
190 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
made to do sums or to learn the names of the cities
of Europe while the sunshiny hours are passing.
"The unwilling mind is not a teachable mind.
Tasks are always irksome. How can the schoolroom
be made as fascinating as the street and at the same
time teach its moral lessons ? If a guest in the family
attempts to amuse the child with his watch, he does
not say, 'I have a curious round object in my pocket
with wheels inside/ etc., but he shows it and explains
it as a text for what else he says.
"So, in school, the child should have some pegs
driven into the wall of memory upon which he may
hang a line of objects more or less distinctly com-
prehended, but which the association of ideas will
bring out years after. Now some of us believe that
the introduction into the schoolroom of natural
objects, flowers, minerals, shells, stuffed birds, dried
insects, fibers, etc., furnish these pegs upon which
the facts of geography and history and the exercises
in speaking and writing English may be advanta-
geously hung. We believe that the time gained in
the readiness of comprehension and clearness of ideas
will more than compensate for the time taken in
observing, and also that the child's innate curiosity
will be wisely directed and his reading influenced."
To the development of the course in mineralogy,
and also to the Teachers' School of Science con-
ducted by the Boston Natural History Society,
Mrs. Richards gave much time in the early eighties.
BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS 191
In 1885 came the opportunity to combine sci-
ence with manual training. In this year two school
kitchens were established in Boston, one by Mrs.
Quincy Shaw at North Bennet Street School, and
another by Mrs. Mary Hemenway at the Tennyson
Street School. Two years later the latter was taken
over by the School Committee, and became Boston
School Kitchen No. 1, while the former remained an
experiment station for working out new ideas in
practical education. Mrs. Richards's hope for this
kind of teaching was that it would hold its immedi-
ately practical value and at the same time gradually
be transformed in a systematic course of training in
applied science. Toward this end she worked and
preached.
In a monograph entitled, "Domestic Economy in
Public Education," published- in 1889 by the New
York College for the Training of Teachers, she
wrote :
"While sympathizing heartily in the work of the
cooking schools so successfully established, the writer
fears lest they come to be considered an end instead
of a means, as has been the case in schools of car-
pentry. In a word, they should 'not teach how to
make a living, but how to live.' To do this effec-
tually, the foundation should be broadened. Just as
the course in carpentering has developed into the
manual training school, so should the eminently
successful cooking school develop into a course in
192 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
domestic economy. All the work of the schools
should be in harmony, and the cooking should no
longer be considered an outside affair, an interloper,
a crowder-out of more important studies, but all the
teachers should cooperate to make most effective the
practical lessons." Significant words, considering
they were spoken at a time when the world recog-
nized only the immediate practical utility of courses
in cooking, and not their broad educational value.
She was keenly appreciative of the difficulties
under which the pioneer teachers of these subjects
labored, and it was apparently in recognition of
the very meager literature available for them that
she published in 1885 her book, "Food Materials
and Their Adulterations," which brought together
the results of the work that had been done in the
Woman's Laboratory. When Mrs. Hemenway, in
1888, started a Normal School of Household Arts,
she gave the lectures on Food and Nutrition.
After Miss Crocker's death, in 1885, a strong
effort was made to induce Mrs. Richards to leave
her position in the Institute and become Supervisor
of Schools. In a letter written about this time, she
said: "I have been a little worried by an attempt
to make me think it was my duty to accept the nomi-
nation to fill the vacancy made by Miss Crocker's
death, on the Board of Supervisors in the Boston
Schools. A political place with no power, only in-
fluence, is not to my taste." She preferred to remain
BEGINNINGS OF EUTHENICS 193
outside the public school organization, free to give
help and encouragement at every point, pressing
workers into the service, giving them faith in their
own powers, and holding before them high ideals.
How significant she considered this work in the pub-
lic schools is shown by a letter written to a young
woman who was considering a position to teach
cooking :
"We are trying to make real homes for the chil-
dren of our land. We are trying to stem the tide
of intemperance by giving good food; we are try-
ing to save the resources of our country by showing
how cheap food may be good food. We are right
on the threshhold of this work. The children are
ready ; the public is ready with support ; we are wait-
ing for a true philanthropic teacher to work out the
best way of making it available to girls of our land.
To me the question appeals so much tVat I am ready
to make any sacrifice for it."
CHAPTER XI
AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN
WHEN Mrs. Richards was graduated from Vassar,
in 1870, college women were too few and too widely
separated to have a collective influence in any com-
munity ; but as women's colleges multiplied and as
the size of their classes increased, the graduates
grew in number and began to feel their class power.
Then came the thought of increasing their influence
through organization. The first associations of col-
lege women brought together the graduates of one
college only. In 1871 Vassar women united them-
selves into the Associate Alumnae of Vassar College,
and four years later a Boston branch of this society
was formed.
"We had a breath of Vassar in the holidays,"
Mrs. Richards wrote in January, 1876; "twenty
old graduates met and founded the Boston Alumnae
Association. The main object was to awaken an
active interest in Vassar's present state and to start
scholarship funds so that poor but bright girls could
be sure of an education."
To tell the story of what Mrs. Richards did
through this organization for the girls of Vassar
194
AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN 195
would be to repeat the story of what she did for the
girls of the Institute of Technology. Her work was
of course less direct and personal, because she was
separated from them by distance, but it was based
on the same broad comprehension of their needs. To
provide them with scholarships, to protect their
health, to broaden their opportunities, to shield them
from undesirable publicity, and to bring them into
public notice in helpful ways was her untiring en-
deavor. She " always had time for Vassar."
Her hope for Vassar students, as well as for other
educated women, is expressed in a paper of hers,
entitled "The College Woman in 1950":
"This young woman will have an understanding
of the main forces which are man's servants, not
because she is in college, but because she learned
them in the elementary schools, in the fitting schools,
all through her preparatory courses; for by that
time it will be essential that every child shall know
the world he lives in, whether he knows anything else
or not.
"This young woman will not run at the sight of
a cow, scream at the sound of a mouse, or get off
an electric car backward (it may be that the cars
will pass each other the other way by that time).
She will have learned to carry bundles on her right
arm.
"Instead of mental gymnastics practiced for the
sake of showing mere prowess, there will be a posi-
196 ELLEN IL RICHARDS
tive power of control of mind to do what is demanded
of it, but more noticeable will be the perfect control
of the body and the perfect poise of the health. The
college woman of 1950 will join with Maria Mitchell
in being ashamed to be ill ; it will be a mark of low
intelligence in those days.
"I do not think she will 'do her own sewing,' as
was the vogue in 1870, or even her own mending.
She will know plenty of persons who can do it for a
consideration and her time will bring more money.
She may be her own milliner, for in that day more
attention will be paid to shape of bonnets and ar-
rangement of ribbons and shades of color especially
suited to the wearer and to the rest of the dress.
So also the small details of the toilette will be more
expressive of the individual, and therefore the indi-
vidual must give thought to them.
"The well-educated young woman of 1950 will
blend art and science in a way we do not dream of;
the science will steady the art and the art will give
charm to science.
"This young woman will marry yes, indeed,
but she will take her pick of the men, who will by
that time have begun to realize what sort of men it
behooves them to be.
"Each will be a center the pin of a concretion
around which will grow all society. She will not
have need to resort to subterfuge before her boys.
A sense of power is the most intoxicating stimulant
AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN 197
a mortal can enjoy; power over other powerful
forces, over other persons ; and power used for the
general good brings its own reward in satisfaction
as well as pleasure not always the same thing.
"Freedom to live out her life will bring with it a
new zest in life, a new wish to make it of service.
Instead of the vain kicking against the pricks (and
how vain and how prickly some of us could tell, with
the sense of the utter senselessness of it) there will
come a radiance which will transform the face and
ennoble the expression.
"Her share of the work will be well done, care-
fully done, but she will not be a slave to circum-
stances. A worse slavery than the world knows em-
bitters the lives of thousands of women today, and
they never let it be guessed because they see no way
out, and they take all kinds of petty ways to revenge
themselves.
"She will be so fair to look upon, so gentle and
so quiet in her ways, that you will not dream that
she is of the same race as the old rebels against the
existing order, who, with suspicion in our eyes and
tension in our hearts, if not in our fists, confront
you now with the question, 'What are you going to
do about it?'"
In June, 1894, Mrs. Richards was chosen alumna
trustee of Vassar College. At the time when she
came upon the board the question of sewage disposal
was pressing. The custom had been to throw all the
198 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
sewage, with little previous treatment, into Casper-
kill Creek at a point about six miles from the Hud-
son River. But as time went on the authorities of
Poughkeepsie objected to this method of disposal,
and the project of building a sewer to the Hudson
River was considered, at a cost which was variously
estimated at from $37,000 to $50,000. While this
matter was under consideration in the trustees'
meeting, Mrs. Richards, being a new member, sat
silent. Finally, when her opinion was asked, she said
that it had always seemed to her that educational
institutions should lead and not follow in the matter
of sanitation, and that for Vassar College to dispose
of its sewage by allowing it to flow into the Hudson
would be mediaeval. When asked to suggest an alter-
native she outlined fully and from intimate knowl-
edge of the newest and most reliable methods a plan
for a sewage disposal plant. This plant was later
installed at a cost of $7,500. But economy was the
least advantage that Mrs. Richards saw in the plan ;
to her it was an opportunity to make an experiment
of great value to the world, and she believed this to
be the business of every institution of advanced learn-
ing. In order to help the project along, she herself
gave her professional services for many years, ana-
lyzing the drinking water of the college frequently
in order to make sure that it was not being contami-
nated. She was proud to have a part as a graduate
in what she believed to be a contribution of her col-
lege to public health.
AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN 199
It was not until 1882 that graduates of different
colleges were brought together into one organization.
That year saw the founding of the Association of
Collegiate Alumnse. Strangely enough, the idea of
this organization, whose membership consists exclu-
sively of college women, was conceived in the mind
cf a woman who had not been to college. This far-
sighted woman, Mrs. Emily Talbot, of Boston, was
the mother of two daughters, one of whom, now Dean
Marion Talbot of the University of Chicago, had
just graduated from Boston University, while the
other "was soon to follow out into the social world
handicapped by that strange, new thing, a college
education." As Mrs. Talbot looked forward into
the future, she saw "an ideal organization of college
women for practical educational work, a body ready
to lend aid, counsel, and encouragement to all who
desire to fit themselves by sound education for the
duties of life," and she wanted to give her daughters
to the work of founding such a society.
Of course she consulted Mrs. Richards ; every one
did in educational matters. Mrs. Richards seems to
have hesitated at first. Perhaps this was because the
plan of work was not definitely outlined, for she
always feared to set in motion the time-consuming
machinery of organization except for big purposes.
She was willing to make the experiment, however,
and she cooperated with Miss Talbot in issuing a
call for an informal meeting. This meeting, which
200 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
was held on November 28, 1881, brought together
seventeen women from eight different colleges and
universities.
A letter written by Mrs. Richards on January 4
says: "We are starting a new project here which
you will be pleased to hear about. It is a general
association of college graduates. We got together
at a caucus on short notice, graduates of seven or
eight colleges. We are to have a meeting for organ-
izing January 14. I do not know what good will
come of it, but Mrs. Talbot, of Boston (the one who
engineered the Girls' Latin School through) sug-
gested the idea, and as we see no objection and some
possible advantages, we are going into it. We shall
be a sort of a bureau of information, at any rate."
On January 14 the Association of Collegiate
Alumnae was organized, at a meeting over which
Mrs. Richards presided. Efforts made to reach all
the graduates in New England and New York of
the eight colleges which had been represented at the
first conference Oberlin, Smith, Vassar, Wellesley,
Michigan, Wisconsin, Cornell, and Boston resulted
in bringing together only sixty-five people.
Of Mrs. Talbot's influence on the association,
Mrs. Richards said long afterwards: "The fact that
the organization was successful from the start was
due to the counsels of one who had had much experi-
ence in other organizations and in working by men's
methods, for from the first it has been characterized
AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN 201
by cool deliberation and has been free, we flatter our-
selves, from feminine fads. To have a right start in
life is a great advantage, and our godmother saw
to that. She gave us our watchword Work, and
practical work. We were not to meet for amusement
nor to pass an idle hour. She impressed upon us
that where much is given much shall be required.
She called us to service in the cause of all educa-
tion for the state and for the better life of the
community."
The plan of the association has always been to
accept for membership only the graduates of certain
approved colleges of high standing. To the original
eight, four were added during the first year. These
were the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Wesleyan University at Middletown, Syracuse, the
University of Kansas. During Mrs. Richards's life,
Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Radcliffe, Northwestern,
Leland Stanford, Western Reserve, and the Univer-
sities of California, Illinois, Chicago, Minnesota,
Missouri, and Nebraska were added, and the individ-
ual membership increased to fifty-two hundred.
The general organization has been chiefly con-
cerned with raising the standard of scholarship in
colleges admitting women and with providing fellow-
ships for advanced study in this country and abroad.
The branches which have been formed in forty-seven
cities and towns, East and West, have been interested
chiefly in local educational problems. From the first
202 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Mrs. Richards was active in the work of the general
association and in the Boston branch, and was wel-
comed as a speaker at the conventions and at the
meetings of the various branches.
Dean Talbot, who, as we have seen, was with
Mrs. Richards from the first in this work, says: "It
was characteristic of her that after the association
was successfully started she should decline to accept
conspicuous official positions and should serve rather
as a 'high private' wherever opportunity offered or
duty called. She was, however, a director during the
first year and vice-president in 1886 and 1890. As
first vice-president she was in charge of the first
meeting held west of New York State."
The records of the association show that the first
subject considered was the health of college students.
Mrs. Richards was in part responsible for the first
circular issued, which presented very clearly the low
standards of the colleges in regard to physical edu-
cation, and made a very strong plea for greater
attention to the physical basis of college students'
life. Later she prepared a leaflet, "Health in Pre-
paratory Schools," with blanks to be filled by teach-
ers and parents. These were widely distributed by
the association, and although no statistics were com-
piled from the returns, there is much evidence that
the pamphlet proved useful by suggesting lines of
investigation which might be entered upon and
improvements which might be introduced into the
schools.
AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN 203
Soon after the organization, the need of oppor-
tunities for graduate study became apparent. Here
again for many years Mrs. Richards was a constant
source of inspiration. She proposed and outlined a
circular on graduate study, and served several years
as chairman of the committee. She was a member
of the council to accredit women for advanced
work in foreign universities and of the committee on
a national university.
Mrs. Richards's first paper before the association
was read in 1890, its subject being, "The Relation
of College Women to Progress in Domestic Science."
In this paper she said:
"The college-bred woman is a comparatively mod-
ern product. Twenty years ago one could almost
count on one's fingers the women who were so edu-
cated and who were old enough to impress their
individualities on any community. It is only just
now, when there are two thousand or more mature
women who have known what a college training is in
their own experience, that we can begin to talk ot
their influence or lay out work for them as a class.
As individuals, they find their own work ; but in some
respects it seems to me that they have obligations
laid upon them as a reward or penalty for their
position as pioneers, as the most observed class of
the present day. We have been treated for some
years to discussions from eminent men as to our
mental ability, our moral and physical status, our
204 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
predilection for matrimony, our fitness for voting
or for the Presidency; but the kind of a home we
should make if we did make one, the position we
should take on the servant question, the influence
we should have on the center and source of political
economy, the kitchen, seem to have been ignored."
From this beginning she went on to advocate the
thorough study of domestic economy in all our col-
leges for women, summarizing her arguments in this
way: "First, and, from an educational point of view,
foremost, to broaden the ideas of life with which the
young woman leaves college, to bring her in touch
with the great problems which press more closely
each year.
"Second, to secure a solid basis for improvement.
Those of us who have had a hand in reforms know
how much work is wasted for want of knowing what
has already been done."
In October, 1911, at the first annual meeting to
be held after Mrs. Richards's death, the association
seriously considered the subject which she had pre-
sented to it twenty-one years before.
One of the most delicate and difficult tasks of the
association has been to extend the corporate mem-
bership without injustice to individual colleges, on
the one hand, and without, on the other hand, lower-
ing the standards set by the association for the very
purpose of giving the weaker institutions an incen-
tive to strengthen their courses. In the task of
AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN 205
selection, Mrs. Richards's intimate knowledge of col-
leges and universities in all parts of the country came
to be of great service. When she advised the accept-
ance or the rejection of an institution, the informa-
tion which she gave the special committees was not
second-hand, but was based upon intimate personal
knowledge of existing conditions. The president of
one of these debated colleges wrote to an officer
of the association: "The one who knows most about
us has been our strongest supporter. Mrs. Ellen H.
Richards has been here, and she is our friend."
Her interest, too, in educational institutions of
all types and her understanding of the value of the
work done by the smaller colleges, even those which
were not of such grade as to permit of membership
in the association, made it possible for her to make
an adverse decision the opportunity for coopera-
tion and helpfulness. The president of one of these
smaller colleges says :
"I remember a characteristic interview in Mrs.
Richards's study at the Institute on a day of steam-
ing heat at the beginning of our summer vacation
in 1889. We were both tired and I was in perplex-
ity at the attitude of the Association of Collegiate
Alumnae toward our college. Mrs. Richards stood
firm by the definition of a college as laid down by
the association, while I contended for a much more
generous interpretation, knowing, as I did, how all
the germs of development in arts and sciences had
206 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
existed in such institutions as mine, even before the
foundations of some of the colleges in the association
were laid. It is pleasant to remember how then and
always we have been able to sink our differences in
our desire to serve the general good. She became
one of the most helpful friends our college has ever
had."
Mrs. Richards's last work for the general Asso-
ciation of Collegiate Alumnae was in connection with
a committee on Euthenics, whose work was barely
outlined at the time of her death. The intention of
the association had been to form a committee on
Eugenics, or the science of human improvement
by better breeding; but because of Mrs. Richards's
urgent pleading, it decided to give its attention to
the science of controllable environment. The dis-
cussion in the association followed the lines of a
friendly controversy which had been going on be-
tween Dr. C. B. Davenport and other scientists,
on the one hand, and Mrs. Richards, on the other,
as to whether Eugenics was the parent of Euthenics
or vice versa, the supporters of Eugenics contend-
ing that the best results for the race were to be
obtained through the careful selection of parents,
Mrs. Richards that improved environment would
improve the physical condition of future parents and
bring quicker results in race development.
The activities in which the Boston branch engaged
were many, and in all of them Mrs. Richards had an
AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN 207
active part. It maintained for some time a Fellow-
ship in the School of Housekeeping connected with
the Women's Educational and Industrial Union of
Boston. The Fellowship was held by Miss Gertrude
Bigelow, and the result was the preparation of a
monograph on "The Relation of Cost in Home
Cooked and Purchased'Food," which was published
in 1901 as Bulletin No. 19 of the Massachusetts
Bureau of Labor. This study, which was the first
of the kind to be made in this country, was sug-
gested by Mrs. Richards, and was in line with her
belief that housewives should have the benefit of all
the knowledge obtainable about ways of reducing the
amount of labor involved in maintaining a home.
Another important work which Mrs. Richards
did in connection with the Boston branch was an
investigation of the sanitary condition of the public
school buildings of the city. This work was in
charge of a committee of which Mrs. Alice U.
Pearmain was chairman and Mrs. Richards an
active member. The committee secured as an expert
Mr. S. Homer Woodbridge, Professor of Heating
and Ventilation at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, and he and his assistants made a
scientific investigation of the heating and ventilat-
ing apparatus and of the plumbing in all of the
buildings used for school purposes. The cleanliness
of the buildings and the provisions for exit in case of
fire were also noted. The results of this investigation
208 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
it would be unfair to give here. They form a dark
chapter in the history of school administration in
Boston, which has a correspondingly dark chapter
in the history of school affairs in every great city of
the country. Boston, therefore, must not be singled
out and made to suffer before the public because it
happened to have, or was so fortunate as to have,
an exceptionally enterprising and public-spirited
branch of the Collegiate Alumnae.
It is sufficient to say that the results of this in-
vestigation have been very far-reaching. It served
to arouse public opinion to the belief that responsi-
bility for the condition of the schools was altogether
too much divided. In 1897, a committee of citizens
of which Mrs. Richards was a member started an
agitation for the purpose of getting through the
Legislature a bill providing for certain important
changes.
Mrs. Richards prepared for this agitation by
entering upon a correspondence with prominent edu-
cators in all parts of the country, and when she felt
that her plans were sufficiently well laid she arranged
with a committee of the Woman's Education Asso-
ciation, of which she was chairman, to send out invi-
tations for a mass meeting in Huntington Hall for
the purpose of considering proposed changes in the
school committee. This meeting was most cleverly
planned. Instead of advertising it in a general way,
the committee sent invitations to members of the
AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN 209
Legislature, city officials, superintendents of schools
in all parts of New England, members of associations
interested in education, and to many others. Each
invitation contained a note saying that upon the re-
ceipt of an acceptance a ticket for a reserved seat
would be sent. This made it possible to judge from
the returns the extent and also the distribution of the
interest. It served, also, to make it seem a privilege
to be invited to be present. The outcome of the
meeting was the appointment of a committee to
prepare a bill for presentation to the Legislature
the following session. This bill, as it was finally
drafted after much discussion by a committee of
which Mrs. Richards was a member, provided for a
reduction of the school committee from twenty-four
members to twelve, for placing the responsibility for
all educational matters, including the selection of
teachers, with the superintendent, for placing the
responsibility of all financial matters with a business
agent, for the creation of a school faculty to give
the teachers a voice in the educational policy, and
for the creation of a voluntary committee in each
ward of the city to act as an intermediary between
the parents and teachers.
In the rough notes which Mrs. Richards left of
the speech she made during this campaign, she said
in connection with the centralizing of educational
authority in the superintendent: "A man can say
'No' in an hour where a committee is likely to dis-
210 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
cuss for weeks. It has been happily said that 'if
the children of Israel, in their passage through the
wilderness, had been governed by a committee instead
of by a leader, they would probably be wandering
around the wilderness today.' '
The committee having the bill in charge was con-
vinced of the desirability of enacting the bill as a
whole, but after several years of unsuccessful effort
it was obliged to abandon the project. There re-
mained no evidence of its prolonged agitation except
an educated public opinion. A few years afterward
a bill was passed which embodied some of the pro-
visions for which Mrs. Richards had worked so hard.
The school committee was reduced in size, not, how-
ever, to twelve, but to five members, and a school-
house commission was created. But the provisions
which might have served to democratize school affairs
the creation of a school faculty and a citizens'
committee were not embodied. There is a wide-
spread opinion in Boston that if they had been, much
friction between the teaching force and the schools
might have been averted.
The work of the Sanitary Science Club formed by
the Boston branch has already been mentioned.
It would be impossible to review Mrs. Richards's
work in connection with the Association of Collegi-
ate Alumnae without being convinced that her influ-
ence was due largely to the fact that she was more
than a college woman and that she was able to bring
AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN 211
this organization into connection with other and
varied activities and broader interests. Some one
has spoken recently of the "cross fertilization" of
the sciences. A "cross fertilization" of good works
was always going on where Mrs. Richards was in-
volved. To illustrate: Her travels in connection
with Professor Richards's work as a mining engineer
carried her often into the Southern States and had
familiarized her with its educational problems. She
saw a need there of an organization similar to the
Collegiate Alumnae Association, and when, in 1902,
such an organization was formed, she was not con-
tent to lopk on, but became one of its most earnest
and helpful members. The Southern Association of
College Women includes the graduates of many
Northern colleges, but almost without exception they
are residents of the South ; and Mrs. Richards was
/
one of the very few Northern women who saw the
chance to give the newer society the benefit of the ex-
perience of the older organization. The catholicity
of her interests was never more apparent than when,
at the jubilee celebration at the twenty-fifth anni-
versary of the founding of the Association of Col-
legiate Alumnae, she, a New England woman by birth
and training, offered the greetings of the Southern
Association of College Women.
She was always interested in creating for women
opportunities for advanced work. She had an im-
portant part in the founding of the Hyannis Marine
212 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Laboratory, which later became the Woods Hole
Laboratory, and she was actively interested in the
association which was formed for the purpose of
securing entrance for women into Johns Hopkins
Medical College. In 1898 she became one of the
charter members of the Naples Table Association
for Promoting Laboratory Research by Women.
The history of the Naples Table Association, like
that of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, is of
interest here only as it shows a phase of her untiring
labors. In the spring of 1898, a small group of
women gathered in Cambridge to discuss the forma-
tion of a society to support a table for American
women at the zoological station in Naples. This
station had been founded in 1872 by Professor Anton
Dohrn, then of Jena, for the purpose of doing some-
thing of lasting benefit for the science which he loved.
He had already opened, at his own expense, a small
laboratory at Messina, but this was but the incentive
to greater things. Dedicating his own private for-
tune to the enterprise, winning the interest of lead-
ing scientists, securing substantial aid from Euro-
pean governments, he persevered until his dream
became a reality. On the shore of the beautiful Bay
of Naples rose the white marble building of the
Stazione Zoologica di Napoli.
From the first, Dr. Dohrn admitted women to the
station on equal terms with men; and when the sci-
entists of the world were uniting to celebrate the
' ^
AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN
twenty-fifth anniversary of the station, the sugges-
tion came from Dr. Ida Hyde, who had enjoyed the
privileges of the station, that American women show
their appreciation of the position he had taken with
regard to women students by annually contributing
to its support.
The organization was completed in April, 1898,
and from the outset Mrs. Richards was an interested
and valued member. "Much that she did for the
work," one of her associates says, "no one could
have done better, much of it no one else could have
done at all. She saw what ought to be done and
could be done, and she saw how to do it. The work
of the Naples Table was peculiarly congenial to her,
and she was naturally consulted on every detail of
the organization and scope. This association had
the unusual distinction of an income larger than its
needs, and it was decided to offer a prize of one
thousand dollars for an original paper of high grade
embodying the results of research in certain fields.
Mrs. Richards was chairman of this committee on
award from the first, and to her more than to any
one is due the remarkable success of the competition.
She knew the field and the workers in science so well
that it was possible for her to appeal personally to
the men of science and the teachers whom it was
necessary to interest. They, on the other hand, had
perfect confidence in her wisdom and her sanity of
judgment, and they were willing and glad to help.
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
"To Mrs. Richards were intrusted the theses pre-
sented for competition. How zealously she guarded
them ! She, better than any one else on the commit-
tee, could appreciate the labor that had gone into
them, and she handled those pages of typewritten
matter and carefully prepared drawings almost with
love. When it was necessary to submit them to the
decision of the board of examiners, Mrs. Richards
often personally carried the papers to the study door
or even to the very office desk of the busy professor
who was to pass judgment upon them. The very
last work she did for this association was in connec-
tion with the essays submitted for the fifth prize to
be awarded at the annual meeting in April, 1911.
Even at the time of her death some of the seventeen
essays submitted in competition were locked in her
safe, while careful memoranda showed in whose hands
others had been placed for examination." Before
the time for the meeting arrived, Mrs. Richards's
life had come to a close. The meeting, therefore,
took the form of a memorial to her, and the follow-
ing resolution was passed:
Voted, That "this Association express its appre-
ciation of the devoted service of Mrs. Richards as
the continuous chairman of the prize committee since
its formation in 1900, by naming its prize in her
honor the Ellen Richards Research Prize."
CHAPTER XII
MISSIONARY OF SCIENCE
IN January, 1890, Mrs. Richards entered upon
an undertaking which, to use the words of a popular
English writer, was "an interesting failure, but a
failure which had all the educational value of a first
reconnaissance into unexplored territory." This
experiment was the famous New England Kitchen
of Boston, and the "unexplored territory" was the
willingness of the poor to be scientifically fed.
The opportunity to make this experiment came
through a somewhat remarkable and a most happy
combination of circumstances. The first was the
gift of a large sum of money by Mrs. Quincy Shaw,
of Boston, Louis Agassiz's daughter, for the purpose
of "making a thorough study of the food and
nutrition of working men and its possible relation
to the question of the use of intoxicating liquors."
Mrs. Shaw selected Mrs. Richards to make the study,
leaving the character of the investigation and of the
practical work to be determined by her. She did
not try to dictate as to the scope of the experiment
or as to the manner in which it was to be carried
on. She supplied the money and left Mrs. Richards
to do the work.
216 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
A second event which led indirectly to the estab-
lishment of the New England Kitchen was an offer
made in 1888 by Mr. Henry Lomb, of the Bausch
and Lomb Optical Company, through the American
Public Health Association, of a five hundred dollar
prize for the best essay on "sanitary and economic
cooking adapted to persons of moderate and small
means." Seventy essays were submitted in competi-
tion for the prize, and Mrs. Richards was a member
of the committee of award. The essay on "The Five
Food Principles Illustrated by Practical Recipes"
was found to be "not only preeminently the best of
the seventy, but also an admirable treatise on the
subject. It is simple and lucid in statement," the
report went on to say, "methodical in arrangement
and well adapted to the practical wants of the class
to which it is addressed. Whoever may read it can
have confidence in the soundness of its teachings and
cannot fail to be instructed in the art of cooking
by its plain precepts, founded as they are upon the
correct application of the scientific principles of
chemistry and physiology to the proper preparation
of food for man."
The following year, at a meeting of the American
Public Health Association in Brooklyn, Mrs. Rich-
ards met the writer of this paper, Mrs. Mary Hin-
man Abel, who had just returned from a residence
of several years in Europe. In speaking, many years
afterwards, of Mrs. Richards's relation to people in
MISSIONARY OF SCIENCE
general, Mrs. Abel said: "I think she was always
attended by the joy of possible discoveries of people.
Any hour might come the great adventure/' Look-
ing back to that meeting in Brooklyn and to its
consequences, we feel that Mrs. Richards must have
recognized "the great adventure," for she lost no
time in persuading Mrs. Abel to join her, and there
was thus secured for the New England Kitchen, in
its first half-year, the benefit of the thorough knowl-
edge of the Volks Kiiche, Fourneau Economique, and
other forms of public kitchens which Mrs. Abel had
gained during the years spent in Europe.
A third circumstance leading to the opening of
the Kitchen was an invention by Mr. Edward Atkin-
son of the Aladdin Oven, a device by which he hoped
to revolutionize culinary methods and greatly de-
crease the cost of preparing food. Mr. Atkinson,
as we have seen, had availed himself of Mrs. Rich-
ards's services long before, by making her consulting
chemist for companies with which he was connected.
When, therefore, he wished to have his new oven
tested, it was natural that he should have turned to
her. Though this oven was not the only cooker
tested in the Kitchen, it became of great value in
the preparation of the cheaper cuts of meat and
of many other low-priced foods which require long,
slow cooking.
Mr. Atkinson's interest in the New England
Kitchen, however, was valuable chiefly for the enthu-
218 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
siasm which he injected into the work because of
his zeal for solving some of the economic problems
connected with food, and also because he was able,
through his business relations with wealthy men, to
secure large sums of money for experimental work.
Under auspicious circumstances, therefore, un-
hampered by lack of funds and having the benefit
and advice of many specialists, the New England
Kitchen was opened at 142 Pleasant Street, Boston,
on January 1, 1890, with Mrs. Abel in immediate
charge. From the beginning an attempt was made
to serve cooked food for home consumption and to
give the largest possible amount of nourishment for
a given amount of money. In order to do this, it was
necessary to take into account all available knowl-
edge concerning the composition of foods, current
prices, and possible methods of applying heat in
cookery. Those who were connected with the work
hoped to be able to work out recipes for a few stand-
ard foods so exactly that the food value of a given
weight of the finished product would always be the
same. Dr. Drown, Professor of Chemistry in the
Institute of Technology, had said that if one food,
beef broth for example, could be made of the same
flavor and strength day after day and as unvarying
in its constituents as the medicine compounded to
meet a physician's prescription, that result alone
would justify the proposed expenditure of time and
money. By the help of repeated chemical analyses
MISSIONARY OF SCIENCE 219
the methods of preparing this dish were brought to
such perfection that the result was a food which
differed only in slight degree from day to day and
which had very nearly the same composition as milk
without fat. It was welcomed by the physicians of
Boston, and the New England Kitchen, which had
been founded for the purpose of helping the poor
working man, had its first triumph in meeting the
needs of the well-to-do sick.
After a long series of studies, the following foods
were placed on sale by weight or measure : beef broth,
vegetable soup, pea soup, corn meal mush, boiled
hominy, oatmeal mush, pressed beef, beef stew, fish
chowder, tomato soup, Indian pudding, rice pudding,
and oatmeal cakes. These foods were intended to
supplement those prepared in the homes of the
people. The restaurant which was later opened was
not a part of the original plan.
From the beginning every part of the New Eng-
land Kitchen was open to the public, in order that
its methods might be demonstrated and that its
cleanliness might serve as an example. In this con-
nection it is interesting to note that there is just
now, twenty years later, a movement among people
who realize the menace of dirty restaurants to make
it obligatory for restaurant keepers to disclose their
kitchens to the public by having transparent parti-
tions between them and the dining rooms, or in some
similar way.
220 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Through Mr. Atkinson a grant of three hundred
dollars had been obtained for the Kitchen from
the trustees of the Elizabeth Thompson Fund.
This money was used in the purchase of scientific
instruments and to pay for the frequent chemical
analyses necessary in the course of the work. The
report made by Mrs. Richards and Mrs. Abel to the
trustees of this fund was presented by Mr. Atkinson
at a meeting of the Association for the Advancement
of Science in August, 1890, and may be found in the
published proceedings (Volume 39).
Other kitchens after the model of the original
were established in the West and North Ends of
Boston, at Olneyville, a suburb of Providence, Rhode
Island, at 341 Hudson Street, New York, and at
Hull House, Chicago. They were all failures as far
as their original purpose, that of persuading the
poor of the advantage of low-priced and nourish-
ing food, was concerned. "Their death knell was
sounded," to quote Mrs. Richards, "by the woman
who said, 'I don't want to eat what's good for me;
I'd ruther eat what I'd ruther.' ' The man, too,
from Southern Europe who defiantly said, "You
needn't try to make a Yankee of me by making me
eat that," pointing to baked Indian pudding, may
have helped ring the knell.
But to say that the New England Kitchen was a
failure in any broad sense would be absurd, for either
one alone of two important outgrowths, the Rum-
MISSIONARY OF SCIENCE
221
ford Kitchen at the World's Fair at Chicago, an
epoch-making educational experiment, and the school
lunch project in Boston and elsewhere, disprove such
a statement.
The Rumford Kitchen, which was a part of the
Massachusetts State exhibit at the Fair, was planned
and carried on by Mrs. Richards. In a tiny building
near the south end of the great exhibition grounds
she established a model kitchen, which, like its pro-
totype in Boston, laid bare all its processes to the
public. Here, day after day, it was possible for
visitors to the Fair to buy lunches whose food value
had been carefully computed and noted on the bills
of fare. The following is a sample menu :
FOOD VAU-E IN GRAMS
Proteid
Fat
Carbo-
hydrates
Calories
Volt's Standard. One-quarter
of one day's ration
24.5
14.0
125.0
742.0
Atwater's Standard. One-
quarter of one day's ration
31.2
si. a
114.0
882.0
Ounces
Grams
Baked Beans
8.4
238.11
Brown Bread
4.2
119.1
One Roll
2.0
56.7}
26.3
35.6
131.4
979.3
Butter
0.7
19.8
Apple Sauce
5.3
150.2
After the close of the World's Fair, Mrs. Richards
reported to the managers: "The intention of the
exhibit was to illustrate the present state of knowl-
222 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
edge in regard to the composition of materials for
human food, the means of making these materials
most available for nutrition, and the quantity of each
necessary for a working ration. It was also in part
intended as a centennial celebration of the services
to humanity of a man of Massachusetts birth and
parentage, Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford of
Bavaria, the first to apply the term 'science of nutri-
tion' to the study of human food, and the first to
apply science to the preparation of food materials.
"Not the least valuable part of the exhibit con-
sisted in the series of pamphlets prepared for the
Rumford Kitchen by authorities in the several de-
partments of science which relate to human food and
nutrition. That such men as Professors Remsen,
Howell, and Abel of Johns Hopkins University,
Professor Chittenden of Yale University, Professor
Sedgwick of the Institute of Technology, and others,
were willing to prepare these scientific papers shows
a great step toward placing this branch of sanitary
science in its rightful place.
"This series is not yet complete, though it will
finally appear in book form as a permanent result
of the Chicago Exposition. [The papers were pub-
lished in 1899 under the title, "Rumford Kitchen
Leaflets." The copyright was in Mrs. Richards's
name.] The charts, diagrams, and books of the
exhibit were studied with great eagerness, and can-
not but have given impetus to the investigations
MISSIONARY OF SCIENCE
in these directions ; while the practical outcome of
the taste and relish of the food served was shown
in the fact that some ten thousand people were
served during the two months that the Kitchen was
open, between the hours of twelve and two only,
in a space so small as to permit only thirty people
to be seated at the same time.
"In order to emphasize the facts above narrated,
the food was served in portions containing a definite
amount of nutrition, and the menu card on each table
gave the requirement for one-quarter of the day's
ration, with the weight and composition of each
dish composing the meal. A choice of two or three
luncheons, for which the price was thirty cents, was
given each day, each containing three or four dishes,
though an extra price was made for a glass of milk,
for a cup of cocoa, tea, or coffee."
There never was so unique a lunchroom, never
one which provoked so much intelligent discussion.
The walls were hung with charts showing the com-
position of foods. The exhibits included a set of
blocks demonstrating the chemical composition of the
human body, a miniature chemical laboratory for
housewives, and a reference library on foods and
hygiene. Around the top of the wall ran a frieze
of legends including, among others, the following:
"Nothing is so disgraceful to society and indi-
viduals as unmeaning wastefulness." Rumford.
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
"The seat of courage is in the stomach."
"Preserve and treat your food as you would your
body, remembering that in time food will be your
body." B. W. Richardson.
"A man too busy to take care of his health is like
a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools."
"The spirit of each dish, and zest of all,
Is what ingenious cooks the relish call."
"Prayer and provender delay no man's journey."
"A man is what he eats."
"It is an irritating, nay a deeply saddening,
problem for a wise dyspeptic to ponder, the super-
abundance of things cookable in this world of ours,
and the extreme rarity of cooks." Maartens.
"There is no pain like the pain of a new idea."
Bagehot.
"The scientific aspect of food must be united in
bonds of holy matrimony with a practical knowledge
of the cook's art, before a man can discours^ learn-
edly of food." Fothergill.
"Courage, cheerfulness, and a desire to work de-
pends mostly on good nutrition."
It is hardly necessary to add that, with crowds of
sight-seers passing through the building at all hours
of the day, life was not without its amusing and
entertaining incidents. The weary excursionist asked
to be given something for "tired leg muscles." The
literal-minded man insisted on being told the exact
MISSIONARY OF SCIENCE 225
meaning of "There is no pain like the pain of a new
idea." The uncompromising reformer read, "A man
is what he eats," and wanted "more often what
lie drinks," added on to it. The family man com-
plained that carbohydrates were expensive at thirty
L-ents apiece when you had four or five children
to feed. The domestic woman insisted on seeing
Mrs. Rumford, and the jocular youth said in depart-
ing after lunch, "I am going right over now to get
weighed and see if I really ate the twenty ounces I
was entitled to by the bill of fare."
One day a representative of a scientific publica-
tion, after examining the exhibit and taking lunch,
expressed satisfaction that for the first time in his
life he had been scientifically fed. The following day
be returned to say that, while dining the evening
)cfore, he had mentioned the Rumford Kitchen to
i lady who sat beside him. Thinking she would be
nterested in some of its scientific aspects, he told
icr about the bills of fare, saying that "one could I
see from them the amount of carbohydrates and 1
proteids in the food, and also its value in calories." 1
Fhe lady interrupted to say that she knew those
things were found in food by the aid of the micro-
scope, but for her part she would prefer not to know
>he was eating them.
But it all sank into the public mind, and all the
nore deeply because the public mind was quite empty
)f such information and ready to absorb. The
226 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Rumford Kitchen was the first attempt to demon-
strate by simple methods to the people in general
the meaning of the terms, proteids, carbohydrates,
calories, and the fact that there are scientific prin-
ciples underlying nutrition. At a time when laymen
knew almost nothing as to the composition of food,
and about foods in their relation to the human body,
this enterprise laid the foundation for knowledge
which we now consider almost as fundamental to a
general education as the "three R's."
But a still more important outgrowth of the
New England Kitchen was a plan for serving school
lunches in Boston. Up to the year 1894, the privi-
lege of serving food to the high school children of
the city had been given to the school janitors, who
found it a valuable perquisite. Now janitors are
useful in their place, of course, but they know little,
as a rule, about the science of nutrition, and the time
came when it seemed wise to place the matter of
school lunches in other hands. Looking about for
some one to take charge, the School Committee
entered into negotiations with the New England
Kitchen with a view to having food sent out to vari-
ous schools from this as a central plant. But this
involved a large outlay of money, and again a public-
spirited person with confidence in Mrs. Richards
came to her aid. Mrs. William V. Kellen gave the
money required for buying the apparatus necessary
for the new work, and the experiment of sending out
MISSIONARY OF SCIENCE
lunches began. The revolution, of course, was not
effected without difficulties, and when the New Eng-
land Kitchen undertook the task it entered upon
troublous times. The janitors were, many of them,
naturally displeased and loath to give the help and
cooperation which were almost indispensable. Then,
too, the School Committee, for some reason, was
unwilling to have the experiment begin in one school
only, but insisted that it should be made in all or
none. Never was there such quick action needed,
never such pressing of available workers into the
service. The rooms provided were, as a rule, in the
basement and inconvenient, and the time allowed for
serving the lunches very short. Shops in the neigh-
borhood of the schools tried to hold on to their trade
by posting such signs as this, "Here you can get
what you want to eat, and not what the School
Committee says you must." But success came in the
end, and the present New England Kitchen, which
though under entirely different management, that of
the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, is
a direct outgrowth of the old, and is now serving
lunches to about five thousand high school pupils
daily.
As a result of this experience and pioneer work,
Mrs. Richards became an authority on school lunches,
and was consulted on the subject by school superin-
tendents and others interested in education in all
parts of the country. It was at her suggestion that
228 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
the Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Educa-
tion, "The Daily Meals of School Children," was
written, and her little pamphlet, "Good Luncheons
for Rural Schools without a Kitchen," has had a
wide circulation and has been of good service to
country schools.
As a result, too, of her work in the New England
and Rumford Kitchens, Mrs. Richards was consulted
with reference to the diet in a very large number of
institutions, hospitals, insane asylums, and schools.
In some cases she took actual charge, in order to
learn conditions and suggest changes. In this work
she had the cooperation of Miss Sarah E. Wentworth,
who had succeeded Mrs. Abel in charge of the New
England Kitchen. She was continually asked to
.recommend experts in food, and it was largely
through her influence that positions of dignity for
educated women in connection with the preparation
of foods in institutions were created and the new
profession of "Dietitian" developed. Her office be-
came a veritable bureau of information on the
subject.
In consequence, too, of her work in the New
England and Rumford Kitchens, Mrs. Richards be-
came connected with the nutrition investigations of
the United States Department of Agriculture. In
1887, the passage by Congress of the Hatch Act
made possible the establishment of an agricultural
experiment station in each state and territory, and
MISSIONARY OF SCIENCE 229
the establishment of the Office of Experiment Sta-
tions in the Department of Agriculture, as a central
agency for promoting the interests of the experiment
stations, quite naturally followed. Professor W. O.
Atwater, who had worked very effectively for the
whole movement, was made first director of this
central office.
Professor Atwater had long been interested in
the study of problems of human nutrition by experi-
mental methods, and believed that such work should
be fostered by the federal government a project
which enlisted the sympathies and support of broad-
minded men and women, and which culminated in
1894 in the establishment of the nutrition investi-
gations of the Office of Experiment Stations of the
Department of Agriculture, with funds specially
appropriated by Congress for the purpose. Of this
enterprise Professor Atwater, as director of the
Office of Experiment Stations, was given charge.
In this same year (1894) Mrs. Richards, with
Mr. Atkinson, prepared, at Professor Atwater's
request, a pamphlet, "Suggestions Regarding the
Cooking of Food," published by the Department of
Agriculture (Mrs. Richards's contribution being a
discussion of "The Nutritive Value of Common Food
Materials"), which, although it was not issued as one
of the then recently established series of Farmers'
Bulletins, was like them in its scope, and may be
fairly classed as one of the first of the popular bulle-
230 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
tins of the Department of Agriculture on nutrition
which have become such an important factor in public
education.
The first technical bulletin issued as a result of
the nutrition investigations of the Department of
Agriculture (Bulletin 21 of the Office of Experi-
ment Stations) was entitled, "Methods and Results
of Investigations on the Chemistry and Economy of
Food," and contains as one of its important sections
a summary of investigations by Mrs. Richards and
Mrs. Abel which have to do with the essentials for
good cooking apparatus, the cookery of meat, the
composition of beef, beef tea, etc., pea soup, and
the keeping qualities of broth. The data summarized
are taken from the reports of Mrs. Richards and
Mrs. Abel to the Trustees of the Elizabeth Thomp-
son Fund, who in 1889 to 1890 had made a grant
from this fund for experiments upon cooking which
was supplemented by private gifts for the same
purpose.
Other work by Mrs. Richards, which appears in
publications of the Office of Experiment Stations,
is a paper entitled, "Dietary Studies in Philadelphia
and Chicago, 1892-1893," with Miss Amelia Shap-
leigh as joint author. This paper reports the re-
sults of observations as to the food consumption and
dietary customs of families with small incomes living
in thickly congested districts, the observations hav-
ing been made at the instance of the College Settle-
MISSIONARY OF SCIENCE
merit Association, the primary purpose being "to
obtain reliable information regarding the diet of the
people of those regions, which could be used in
the efforts to help them to improve their material
condition."
Probably the greatest antagonism which Mrs.
Richards aroused in the course of her life was in
connection with her efforts to improve the quality
of food served in public institutions, educational and
philanthropic, and to make the diet contribute to
efficiency. Her attitude is easy to understand. She
saw that an enormous fraction of available human
energy was being used in raising, transporting, pre-
paring, and serving food, and it seemed to her intol-
erable that, after its preparation had cost so much,
food should again take a great toll from the people
in sickness and in wasted and inefficient lives. In
her own case she studied carefully the relation of
food to working power. It is said that once when
she was staying at a seacoast resort and apparently
enjoying a few days of rest after a summer full of
very engrossing work, she came down to breakfast
one morning in a very resolute way, saying, much
to the surprise of her friends, that she had been
making a pig of herself. "I have just been living
for the moment and eating what I liked rather than
what was good for me. Now I shall confine myself
entirely to the proper food for brain work, and I
shall set myself to writing the paper that I ought
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
to have been at work upon, and shall make myself
do it in half the time that I should have given to it,
to make up for my days of idleness."
No wonder that with this strict discipline of self
she should have been impatient at the sight of so
much suffering caused by careless, haphazard ways
of eating. She saw, as we all do, that the time must
come when the problems of nutrition and food will
be reduced to scientific principles, when people will
use their food supply with intelligence, and will regu-
late diet and other living conditions in order to
maintain the highest efficiency in work. She under-
stood, as well as other people, that the time had not
arrived, but she knew that it could be hastened if all
the people would work together, some in laboratories,
some preparing foods, and all making careful studies
of the relation of their food to the amount of work
they were able to do. A college lunchroom, for
example, which strove merely to appeal to the palate
fell far short of her ideal. She wished it to be an
experiment station. But being greatly ahead of her
times, she needed constantly to be reminded that the
world in general moved slowly very much more
slowly in its thought and in its practice than she
did and that in reality the college lunchroom which
had reached the point of supplying palatable food
attractively served is far ahead of its time.
It was never, however, the time spent in making
food attractive or palatable that troubled her, but
MISSIONARY OF SCIENCE 233
rather the fact that people were content to stop at
this point, and to have so small a fraction of the
energy to which she believed they were entitled, and
to do so small a part of the work which they might
do toward making the world better. In lecturing on
foods, she once looked up from her paper to say:
"Do I not hear a whisper running from one to
another of you, 'All this new-fangled talk is very
well to preach for effect, but I have always eaten
just what I wanted to, and I am still alive'? True,
since you are here before me, but have you accom-
plished all in life that you might have accomplished,
have you had each day your full share of heat units
converted into energy, do you know what it is to
be full of health and life?"
In 1899 she wrote to a woman who was greatly
interested in the problems of institutional manage-
ment: "I believe the greatest need of intelligent
persons today is a right attitude of mind towards
food and its importance to the development of the
highest powers of the human race. I believe, with
Professor S. H. Patten, that the well-to-do classes
are being eliminated by their diet, to the detriment
of social progress, and they and not the poor are the
most in need of missionary work. This right attitude
of mind will not be gained so long as schools, col-
leges, and universities continue to ignore the function
of the body in providing the machinery for the mind
to use. At present it is like putting a highly trained
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
engineer into a mill with rusty and antiquated appa-
ratus, and then blaming him for not turning out
good products. As I have been saying to college
audiences all winter, I believe that one year out of
the four could be saved if students knew how to
make the most of themselves, but there is no one to
teach them. I hold the colleges guilty that they
have not seized upon the knowledge already at hand
and applied it, in the way of physical training and
education, instead of pursuing the present plan of
cruelty to animals in urging on, at the point of the
bayonet as it were, a mind housed in an under-
nourished body, which will have its revenge. For I
believe that education alone will bring the food ques-
tion from the dark, secluded corners of life to the
sunlight of right thinking, and therefore I am bend-
ing all my energies toward public school teaching
of the right sort. Meanwhile I am waiting for the
authorities of some college to show that they are
up-to-date and are willing to put the food depart-
ment on a level with the Greek or mathematics, by
appointing a Professor of Hygiene and Sanitation
and teaching the student the value of a sound body
as well as of a bright mind."
At another time she said, in words which leave
little room for misunderstanding, "In the twentieth
century it will be held a criminal offense for a col-
lege to lure students to its halls under the pretense
of education, and then slowly poison them by bad
air and poor food."
MISSIONARY OF SCIENCE 235
It is evident from the story of the New England
and Rumford Kitchens and of the serving of school
lunches that Mrs. Richards early allowed her philan-
thropic and altruistic interests to call her away from
the pursuit of pure science. For this she was fre-
quently criticized; but she, on the other hand, had
her own criticisms to make. She once said: "The
sanitary research worker in the laboratory and field
has gone nearly to the limit of his value. He will
soon be smothered in his own work if no one takes
it." She wanted to make applications of the knowl-
edge he was turning out to every problem of human
life. Of herself she said, "Research has to step one
side when I feel the pressure of sociologic progress."
It is doubtful if she was ever out of sympathy
intellectually with the painstaking methods of pure
science, though she was temperamentally unsuited
for the routine details of such work herself. There
were times, however, when with her clear understand-
ing of pressing needs she manifested some impatience
with the slowness of scientifically trained people to
make application of known facts. She seems to have
had before her always, on the one hand, the vision
of a world full of sickness and suffering, and of a
people failing, because of preventable ills, to reach
their highest efficiency and greatest usefulness; and
on the other, a great mass of knowledge and facts
which, if they could be properly used and applied,
would serve to relieve the suffering and prevent this
236 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
waste of energy. She saw the need of a chain of
workers extending from the laboratory to the people,
and she was ready and anxious to find and keep her
place in the chain. If others had found their places
and had filled them as unselfishly and as toilfully as
she did, there would have been no gaps in the chain,
no failure of science to serve humanity.
CHAPTER XIII
IN JOURNEYINGS OFTEN
EVENTS were now fast leading up to the organ-
ization of the Home Economics movement, which
may be considered the crowning labor of Mrs. Rich-
ards's life, because it brought together her number-
less lines of work and directed them toward a well-
defined end education for right living. In the
perfect foundation which she had been laying, though
unconsciously, for leadership in this movement, travel
as well as work had had a part. For this reason
there have been brought together in this chapter
extracts from letters which she wrote on journeys
taken during the period when the many activities
described in the previous chapters were being carried
on. Fortunately these letters show not only how
wide an acquaintance with people and with social
and educational movements she brought to her later
labors, but also her keen enjoyment of travel. They
reveal, therefore, her serious purposes and also her-
self, with all her boundless joy in living.
In speaking of her journeyings she once said that
she had traveled "only as each year had brought
its special investigations." She seldom went to a
237
238 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
place because it was a popular resort or because
it contained things beautiful or interesting to see,
but almost always in connection with some special
work either of her own or of Professor Richards's.
Arrived, she saw more than most people see, for
she had eyes for its geological formation and its
minerals, its meteorological conditions, its trees and
flowers in their botanical relations as well as in their
beauty, its water supply, its peculiar sanitary prob-
lems, its engineering projects, and its educational
advancement. To follow her travels, therefore, is
to follow her in her labors, her interests, and her
thought.
During the vacations of 1872 and 1873, while
she was a student at the Institute of Technology, she
took journeys which in her early enthusiasm she
called "scientific expeditions." The first was to the
St. Lawrence River country and the second to Nova
Scotia.
GOUVERNEUR, NEW YORK,
August 5, 1872.
You will wonder how I came here. . . . With the
teacher of mineralogy in the Girls' High School,
Boston, I have been attempting a scientific vacation
not at all rivalling Agassiz, you know, for it's
only "two women," but just to see whether "two
women" could do anything. We say, now on the
eve of our departure for home, "Yes, they can."
We have been four weeks in Maine, Canada, New
York visiting the mineral locations, obtaining
IN JOURNEYINGS OFTEN 239
specimens and studying them in their native beds.
We have visited alone lead, copper, tin, silver, gold
and iron mines, been courteously treated by all,
not tenderly as ladies, but no one has put a bar in
our way. We have taken a horse and driven about
from place to place with hammer and chisel and
botany press, etc. The experiment seems a perfect
success we are strong and black as gypsies-
being out of doors all the time.
ST. Louis HOTEL, QUEBEC,
August 12, 1872.
Here we are in a pouring rain, quartered in a very
elegant apartment going to bed for a sound night's
sleep. Yesterday we dined in a log house or what
was very near it, unfinished boards at least, used
only during haying for the farm hands ; the table
unpainted, leaves not up, no cloth, old blue ware, a
plate of three biscuit large as saucers of the "black
bread" variety, a saucer of brown sugar for the tea,
milk and "yarb" tea (very likely English Break-
fast). We dined at 12. Today we dined at 6,
small square tables covered with finest damask,
printed bill of fare with six courses, waiters in "full
dress," swallow tailed coats. . . . We have had varied
experiences since I wrote, mostly very pleasant.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of driving all day, one
of the finest horses I ever saw, and visiting three
copper mines, getting a fine lot of specimens and
learning a great deal about the country and mining.
240 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
The following year she made a scientific pil-
grimage. In July, 1874, in company again with
Miss Capen, she went to Northumberland, Pennsyl-
vania, where Joseph Priestley is buried, the occasion
being a Chemical Centennial in honor of the one
hundredth anniversary of the discovery of oxygen.
In 1875 occurred her marriage to Professor Rich-
ards and the unique wedding trip with his class in
mining engineering.
TRURO, NOVA SCOTIA,
June 13, 1875.
We have had a prosperous week and have carried
out all our plans. I have been resting and am very
nicely and I think Robert is none the worse, although
he has the care of the expedition. We have visited
the Albert mine, the famous Joggins and the Arcadia
Iron mines. I have been the botanist of the party.
We are just in time for the early Spring flowers.
In St. John the trees were just starting; here they
are just blooming. We have not exactly lived in
clover, but have not been very badly off yet.
In 1876 she went abroad with Professor Richards,
chiefly for the purpose of visiting laboratories, mines,
and smelting works, and buying chemical apparatus
for the Woman's Laboratory.
ZURICH, July 16, 1876.
We spent an afternoon and night in Interlaken
with Professor Crafts and his wife and there saw
IN JOURXEYINGS OFTEN 241
sunrise on the Jungfrau. It was the finest thing I
ever saw. It was so hard to come away and not go
to the mountain when we were within fifteen miles.
The Swiss wood carvers live in this village. More
than a thousand people work at it here. The life
is so sweet and peaceful and so beautiful in its sur-
roundings and simplicity that Robert wished he could
live there always. The little Swiss chalets are ex-
ceedingly picturesque, and they look so neat and
(Iran. The women and children are bright and smart
and they don't waste time in fine parlors and flounces.
They can turn hay or carve wood and speak three
languages.
COLOGNE, July 22, 1876.
It is so strange to be where everything has been
made from earliest time. We cannot realize it, we
whose grandfathers conquered the wilderness, what
it is to live where the same houses and streets have
hi in just the same for a thousand years and to live
on a spot inhabited for more than two thousand
years.
Nature has done much for our country and man
is rivalling nature as was perhaps natural in a coun-
try where Nature, as it were, defied man. A new race
is springing up to whom the labors of Hercules will
not seem impossible. But I must not ramble on this
way. I am an enthusiastic Yankee and I am afraid
I am of the present age which tears away the veil to
see what is behind.
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
DRESDEN, August 6, 1876.
We are all bewitched with Dresden. The Gallery
of Paintings is a revelation to us, the pictures are
so beautiful. I want so many of them in photographs
that Robert is laughing at my extravagance. I have
been so good until now, but now I am spending such
a lot of money.
LEIPSIC, Monday, August 7.
We arrived here this evening. Walked out and
took in the general features of the famous university
town and remarked on the variety of its odors.
[Mrs. Richards had what has been called an "edu-
cated nose."]
BRUSSELS, August 13.
At Liege we spent one day in visiting the immense
iron and zinc works. Then we came on to Brussels
yesterday. There we visited the International Exhi-
bition of Hygiene and Remedial Appliances, and saw
surgeon's bandages, hospital cars, health clothing,
etc. . . . On our return home we shall go to the Cen-
tennial exhibition at Philadelphia. We shall remain
about a week I suppose and I want you [her mother]
to go with us. I have decided to give you that pleas-
ure instead of the checked silk dress which I intended
to bring you.
No letters written from the Centennial Exhibition
have been found; but years after she visited it,
Mrs. Richards said in a little leaflet entitled, "Ex-
hibits and the Home Economics Movement": "To
the casual onlooker the growth of the domestic
IX JOURXEYIXGS OFTEX
science cult may seem to have been fortuitous or
spasmodic or sporadic even, but there is a distinct
trail back to the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876,
when America was awakened to its own deficiencies
in the culinary art, and in house furnishing and
decoration among other things. These deficiencies
clearly indicated the necessity for a wider knowledge
of science in household management. The manual
training idea, developed from the work of Russia
and Sweden shown at this exposition, gave impetus
and opportunity to American adaptation. Many
lines of progress started in this world exposition of
1876."
September 5, 1877.
I expect to get my vacation in going to the
Tennessee exhibition as juror on Education in
October.
In 1873 Miss Swallow had joined the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (A 3 S
she used to write it for short), and in 1877 she was
elected a fellow. From that time on, many of her
trips were to its annual meetings.
GARDINER, MAINE, 1879.
We have just been to the American Association
meeting at Saratoga. I appealed to the chemists
there to help in this matter of Household Chemistry.
I seem to have got drawn into that track now and
must follow it out whether or no. It is an open field
244 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
but much study will be required in it. I am to pre-
pare a paper, on the ingredients of food liable to
adulteration, this winter.
During the summers of 1881 and 1882 she worked
with Professor Richards in Northern Michigan.
CALUMET, MICHIGAN,
July 8, 1881.
I have the laboratory work about started and have
just enough to do to keep me from being lonely. I
have a young man to wait on me and I shall find it
hard to come back to do my own cleaning up. In
fact it is very good fun. The only trouble is that
it looks as though I were not going to see Robert but
once a week. He went down to the mill at the Lake
on Wednesday and is not coming back until Satur-
day night. However, it is only five miles and the ore
cars go up and down several times a day and besides
there is telephone communication between the two
offices. On the w r hole things are going as well as can
be expected and we have reason to be satisfied. It
will be good experience for both of us. I only hope
you [her mother] will keep comfortable. . . .
This is Yankee land even if it is so far away.
CALUMET, June 17, 1882.
[To her mother]
I wish you could take one walk through these
woods. Such a profusion of wild flowers and such
luxuriant growth I never saw before. I have been
IX JOURNEYINGS OFTEN 245
out nearly every day and my room is full of bottles
and tumblers of bloom. I have found some 25 kinds
already ; most of them are familiar friends but two
are new to me.
DENVER, COLORADO,
August 20, 1882.
Here I am enjoying my first glimpse of the West
and of the old Rocky Mountains. Miss Gushing
(Vassar 1874) and Miss Minns came to Calumet
about the first of August, and staid with me two
weeks. Then we went to Duluth, thence by the
Northern Pacific as far as Fargo. We spent such
an interesting day there. We rode through the wheat
fields which extend for thirty miles and in one day
we gathered 67 new flowers. We came down first for
a day in St. Paul, then a day in Omaha, then on here.
We enjoyed it all. Miss Minns and I had never seen
the plains and we got much excited over the flowers.
We start on Monday morning for ten days among
these lovely mountains with the Institute of Mining
Engineers. We shall see nearly all the nice things.
I go directly back to Calumet to finish my work
there. [In 1879 Mrs. Richards had been elected a
member of the American Institute of Mining Engi-
neers in recognition of her scientific work. She was
the only woman ever elected to active membership.]
Ox THE TRAIN,
September, 1882.
I have conic back from the West with the feeling
that our Eastern people make a mistake to go to
2-46 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Europe year after year and never to really visit our
Western Country. The enterprise and bold venture
of the people and the lofty mountains and deep
canons and vast plains seem to me to be far more
interesting than the sleepy ignorant peasant living
on black bread with no thoughts or ideas above it,
or than the piles of stone already crumbling at the
base before the top is finished. When I emigrate
from New England I think I shall go West, where
there is a little "go" in the air.
In 1883 she went with Professor Richards to
Virginia, where he was holding a movable School of
Mines. That year she went ahead of the party and
arranged its itinerary.
Low MOOR, VIRGINIA,
June 19, 1883.
A good deal has happened in the last twenty-four
hours. When I stopped writing we got on to the
flat car and were taken down by gravity, coasting
the three miles. It was a novel experience for most.
Then we started up suddenly to go into a cave just
opened in getting limestone where there were iron
ore stalactites as well as calcite ones. It was the
roughest trip I ever took. I went up a rope some
thirty feet almost hand over hand and then stumbled
over the uneven ground of the freshly opened cave.
I got muddy from head to foot but we got some
lovely things and it was a spicy adventure, especially
the coming down.
IN JOURXEYIXGS OFTEN 247
GARDINER, MAINE,
September, 1883.
We are having a few days on the Kennebec at my
husband's old home. I dare say I have written to
you before from here. It is very lovely although the
drought has left the hills brown and is taking the
leaves from the trees very fast. Now and then we
see some brilliant tree but I fear the colors will not
be fine.
Our occupation here is social gayety, strange to
say, tea parties and dinner parties, evening after
evening, or excursions by water or land. The family
has a steam launch carrying some twenty-nine per-
sons which is very convenient for excursions. We
all went down to the sea at Booth Bay on Monday.
It was a perfect day and we had five little girl
cousins to enliven the older people.
In 1884, after her appointment as Instructor in
Sanitary Chemistry, Mrs. Richards made a trip to
England for the purpose of attending the Interna-
tional Health Exhibition at South Kensington and
to get material which would be of service to her in
her work. She was accompanied on this trip by
Miss Alice Palmer, who had been one of the first stu-
dents in the Woman's Laboratory. After attending
the exhibition they made a trip to the Land of the
Midnight Sun, which Mrs. Richards had long looked
forward to visiting. This was probably the only
place she ever visited in her life where the days had
enough hours to suit her.
248 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
The letters which she wrote about the exhibition
and the conferences are not to be found, and very
unfortunately, for she made constant references to
this visit in later years, and it seems in many ways
to have marked an advance in her thought. Years
later she wrote: "I do hope the Chicago exposition
can make a good showing in the educational line, for
I have such vivid recollections of the excellence of
the educational side of the London Health Exposition
in 1884 that I know how much we have to do to sur-
pass that. It has been my inspiration ever since.
I do not believe a school in America can make such
a showing of Domestic Economy as that in Belgium,
nor a Normal School surpass that of Tokyo, Japan."
And again: "In England, in 1884, I saw young men
from the universities in the Board Schools giving
instruction as to babies' milk. In America we have
allowed the newspapers and the magazines to give
the public instruction that belongs to universities."
BIRMINGHAM, June 12.
The grand Educational Conference at the Health
Exhibition is to be held August 4 to 9 and I
must be here then so we shall be off for Norway
July 1st. Tuesday June 24 I spent solid at the
Health Exhibition.
STEAMER ANGELO, NORTH SEA,
July 5, 1884, 8.30 P.M.
At the present moment the sun is nearing the
horizon and sending to us a broad path of orange-
IN JOURNEYINGS OFTEN 249
red light while the gentle billows all around are
tinged with the most beautiful shades. The moon,
nearly full, beams upon us the other side. A vessel
with curiously shaped sails lights up just astern.
We have seen so many vessels today, it seems not
at all a desert waste. The craft are all small but
very picturesque with their colored sails.
11 P.M., July 14, 1884.
We are just crossing the Arctic Circle. I do not
see any special ceremonies going on but I must write
up today's journal on the spot. I wish you all could
see this landscape. We are making for some high
islands which are green nearly to their tops with
many houses on the low shores. Directly behind there
is a high snow-capped range of very serrated peaks.
The quarter moon hangs large and bright a little
above the horizon at an angle of about 45 from our
course. On the left at about the same angle is a
low place in the mountains which glows with the sun
just below the horizon. It did not disappear until
10.15. The light over all is indescribably beautiful.
Robert will know a little how it is from our beauti-
ful Calumet sunsets.
1 o'clock, July 15.
We are still sitting in the shelter of the prow
where we were at 11. The sun is nearly rising and
the colors are wonderful. These two hours have
been a succession of marvels. We have been passing
among the strangest shaped peaks and in sight of
high mountains, snow-capped. It is all so strangely
beautiful that it must be seen to be at all appreciated.
250 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
1.45 P.M.
We are still here. It has been too delightful to
leave. The Captain either gulled the people or they
misunderstood him for we are now just crossing the
Arctic Circle, just as the sun is going to appeal-
behind some high hills which have hid it.
REDRUTH, August 13, 1884.
We reached Truro one hour late last night about
9 o'clock. Found the Red Lion very nice and his-
toric, 1631. This morning we visited the museum
and the town, saw a smelting house under repair, had
an hour's talk with the people, got a good basketful
of specimens and took the 1.30 train for this place,
where we shall visit the Mining Institute and some
smelting works in operation.
The following letter was written to Mrs. Rogers,
widow of the founder of the Institute of Technology,
who had shared her husband's pioneer labors and
retained after his death a vital interest in the Insti-
tute. Mrs. Richards was always at pains to keep her
informed about the work, and used often to spend a
few restful days at her Newport home, which she
once described as "within sound of the breakers,
away from all sound of the Newport life."
GRASS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA,
July 3, 1885.
We spent a week in Denver and Boulder and a day
in Pueblo where there are three of our graduates. . . .
IN JOURNEYINGS OFTEN 251
Our greatest trip was the Grand Canon of the
Colorado river. We did not of course follow Powell
on his journey on the river itself, which must be
very dangerous, so we did not get the full grandeur
of the gorge, but we saw more than we could take
in of the mighty cliffs seamed with these rifts or
canons, in all directions. Since the strata of sand-
stone are left nearly horizontal the effect to the eye
is not as impressive as the great height would war-
rant. For instance, standing at the base of a cliff
4,800 feet in almost perpendicular height it was very
hard to believe it was half that height only after
some time and after repeated comparisons with the
shrubs and cacti could one at all realize the immensity
of the rock enclosing us. ...
The Yosemite Valley is a gem set in grandeur. It
is finer than I had supposed. The photographs do
not give an adequate idea of it. It is, like Norwegian
scenery, on too grand a scale to be reduced to paper
size. But I think the Trees have made the deepest
impression upon me. California may well boast of
her Trees, and they should be spelled with a capital
T when they are written about.
We have set our faces eastward and are now going
among the mines. We visited the Quicksilver mine
of New Almaden and we are now among the gold
mines. The Hydraulic mines are stopped but we find
many quartz veins still worked.
This place is an ideal mining town. They have
plenty of water and each house in the village has its
garden and shrubbery, while large locust and poplar
trees line the streets. . . .
252 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Robert has been for the most part quite well, but
the long drives in the sun seem to tire him more than
they do me. I am very strong and seem to endure
all sorts of knocking about.
Repeatedly during this trip she made reference
to the strain upon Professor Richards of the travel-
ing and of the work. The fact is that for many
years he had been working at too high pressure.
Between 1878 and 1883, years of financial depression
for the Institute, he had not only directed the work
of his own department, but filled the office of secre-
tary, and when he gave up this extra work it was
only to be faced by large arrears in his own profes-
sional labors. For years he was in low physical
condition, and the crisis came in the fall of 1887,
when he had a long and serious siege of typhoid
pneumonia.
32 Eliot Street,
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASSACHUSETTS,
December 13, 1886.
Your letter came in the week when we dared to
hope that Professor Richards was really coming back
to life after three weeks of very dangerous Typhoid
Pneumonia. So your imagination of the even tenor
of my ways was partly correct. Robert is now down
stairs and doing very nicely indeed but he had a hard
time of it, the fever ran four weeks in all. I had two
nurses, sent mother away and had a regular hospital
with hours strictly kept so that I went out nearly
IX JOURXEYINGS OFTEN 253
every day for air and nerves. I found it made a
difference and I had to keep my head level. Dr. Wil-
liams staid in the house for eight nights so I was
relieved of the worst strain.
I have a very good assistant this year and so by
going in for an hour or two I could keep the work
going on. We also managed to plan Robert's work
so the students have not suffered. Of course other
outside work has been mostly put one side.
For several years after this, Mrs. Richards seems
to have contented herself with short trips. Pro-
fessor Richards's sickness and long convalescence,
the sanitary survey which was then in progress, a
fall on the rocks at the seashore which partially dis-
abled her for a long time, her mother's declining
health, and the great pressure of work connected with
the New England Kitchen and the School Lunches
combined to prevent her from going far from home.
This was the time, too, when she was finding joy and
recreation with her beautiful Duchess, the horse for
which she had an affection that in a weaker woman
of fewer interests might have seemed unreasonable.
A few weeks after Duchess died, she wrote: "It has
been a delightfully warm, sunny day, but no longer
do such days bring me pleasure. Since my beautiful
Duchess went to the land of perpetual sunshine I
would rather it rained. I never have been for a drive
or walk even over the old roads."
254 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
PROVINCE-TOWN, July 19, 1887.
Miss Capen came down from Northampton last
Thursday and I proposed to her one of our four day
trips to some unexplored country of coolness and
drives. We decided on the Cape as quite unknown
to us although only four hours from Boston. So
yesterday morning we left Jamaica Plain about half
past seven and had dinner here. We walked about
this queer old town and then were driven over to the
life saving station across billows of sand, through
thickets of blueberry, wild pear, beech and plums,
over cranberry bogs and turf roads. It is all new
and interesting, this out of the way corner town, half
Portuguese, half old whaling population and queer
collections of houses looking as if there had been a
shower of houses and they had staid where they had
fallen, as some one has remarked of them. We have
seen the curing of the codfish and heard how the
Nova Scotia fishermen have spoiled trade.
This point is only sand, so the vessels coming
home bring as ballast a load of loam for the gardens
or of gravel for the streets so that Provincetown is
made up of a little of everywhere.
In August, 1888, Mrs. Richards and Miss Marian
Talbot took a carriage trip through the White
Mountains, during which Mrs. Richards selected a
site for a summer cottage at Randolph, New Hamp-.
shire. Her account of this journey written to Pro-
fessor Richards was in the form of a narrative
entitled, "The Adventures of Black Billv in the White
IX JOURXEYIXGS OFTEN
255
Mountains," and was supposedly written by the horse
which she drove. At the point, however, where
"Madame and Mademoiselle," the two strange women
traveling alone, chose to climb mountains, Black Billy
was dependent upon Bruce, the collie, for informa-
tion. Bruce reported:
"A preliminary trial of strength was made by
ascending Ran _, C^~^ -s dolph Hill by a
&>\
f m
7
The
path through the woods one and one-half miles and
then descending by the road three miles. Madam
selected a house lot on the Hill and she declared
she had never seen so fine a view of the mountains."
[Mrs. Richards bought the house lot referred to,
but did not see it again until 1904, when she built
on it a cottage which she named "The Balsams."]
"At 6 o'clock on Wednesday morning the party
started for the Mount Adams trip. The trail, for
that is all the so-called path is, at first runs through
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
a meadow across Moose river, on stepping stones,
then through heavy woods where considerable logging
has been done so that the guide could not
find his own path. But after climbing
View from " TJie Balsams "
through many fallen trees and wading several bogs,
a more solid ground was reached. Then every step
was up. Four thousand feet in four miles means a
rise at every foot, some of the way steeper than old-
fashioned back stairs. Madam with her 155 pounds
IN JOURXEYINGS OFTEN 257
weight to carry took frequent occasions to admire
the trees and moss and abundant Spring flowers
when there was no view to exclaim over or no spring
of clear, cold water to test.
"Four hours brought the party out to a rock
where there were low trees and alpine flowers but
nothing to obstruct the view. Fortunately clouds
tempered the heat of the sun without cutting off a
view of the landscape. Specimens of plants had to
be gathered and 12 o'clock found the party camped
for luncheon at the foot of an immense snow bank
which furnished a small river of cool water.
"... The sharp, stony peak looked a great way
off. A sharp scramble, however, conquered and on
the topmost stone the eye commanded a view not to
be forgotten. The day was a perfect success, a
delight to all."
The summer of 1893 and much of the following
autumn she spent at the World's Fair, superintend-
ing the work of the Rumford Kitchen. The Fair
itself she described in Whitmanesque fashion as a
"most wonderful exhibition of American brag, cour-
age, and persistence a grand scene art archi-
tecture in fact, everything good and everything
bad at the same time."
During the last fifteen years of her life, she trav-
eled increasingly, but almost invariably her journey-
ings were for the purpose of lecturing or of attend-
ing conventions or committee meetings. In 1886 she
258 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
had added the American Public Health Association,
and about the same time the National Educational
Association, to the list of societies whose conventions
she faithfully attended, and in 1899 she started the
Lake Placid Conference. The expenditure of money
and of time involved in these journeys was enormous.
What others spend in pleasure trips she spent in
seeking the fellowship of people of kindred minds
and purposes, in this way demonstrating the strength
of her interest and faith in the organizations to
which she had given her allegiance.
nl Club
CHAPTER
LAKE PLACID CONFERENCE
THIS record, necessarily incomplete, and probably
further from complete than even those realize who
are most familiar with her work, will serve to show
the discipline, the experience, the knowledge, the
training, the acquaintance with people and with
organizations which Mrs. Richards brought to the
organized Home Economics movement which had its
beginning in the first Lake Placid Conference of
Home Economics, held in 1899.
In reviewing the work of the Lake Placid Confer-
ence, she once said, "The movement took rise in the
same realization of 'the inconvenience of ignorance'
260 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
that led John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, to
found a school in 1690 Ho do away with it.' " The
form of ignorance which in 1899 had grown so in-
convenient as to call for a united effort to "do away
with it" was in connection with household adminis-
tration under the new conditions which great social
and industrial changes had brought. "The flow of
industry had passed on and had left idle the loom
in the attic, the soap kettle in the shed." The form
of the home was being gradually but surely changed,
not, however, because of intelligent direction from
within, but through pressure from without. The
thoughtless were content to allow the changes to
proceed, lead where they would, but the wise were
anxious. They began to ask, to use Mrs. Richards's
own words: "What are the essentials which must be
retained in a house if it is to be the home? What
work may be done outside? What standards must
be maintained within? How can the schools be made
to help? What instruction should go into the cur-
riculum of the lower schools, and what is the duty
of the higher educational and professional schools?
What forces in the community can be roused to
action to secure for the coming race the benefits
of material progress?"
But besides great needs, the times presented great
opportunities. These are best described, perhaps, in
the words of another enthusiastic advocate of organ-
ization in the interest of home life, Professor W. O.
LAKE PLACID CONFERENCE 261
Atwater, who said, "The science of household eco-
nomics is in what chemists call a state of super-
saturated solution; it needs only the insertion of
a needle point to start a crystallization." The
needle point was inserted during a social visit which
Mrs. Richards made to the Lake Placid Club in
September, 1898. At that time she was asked to
speak to the members of the Club on the domestic
service problem, and out of the discussion which
followed her address came the determination to hold
an annual conference at the Lake Placid Club to
consider home problems.
Mrs. Richards's visit to the Club has been described
as "social," but it had another purpose. As we
know, she seldom traveled merely for her own pleas-
ure or, except in cases of special need, in order to
make visits among her relatives and friends. In this
case it happened that she had been called upon to
advise with Mr. Melvil Dewey, who at the time was
the Director of the State Library and of Home
Education in New York State, with reference to the
regents' examinations. The regents had, in 1896,
decided to give Household Science a place in the
examination tests which the state makes for college
entrance, and in outlining the questions Mr. Dewey
had turned to Mrs. Richards for assistance. Lake
Placid was the summer home of Mr. and Mrs. Dewey,
and Mrs. Richards's visit, therefore, was something
more than social, since it offered the desired oppor-
262 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
tunity to talk over educational reforms with Mr.
and Mrs. Dewey; it was a chance to push forward
the battle line.
Those who loved Mrs. Richards, and they were
many, like to think that this crowning labor of hers
the organized Home Economics movement had
its beginning in a place of marvelous natural beauty,
for during her whole life a Puritan sense of duty
and a Spartan self-control had kept her in stud} 7 ,
in office, and in laboratory when a passion for
natural beauty would have led her into the open
country. The Lake Placid Club lies on the shore of
a quiet lake, which mirrors the mountains and the
trees by which it is surrounded. In this beautiful
spot in the heart of the Adirondacks, Mr. and
Mrs. Dewey had made a home for themselves, repro-
ducing the comforts of their city life and all that
contributes to efficiency, and leaving behind all that
encumbers and impedes. The Club buildings, of which
their home is one, as they have increased in number
under their wise direction (for Mr. and Mrs. Dewey
have for some years devoted their time to the affairs
of the Lake Placid Club), have so found their places
in the landscape as to enhance rather than to destroy
its beauty. The physical features of the Club are
therefore, because of their convenience and beauty,
a constant object lesson in the art of right living.
On September 19, 1899, somewhat more than a
year after Mrs. Richards's first visit to the Club, the
LAKE PLACID CONFERENCE 263
first Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics
was held in a room over the boathouse, which may
be described as a fresh-air library. To call it a
"library" conveys the idea that it was full of books
and periodicals conveniently arranged for use, which
is correct, but it gives no suggestion of the splendor
of its outlook over the water to the mountains, or
of the bracing quality of its air. It was a fit place
for the organization into a working group of those
who were seeking to learn from Nature through
Science how to live.
The charter members who met on those beautiful
September days of the first Conference were later
described by Mrs. Richards: "Six were teachers,
lecturers, and authors (two being pioneers in the
means of better living and good food one with
much practical experience as well; one wise in
rural needs, and two in close contact with school
work) ; there w r as one with a large heart for the wel-
fare of the race and eager to contribute, one with
faith in science as a cure-all, one wise with the wis-
dom of the future, full of hope and zeal for her sex
and its future ; one an optimist, with zeal and a belief
that to know the right thing was to do it, and one
who represented the intelligent housekeeper's side."
Of those who were described by Mrs. Richards as
"teachers, lecturers, and authors," three besides her-
self have laid down their labors : Miss Maria Parloa,
who was remarkable in this that while she might have
264 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
argued from her phenomenal success as a teacher of
cooking that the informal training which she had
received was sufficient, always insisted that those who
were to follow in her footsteps must have a scientific
basis for their work; Miss Maria Daniell, pioneer
in institutional management and enthusiast for the
development of the work to which she had self -forget-
fully and courageously given her life; and the one
"wise in the wisdom of the future and full of zeal
for her sex," Miss Emily Huntington, widely known
as the originator of the Kitchen Garden method of
teaching housekeeping to children. The other teach-
ers were Miss Anna Barrows, who was "wise in rural
needs" because of her successful connection with
Grange and Farmers' Institute work; Mrs. Alice
Peloubet Norton, then supervisor of Domestic Sci-
ence in the public schools of Brookline, Massachu-
setts, but soon to be chosen head of the department
of Household Science in the School of Education
connected with the L T niversity of Chicago ; and Miss
Louisa A. Nicholass, of the State Normal School,
Framingham, Massachusetts, who had organized one
of the first normal courses in household arts. The
one representing the intelligent housekeeper's side
was Mrs. William G. Shailcr, president of the
New York Household Economic Association, a state
branch of a society which shortly afterwards became
incorporated in the Household Economics commit-
tee of the General Federation of Women's Clubs;
I \
LAKE PLACID CONFERENCE 265
and the one described as "having a large heart for
the welfare of her race," Mrs. William V. Kellen,
of Boston, who had made the School Lunch project
possible. The person with "faith in science as a
cure-all" was, of course, Mrs. Richards, while
Mrs. Dewey was the optimist with "zeal and a belief
that to know the right was to do it."
This Conference, which had opened so auspiciously
as far as place and membership are concerned, con-
tinued for ten years a semi-private organization, with
attendance by invitation of the Lake Placid Club,
through either Mrs. Dewey or Mrs. Richards. The
meetings were always held before the first of July or
after the fifteenth of September, when the Club was
not likely to be crowded. Through the generosity
of Mr. and Mrs. Dewey, speakers and members of
committees were entertained. Others were given spe-
cial rates at the club, without which it would often
have been difficult for them to meet the expense of a
long journey to the mountains.
The record of the work of the Lake Placid Con-
ference of Home Economics has been preserved in
annual reports which are a valuable contribution to
the literature of the subject. The story has been
twice told in brief; first, in an address given by
Mrs. Richards on the occasion of the tenth meeting,
when preparations were being made for the formation
of a national organization; and second, in a carefully
formulated letter of appreciation from the Confer-
266 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
ence to its leader. The first is valuable because it
gives Mrs. Richards 's own point of view and her own
estimate of the value of the proceedings of the Con-
ference, though it leaves her connection with the
work to the imagination of the reader. The second
gives the members' own estimate of the usefulness of
her connection with the organization.
After outlining in her report the conditions which
led to the movement, Mrs. Richards goes into de-
tails of the work, telling first how the Conference
set about securing for its subject a place in library
classification which would provide for development
along right lines. In the Dewey Decimal Classifica-
tion they had found it entered as one of the useful
arts, but, as Mrs. Richards said, that put it under
"Production," and the home was no longer an im-
portant industrial center, while it had great respon-
sibilities in connection with the use of wealth. The
Conference therefore insisted that Home Economics
should be classified under "The economics of con-
sumption." This may seem a little matter, but in
that experimental period it meant very much to give
readers and students a suggestion that Home Eco-
nomics involves vital matters connected wuth social
economy as well as the arts of cooking and sewing.
But much more important was the way in which
the subject of Home Economics was being presented
in the schools. Concerning this, Mrs. Richards said,
in a report referring to conditions in the year 1898 :
LAKE PLACID CONFERENCE 267
"Ten years ago domestic science meant to most
people lessons in cooking and sewing given to classes
of the poorer children supported by charitable peo-
ple, in order to enable them to teach their parents
to make a few pennies go as far as a dollar spent in
the shops. To do this, common American foods were
cooked in American ways, regardless of the nation-
ality of the children, and usually failed to please
the inherited foreign tastes. But complacent philan-
thropists felt happy in having offered bread to the
starving, as they were pictured to be, and pretty
bad bread it often was, judged by European stand-
ards. . . .
"So also the tradition of the valuelessness of a
woman's time kept the plain sewing to the front, and
classes were taught seams and ruffles and cheap orna-
mentation in the false assumption that it was econ-
omy. As late as the St. Louis Exposition, in 1903,
the work of the public schools of this country was
almost without exception bad from an ethical point
of view, showing waste of time and material and the
inculcation of bad taste. The work of the American
public schools must have an ethical quality if it is
to give us good citizens.
"Almost all the early work in sewing as well as
cooking done in the country was wrong, and a plea
for a fuller acknowledgment of the economic and
ethical was made in the name adopted by the Lake
Placid Conference after much thought and a full dis-
268 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
cussion home economics: home meaning the place
for the shelter and nurture of children or for the de-
velopment of self-sacrificing qualities and of strength
to meet the world; economics meaning the manage-
ment of this home on economic lines as to time and
energy as well as to money. Lake Placid stood from
the first for a study of these economic and ethical
problems, let them lead where they would. And they
have certainly led very far from the earlier ideals
of domestic economy. Real progress is often re-
tarded by trying to make the new fit into the old
scheme of things. It has been the endeavor of the
program committee to secure speakers and writers
with a penetrating vision of the future as fore-
shadowed by the tendencies to be felt if not seen.
Just as the dark end of the spectrum so long disre-
garded has proved to be of the greatest importance
in cosmic interpretation, so the obscure indication
of social movements is leading us to clearer concep-
tions of the goal whither society is tending; and
right in the conditions of home life is found the
strongest indicator.
"Such topics as the following are found in the
programs of these early years : training of teachers
of domestic science; courses of study for grade
schools as well as colleges and universities ; state,
agricultural, evening, and vacation schools; exten-
sion teaching; rural school work; home economics
in women's clubs with syllabuses to aid such study:
LAKE PLACID CONFERENCE 269
manual training in education for citizenship. All
these lead toward higher education in better living,
the new science of Euthenics, as an essential pre-
liminary to the study of the better race, a study
to which Mr. Francis Galton has given the name
Eugenics. From the very first special emphasis was
laid on the educational possibilities of the work.
"Domestic science at farmers' institutes, simpli-
fied methods of housekeeping, standards of living in
the conduct of the home and in relation to sanitary
science, household industrial problems, labor saving
appliances, cost of living, standards of wages and
the ever irritating question of tips and fees, have
all been discussed.
"Programs have included the food problem in its
many phases, from fads and fancies to protein metab-
olism and mineral matter required by the human
body ; nutrition, sanitation, hygiene, progress in
work for public health represented by the work of
the Health Education League and the Committee
of One Hundred on National Health, leading to
efficiency as the keynote of the 20th century.
"Economics in trade and professional schools,
home economics in training schools for nurses, the
hospital dietitian and the status of institution man-
agers, recent dietetic experiments at Yale Univer-
sity, cooperation with the work of the United States
Department of Agriculture at Washington, reports
from the American School of Correspondence, even
270 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
psychic factors affecting home economics and cost
of living have been considered.
"The interest of the educator, the schoolman and
the woman teacher was no less difficult to arouse
than that of the housewife. The school curriculum
was sacred to the usual academic subjects.
"Only this past week has seen the fruition of the
efforts made by the conference annually to have
the subject brought before the National Education
Association.
"The teaching section of the Lake Placid Con-
ference, organized in New York in December, 1906,
held a full meeting in Chicago, December, 1907, and
has collected valuable data for use in further work.
It has been the means of uniting the workers of all
sections and of making known some of the good work
done.
"But after all it is the economy of human mind
and force that is most important, and so long as
the nurture of these is best accomplished within the
four walls of a home, so long will the word Home
stand first in our title."
Such was the work of the Lake Placid Conference
as Mrs. Richards saw it; her own connection with
it is not made evident by her. It was set forth, how-
ever, in an address prepared to honor Mrs. Richards,
which was presented during the meeting of the Con-
ference in 1905. It was signed by all those who had
LAKE PLACID CONFERENCE 271
received the benefits of the meetings, and later it was
engrossed, illuminated, bound, and presented to her
as a permanent expression of appreciation:
"Every movement for social betterment is made
up at its beginning of apparently diversified unre-
lated forces. Their common ground of agreement,
their possible rallying point for combined effort, may
be hidden from the ordinary observer, but stand fully
revealed to the born leader. To such a one, pos-
sessed of imagination and enthusiasm, it is granted
to see how this rich variety of experience and sugges-
tion may be used in building up a unity which is yet
various, and whose different parts when nourished
and grown strong may establish their separate activi-
ties. There comes a time in the history of every
social and educational movement when the need
for thus unifying the work of individuals is so great
that without it further progress is difficult, if not
impossible.
"Such an organization, Mrs. Richards, was effected
by you in the Lake Placid Conference, which held its
first meeting in 1899. It was instantly recognized
as offering inspiration and practical help to workers
in many different fields, to all those, in fact, who were
laboring directly or indirectly for the betterment of
the home and for good citizenship. It appealed to the
student of practical hygiene; to the teacher of sew-
ing and cooking in the public schools ; to the kinder-
gartner and manual training teacher seeking to
establish the relation to brain development of the
272 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
training of hand and eye; to the educator engaged
in outlining the purposes and methods for training;
to the adult as housekeeper, as matron of public
institutions, as teacher or nurse ; to the club worker
desirous of finding out the best ways of serving her
fellow-citizen; to the thoughtful woman, interested
primarily in the well-being of one home, but seeing
that many forces must work together for that end.
All these students and workers have received help
from the Lake Placid Conference in fuller measure
than could have been foreseen at its inception. By
able committees whose work has extended over sev-
eral years, it has built up a consistent course of
study for elementary, high, collegiate, and tech-
nical schools; by the help of another committee, it
has obtained through the catalogue system of the
American Library Association the proper place for
books on Home Economics, thus smoothing the path
of the students in this and kindred lines; it has
simplified the nomenclature and defined the use of
terms formerly employed with different meanings in
different schools and localities ; it has furnished well-
formulated syllabuses for school and club study on
Food, Clothing, Shelter, and the Expenditure of the
Family Income; it has preserved, in a permanent
form in the annual report, discussions by specialists
on a large range of topics; it has thrown light on
all of these subjects through the cooperation of edu^
cators, not only of our own land, but of England,
Canada, and Australia; it helped to increase the
number of free government bulletins at the disposal
LAKE PLACID CONFERENCE 273
of students, by petitioning Congress for additional
grants to the Department of Agriculture to be used
in nutrition investigations ; it has suggested and
made possible the establishment of summer schools,
evening classes, and courses of lectures in many
localities; it has helped in building up the corre-
spondence in Home Economics; it has brought to
the knowledge of members the best books on special
topics, and has suggested the need and the scope of
new ones, such as that valuable series on The Cost
of Living, The Cost of Food, and The Cost of
Shelter, all of which have been written since the
Conference was organized.
"One of the chief functions of the Lake Placid
Conference has been to put in touch with each other
persons of like interests and pursuits from widely
separated parts of the country. This has often re-
sulted in bringing to a given work the very worker
who could successfully carry it forward and has
made it possible to bring together students of special
subjects for the giving of valuable courses of lec-
tures. At these conferences the brave and enter-
prising West has come to learn of the more experi-
enced East, and the East has in turn learned of a
vast and prosperous region where home life and
farm life still have the old, close relation which has
furnished ideal conditions for character building.
"The dominant note in the deliberations of this
Conference, that which has given it its distinctive
character, is the ever present sense of the end for
which all this educational machinery exists, 'the
271 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
promotion of healthful, moral, and progressive home
and family life, the indispensable basis of national
prosperity.' The Conference has repeatedly pointed
out that 'no person has a better opportunity to
separate convention from good living than the
teacher of housekeeping methods.' That there may
be 'standards of living,' and that light may be thrown
on them by acknowledged principles of economic and
social science, and that these standards should be
treated from the point of view of their relation to
physical and moral health, are doctrines which have
taken form in this Conference with clearness and
force. It has been recognized that the home cannot
adjust itself to the rapidly changing conditions of
modern times without help from trained people work-
ing through the only medium, the school, hence the
importance of placing courses in Home Economics
on a sound educational and scientific basis.
"Best of all, this Conference has been character-
ized by a sunny atmosphere of courage, helpfulness,
and enthusiasm. It has been especially full of in-
spiration to the young teacher. 'For two years,'
said one, 'the Conference gave me all the help I had.'
'What I learned that others had done nerved me to
the task of starting practical courses in the rural
schools of my state,' said another.
"It is impossible to give due credit to all the
different factors that have united in producing this
whole, making of it an educational influence which
it is believed will be a power for good in the land.
The name and place of meeting suggest the debt of
LAKE PLACID CONFERENCE
the Conference to Mr. and Mrs. Melvil Dewey, who,
not only by their generous hospitality, but by their
wise counsel and encouragement, have made the Con-
ference possible. But there has been no doubt in the
mind of even the most casual observer of the Con-
ference that you, its Chairman, were the inspiring
genius and leader of it all. It is you who have drawn
around you these workers from far and near and
given them quickened thought and a vision of how
'all things work together'; it is you who have ever
seen the main issue clear through confusing details
and have pointed out not only ideals but the open
way to their realization. But we who love and honor
you can give no better proof of our feeling than to
obey what we know would be your wish, and leave
unwritten the volume of your good deeds.
" 'Our chief want in life is some one who shall make
us do what we can. There is a sublime attraction in
him to whatever virtue is in us.' '
Never was there such a leader as Mrs. Richards.
Before she came to a meeting of the Lake Placid
Conference she had her plans all fully laid in accord-
ance with her idea of what was due to the busy people
whom she was bringing together. She had provided,
too, for reports in newspapers and periodicals, and
had decided how she herself would use every hour,
almost every minute. Arrived on the scene, she was
up at daybreak preparing for the day's work. In
some way she succeeded in making every one want
to be on hand at the right moment and to fill his or
276 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
her part in the program creditably, whether it was
in speaking, in committee work, or the recording or
reporting of proceedings. She could cut off fruit-
less debate without injuring any one's feelings, and
could bring out all of value that the members had
to contribute, and at the same time suppress all that
was irrelevant. A certain prosperous business man
who was a guest at the Lake Placid Club used often
to come to the door of the room where the Confer-
ences were held and stand for a few moments watch-
ing and listening intently. The cause of his interest
was for a long time a mystery, but finally he was
heard to say: "I always like to see that little woman
conduct a meeting. It is an education in itself."
But he could see only how she was directing those
forces which she had in hand at the moment. He
little suspected that her generalship extended beyond
the time and the place of the Conference, and that
the effective ordering of the programs was only one
manifestation of her organizing ability.
She always insisted on the subordination of social
features to the real work of the Conference. An
early morning climb to the top of "Cobble," a hill
near the Club, might clear the brain for a day's
work, and she would enter into such an expedition
with enthusiasm. But upon festivities which took
time and energy that ought to go into the work to
make it effective, she looked with disapproval.
As a means of "getting things done," the Lake
LAKE PLACID CONFERENCE 277
Placid Conference was a working body which might
well stand as a model, particularly in these times
when conventions, even of learned societies, are too
often given over so largely to social functions.
Although the Lake Placid Conference retained
for ten years the name of the place where it was
organized, it held two meetings elsewhere; one in the
year 1903 in Boston, where a joint session with
the Manual Training Section of the National Edu-
cation Association was held, and one in 1908 at
Chautauqua, New York. It was at this last-named
meeting that plans were laid for changing the Con-
ference into a national organization. Mrs. Richards
had always had in mind that such a change must
come in time, but she believed that it would be most
unfortunate if the larger organization came into
being before the smaller one had been effectively
organized and its work thoroughly systematized.
Sla- believed firmly that good work was to be pre-
ferred to large size and wide public notice. At the
ninth Conference at Lake Placid, in 1907, in reply
to a question why a larger organization should not
be formed, she replied: "We have started a separate
Teachers' Section which will bring together teachers
from all over the country and which for this reason
is planning to meet at other places than Lake Placid.
Let us see what it will accomplish ; the national asso-
ciation will come in time when we are ready for it."
Early in the Conference of 1908, w r ith character-
278 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
istic method, she asked that written suggestions be
handed in at a later session as to (1) the most im-
portant work for the Conference for the next ten
years, and (2) the desirability of organizing into a
national body. She had questioned some individuals
in advance by correspondence and was apparently
herself convinced by the enthusiasm evinced in the
Teachers' Section of the advisability of reorganiza-
tion, but she would proceed only if the members
desired and if they could show that they had a large
program for the years to come. A preliminary com-
mittee on national organization brought together
suggestions from various quarters and reported its
conclusions that the time had come for a national
society with state branches and for the publication
of a journal. It recommended that a committee be
appointed to report at the meeting of the Teachers'
Section which was to be held in Washington in
December, 1908.
In the fall of 1908, Mrs. Richards published two
Bulletins to further the organization of the new asso-
ciation, for which she herself provided the material
and took the financial risks. The first contained
eight pages, and stated succinctly the purpose of the
new organization and asked the cooperation of all
who were engaged in trying to solve home and educa-
tion problems housekeepers, teachers, physicians,
architects, health officers, economists, sanitarians.
The Bulletins also contained news notes, queries,
LAKE PLACID CONFERENCE 279
bibliographies, and advertisements, the purpose being
to indicate the various ways in which a journal pub-
lished by the new organization might prove useful.
The second Bulletin, which was twice as large as
the first, opened with the program of the meeting
for reorganization to be held in Washington. Thus
passed the Lake Placid Conference, but only in name,
for its spirit and work were to contitiue and in a
much larger field.
CHAPTER XV
THE HOME ECONOMICS MOVEMENT
ON December 81, 1908, the American Home
Economics Association was organized in the city
of Washington, at a meeting held in the auditorium
of the McKinley Manual Training School, under the
auspices of the recently organized Teachers' Section
of the Lake Placid Conference, and Mrs. Richards
was chosen as its first president, an office which she
continued to hold until the annual meeting in Decem-
ber, 1910, when she insisted on retiring and was
made honorary president.
Into the work of the Home Economics Associa-
tion she entered with all her great enthusiasm, be-
lieving that though its field was not very exactly
outlined, nor very clearly marked off from that of
any other applied science, it was sufficiently well
defined to warrant bringing together a band of work-
ers into a separate organization. So far as there
was a distinct field for the work and a definite body
of knowledge, the credit is due to her. On this point
Dr. C. F. Langworthy, of the Office of Experiment
Stations of the United States Department of Agri-
culture, says: "To Liebig belongs the credit more
280
HOME ECONOMICS MOVEMENT 281
than to any one else for bringing together isolated
facts and for so adding to them as to produce the new
subject of Agricultural Chemistry, which is almost
the same as saying Agriculture, as we understand
it at the present time. In the same way Mrs. Rich-
ards did more than any one else to bring together
a great many known facts and to add a new member,
Home Economics, to the group of subjects which a
man or a woman may select for serious study or for
practical application."
To the details of organization she gave her care-
ful attention. She realized that she had of necessity
dominated the older organization, rendering con-
stitution and by-laws of little importance, and that
there was little in the way of precedent to guide.
In her care for the working machinery of the new
association, she seemed to be looking forward to
leaving the work, and may have had a premonition
of her death which was so soon to come.
The Association has developed rapidly since its
foundation ; as now organized it includes many dis-
trict and state branches, which cover a territory
extending from New England to California. These
branches as they grow in membership and awake
communities to their local needs divide and sub-
divide, and thus multiply in number. Besides the
local branches there are two sections which bring
together special classes of workers the Teachers'
Section, which usually meets with the National Edu-
282 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
cation Association, and the Administration Section,
chiefly interested in institutional housekeeping, which
has so far met at the Lake Placid Club. Signs now
point to the organization of a third or Housekeepers'
Section.
At the first convention plans were laid for
the publication of a journal, and soon afterwards
Mrs. Mary Hinman Abel, of Baltimore, was chosen
editor. It was decided to publish five times a year,
in February, April, June, October, and December.
The financial burden of the enterprise, or at least
the burden of financial responsibility, fell upon
Mrs. Richards, and it was no small weight. Since
Home Economics is concerned with the fundamental
needs of human life with food and clothing and
shelter and these needs are at the foundation also
of great commercial enterprises, keen after profits,
the publication of a journal such as the Association
wanted presented some great and unusual problems.
Mrs. Richards's wide experience and connections
were of greatest value in steering the new publication
around the many danger points.
As the organ of a society which brings together
widely different groups teachers in all grades of
schools from the kindergarten to the university,
housekeepers, lecturers, lunchroom managers, and
institutional housekeepers the Journal of Home
Economics presents other puzzling problems ; what
interests one does not interest others ; what one needs
HOME ECONOMICS MOVEMENT 283
another does not. At the last executive committee
meeting which Mrs. Richards attended, about a
month after her retirement from the active presi-
dency, she said that such time in the future as she
could give to Home Economics would be spent upon
the development of the Journal.
To forward this work by a periodical was no new
idea with Mrs. Richards. When in 1894 she was
approached by an advertising agent who wished to
use the name "New England Kitchen" for a maga-
zine that he planned to start, she quickly appreciated
this means of reaching more people, but she con-
sented only on condition that she choose the editor.
The promoter soon withdrew from the enterprise,
and it was managed by a board of editors who took
up the work through Mrs. Richards's influence.
The magazine outgrew the narrower title and
became the American Kitchen Magazine. During the
ten years of its publication Mrs. Richards, though
never directly responsible, aided it by advice and
in securing financial support. The revision of one
of her books, "The Chemistry of Cooking and Clean-
ing," in which Miss S. Maria Elliott collaborated,
was published in its pages, and there were few num-
bers that did not contain some article that she wrote
or suggested. She also gave courses of lectures in a
Summer School that for several successive years was
held by the magazine in its rooms in Boston. This
was the first periodical that represented the teacher's
284 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
point of view in Home Economics, and it exerted
an educative and unifying influence that did much
to prepare the way for organization.
In 1909 the Association decided to assume direc-
tion of the Graduate School of Home Economics,
which had existed for several years as an independent
organization, but which voted to seek affiliation with
the American Home Economics Association. This
school offers important opportunities for graduate
study in its biennial summer sessions of six weeks'
duration. It had its origin in 1902, when Pro-
fessor Atwater, of the Office of Experiment Stations,
opened his laboratories at Wesleyan University, in
Middletown, Connecticut, to teachers of Domestic
Science, inviting them to study there for four weeks
and to get in touch with the government's investiga-
tions on nutrition. That same year a call was given
for graduates in Agriculture to gather at Ohio State
University to do advanced work, and from the two
meetings arose the Graduate Schools of Home Eco-
nomics and Agriculture. They had their first joint
session at the University of Illinois in 1906, their
second at Cornell University in 1908, their third
at the Iowa State College of Agriculture in 1910.
Before the Graduate School of Agriculture the latest
investigations in agriculture and kindred fields are
reported, one or two distinguished foreign scientists
as well as many American investigators being on the
faculty each year. In many cases the lectures in
HOME ECONOMICS MOVEMENT 285
this school, those on such subjects as animal and
plant physiology, nutrition, dairying methods, and
landscape architecture, for example, bear quite as
closely upon home as upon farm problems, and the
joint sessions have for this reason been of great
advantage to the Graduate School of Home Eco-
nomics. Mrs. Richards was actively interested in all
the sessions of these schools, and during that of 1908
delivered a course of lectures.
Considering her passionate desire for equality of
educational opportunity for men and women, the
preference which she often expressed for working
with men and women together and not with women
alone, and her vigorous protests against special
concessions to women, it may seem strange that
Mrs. Richards should have interested herself in the
Home Economics Association, whose membership
consists largely of women, and in the Home Eco-
nomics movement, which is often thought to interest
women chiefly. It is not a woman's movement, how-
ever, but a "home" movement in which men and
women alike have been given a part, and the Home
Economics Association has many men in its member-
ship. "I think it needs all the wisdom available to
attack so great a problem," Mrs. Richards once
said, "and I prefer to give my time and influence
to work in which men and women are in accord."
The fact that men and women are found work-
ing together in this Association is due in large
286 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
measure to Mrs. Richards's influence and to her
constant emphasis on the scientific and economic
bearings of the subject. Dr. David Kinley, of the
University of Illinois, has said: "She had very clear
notions of the scope and importance of household
economics, not only in the narrower sense in which
the term is commonly used, but with reference to the
relationship of the subject to general economics and
sociology. To her, household economics was a dis-
tinct and important phase of the social economy.
This seems to me the true view, and to Mrs. Richards
more, perhaps, than to any other one person, is due
the credit of widening the horizon of the students
of her subject, and of enthusing them with a deeper
and more tolerant social feeling/'
Her position in the matter of woman's work in
those fields where it is brought in competition or
comparison with men's work was very clearly stated
in the course of correspondence which followed an
invitation to become a member of the Board of Lady
Managers of the World's Fair at Chicago and to
exhibit in the Woman's Building.
"I would do anything in my power which you
asked of me, but I have racked my brains in vain
to find anything which as a woman I have done by
myself, which could be shown as woman's work. The
only thing I can think of is the little course on
mineral lessons which I got out with Miss Crocker
for the public schools. You are welcome to copies
//(/<// ('(iiniilxll innl Mrs. 1,'irlniril* on tlic rifiht
HOME ECONOMICS MOVEMENT 287
of my little books and papers on scientific topics,
but my work in the main is so interwoven with that
of the men here that it is impossible to separate,
and it would be an injustice to do so. The work on
the water belongs to the State Board of Health and
will be shown by them. The 200 young men and 100
young women, my pupils, are my best exhibit and
they are not available.
"Massachusetts usually leads and she has left
behind her the period of woman's laboratories and
woman's exhibitions. Our own Tech has known no
sex since 1884 and no profession or occupation is
now closed to a perfectly qualified woman. Hence
it is appropriate that the space should be left vacant.
You might have a large banner, 'Massachusetts
points to her women, their works do follow them.'
"Really I see nothing to be shown unless a list
of women occupying public and professional posi-
tions in 1893 in the State be inscribed on parchment
and framed."
Later she wrote even more emphatically:
"From the first I have declined every appoint-
ment on the women's branch of the Auxiliary and
I do not know how it happens that my name is still
on your council. ... I do not wish to be identified
with a body, the very existence of which seems to me
out of keeping with the spirit of the times. Twenty
years ago I was glad to work on Woman's Boards
for the education of women. The time is some years
288 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
past when it seemed to me wise to work that way.
Women have now more rights and duties than they
are fitted to perform. They need to measure them-
selves with men on the same terms and in the same
work in order to learn their own needs. Therefore
the establishment of a separate woman's branch of
our exposition seemed always a mistake to me and
one which I preferred not to be connected with in
any way. . . ."
She recognized, however, that there are certain
forms of work that will always fall to women, and
she felt it an injustice that these and the educational
problems connected with them do not have the best
thought of men as well as of women. Once after
pleading before an educational conference of which
she was the only woman member for a thorough sys-
tem of training in Home Economics, she was con-
fronted by certain old arguments to prove that if
women would stay at home and meet their obligations
there would be no need of industrial training in the
schools. At this time she made one of the most
impassioned speeches of her life.
"Industrial training may make matters worse.
That is why I make this plea, for it may take more
and more the interest from home life which, I must
reiterate, has been robbed by the removal of creative
work. You cannot make women contented with cook-
ing and cleaning and you need not try. The care
of children occupies only five or ten years of the
HOME ECONOMICS MOVEMENT 289
seventy. What are women to do with the rest? All
the movement for industrial education is doomed to
fail unless you take account of the girls. You can-
not put them where their great-grandmothers were,
while you take to yourselves the spinning, the weav-
ing, and the soap making. The time was when there
was always something to do in the home. Now
there is only something to be done.
"We are not quite idiots, although we have been
dumb, because you did not understand our language.
We demand a hearing and the help of wise leaders
to reorder our lives to the advantage of the country. 1 '
Instead, then, of being inconsistent with her ideals,
Mrs. Riclwrds's connection with the Home Econom-
ics movement was most consistent, for she believed
that because women had clung to antiquated ways
of doing housework or of getting it done, and had
failed to take hold of their own problems in a master-
ful way, they were handicapped when they tried to
do systematic work outside of the home for which
they might have special talents. "The work of home-
making in this scientific age must be worked out on
engineering principles and with the cooperation of
trained men and trained women. The mechanical
setting of life is become an important factor, and
this new impulse which is showing itself so clearly
today for the modified construction and operation
of the family home is the final crown or seal of the
conquest of the last stronghold of conservatism, the
290 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
home-keeper. Tomorrow, if not today, the woman
who is to be really mistress of her house must be an
engineer, so far as to be able to understand the use
of machines."
In 1900 she wrote an article for the Woman's
Journal, in which she said:
"In the strenuous life of a modern community,
distractions crowd so closely upon every hand that
unless a woman has method in the use of her time,
it is frittered away and nothing useful is accom-
plished. One of the most disheartening things of the
ay is to see the waste of time and energy in the
occupations of nine-tenths of American women. This
is the more singular as in manufacturing operations
the reverse is so commonly true.
"In searching for a cause it seems at once evident
that women, as a whole, have not become imbued
with the scientific spirit of the age. They still cling
to tradition. . They defy natural law, instead of
accepting its help in all they wish to do.
"To take one of the most frequent exhibitions of
this contempt for law a woman's behavior in a
crowded, street-car. Fully three-quarters of the sex
do not know how to stand erect in a swaying car,
and are not able to keep their balance when the car
starts. Yet it is a mere matter of simple laws in
relation to bodies in motion and at rest, laws which
every school girl should know, and which every school
boy does know practically, if not theoretically.
HOME ECONOMICS MOVEMENT 291
"The first need in woman's education today is a
grounding in respect for inexorable law, not only
in physics, chemistry and mathematics, but in physi-
ology and in sanitary science, and not least in social-
economic science. Too often women have shaken
themselves free from the support of surroundings to
find that they were ignorant of the rules of the road,
and when one has come to grief, she blames condi-
tions instead of realizing her own stupidity.
"It is not a profound knowledge of any one or
a dozen sciences which women need, so much as an
attitude of mind which leads them to a suspension
of judgment on new subjects, and to that interest in
tlie present progress of science which causes them
to call in the help of the expert, which impels them to
ask, 'Can I do better than I am doing?' 'Is there
any device which I might use?' 'Is my house right
as to its sanitary arrangement?' 'Is my food the
best possible?' 'Have I chosen the right colors and
the best materials for clothing?' 'Am I making the
best use of my timr?" '
Her hope for the Home Economics Association in
relation to housekeeping she expressed in a few words
just after its organization. Having attended all the
business meetings of the first convention, she was
obliged to be absent from the banquet, but she did
not forget her co-workers, and during the festivities
a telegram came from her which read: "Happy New
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Year to the new society ! May it celebrate its fiftieth
anniversary by the establishment of a new species
of housewife."
She believed in the family home with a roof of its
own and a plat of ground of its own so firmly that
she considered its importance beyond argument.
The only question was how T to preserve it, and she
never could understand how people could, for the
want of a little united effort, let it slip out of their
grasp and force family life to seek expression in
hotels or apartment houses. But she was far from
wanting to retain time-consuming methods of main-
taining homes. The methods should be determined
by the times, and should be the result of the applica-
tion of science and the principles of engineering.
There was nothing inconsistent about working for
such homes and at the same time seeking to have
the most advanced educational opportunities and
professions opened to women.
It should be remembered also, in connection with
the organization of the Home Economics Associa-
tion, that Mrs. Richards was always on the lookout
for opportunities as well as for needs. No matter
how great or how widespread a need might be, she
thought there was little use in trying to meet it by
organized efforts until public opinion had reached
a point where an effective campaign could be made.
As long as public opinion was forming she was con-
tinually teaching, preaching, and sowing seed by
HOME ECONOMICS MOVEMENT 293
casual suggestions, but she refused to waste her time
in trying to work through organizations until she
felt the time was ripe for them. For this she was
often criticized and was thought to lack interest in
important public questions, but it was simply her
way of working.
Her greatest interest, as we know, was in a subject
far wider than Home Economics, and she was watch-
ing continually for an opportunity to work effec-
tively along the broader line. She believed that men
as well as women should be so educated as to have
an intelligent interest in problems connected with
food, ventilation, and home sanitation in general,
and that every department of life should receive the
benefit of applied science. But if the world was
ready to revolutionize girls' education in this direc-
tion and not boys', that indicated to her where a
given amount of energy could be most effectively
expended. In the changed attitude of the public
mind toward women's education she saw an oppor-
tunity to teach the art of Right Living to part of
the people at least. "Never mind the name by which
it is designated, it is the result we are after. It is
not mere hygiene but the whole round of abundant
physical life."
Again the Home Economics movement offered an
opportunity to utilize what she once called "that
considerable body of useful knowledge now lying on
shelves." "The sanitary research worker in labora-
294, ELLEN H. RICHARDS
tory and field has gone nearly to the limit of his
value. He will soon be smothered in his own work
if no one takes it. Meanwhile, children die by the
thousands ; contagious diseases take toll of hundreds ;
back alleys remain foul and the streets are unswept ;
schoolhouses are unwashed, and danger lurks in the
drinking cups and about the towels. Dust is stirred
up each morning with the feather duster, to greet the
warm moist noses and throats of the children. To
the watchful expert it seems like the old cities danc-
ing and making merry on the eve of a volcanic out-
break. . . . There is ready at hand a field for the
Home Economics teacher."
It is only fair to say of the organization of
the Home Economics Association, that part of the
"inconvenience of ignorance" with which it was
destined "to do away" was the inconvenience to
Mrs. Richards of other people's ignorance. From
the very first suggestion of introducing Manual
Training and Domestic Science into the schools she
had kept herself informed by study and travel about
what the world was doing. She had herself experi-
mented in teaching science to children, and had
worked with the pioneers in almost every new educa-
tional movement in Boston. She had, therefore, a
fund of information and experience upon which
others were glad to draw, and there poured in upon
her from all parts of the world inquiries as to this
kind of instruction. School authorities wrote ask-
HOME ECONOMICS MOVEMENT 295
ing about the advisability of modifying the courses
in the schools so as to include Domestic Science and
Manual Training; school superintendents requested
her to recommend teachers ; teachers sought positions
through her and asked her advice about advanced
work in order to improve their own qualifications ;
mothers asked where they should send their daughters
for normal training in household arts ; housekeepers
asked her advice about safe economical methods in
housework, and women's clubs asked help in the
matter of programs, speakers, and preparation of
papers. She was fairly overwhelmed with corre-
spondence on all these subjects. No wonder that
she thought the time had come for turning some of
this work over to an organized body of workers, for
teachers to band together and study their own prob-
lems, and for educators to consider in conference the
possibilities of the work.
It may seem strange to some that Mrs. Richards
became a leader in Home Economics work when her
own experience in teaching had been in a different
line. But if all her teaching, informal as well as
formal, is taken into consideration, a large portion
of it, it is safe to say, was of the kind now given in
advanced schools of Home Economics. This can
be said of her teaching in the Woman's Laboratory
and also of the lectures that she gave in connection
with the Normal School of Household Arts. Just
before the organization of the Lake Placid Confer-
296 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
ence in 1899, she had had a part in organizing the
School of Housekeeping in Boston, which was con-
nected with the Women's Educational and Industrial
Union. This school, to be sure, as originally planned,
was more particularly for the training of household
employees, and for two years most of the work was
in this line and in the line of lectures for employers
of household labor. But the demand on the part of
employees and that on the part of the older house-
keepers was not great, while at the same time there
was a growing demand for training on the part of
prospective housekeepers, young women just out
of college or high school, and a systematic course
was laid out for them. With the beginning of this
course Mrs. Richards's interest was thoroughly
enlisted, and she became chief adviser in the develop-
ment of the school and used all her wide influence to
interest other people. During the last three years
of its existence, from 1899 to 1902, she gave courses
of lectures on the Chemistry of Food and helped to
outline the related laboratory courses. This School
of Housekeeping was in 1902 transferred by the
Women's Educational and Industrial Union to
Simmons College, and became the basis of the Depart-
ment of Home Economics in that institution.
A large part, too, of the illustrative material
which was used by the first teachers of Home Eco-
nomics was prepared by Mrs. Richards. In 1886
she employed Mr. Charles R. Allen, of the Massa-
HOME ECONOMICS MOVEMENT 297
chusetts State Board of Education, and Dr. A. H.
Gill, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
to make after her design charts to show graphically
the chemical composition of food materials, and a
series of blocks to show the composition of the human
body. She had them make, also, sets of bottles con-
taining the actual amount by weight of water, cellu-
lose, proteids, starch, and other substances in one
pound of a given food. A short time afterward*
Mrs. Richards gave an address before the American
Association for the Advancement of Science which
she illustrated by means of this material. The lec-
ture brought her work to the attention of Mr. Charles
Pratt, who was then planning to open Pratt Insti-
tute, and he sent for her to come to Brooklyn and
advise him with reference to the work for women.
The first Domestic Science Laboratory at Pratt
Institute was equipped after her plans.
From all this it will be seen that while Mrs. Rich-
ards's work in Home Economics had been largely
advisory and had been performed during what she
used to call her "play times," it embraced a certain
amount of formal teaching and a large amount of
practical work. Her researches, too, in her own
special line, sanitary chemistry, had at every point
served to show her the need of a more thorough
preparation for home-making and had also given her
an understanding of possible modifications in educa-
tional methods that would make this training avail-
able for all women.
298 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Her preparation for the organization of the Home
Economics movement included not only a knowledge
of the subject and of the field where it was destined
to be useful, but also a capacity for leadership which
had made itself manifest in other lines of activity,
and which came into special prominence here only
because this work offered an exceptionally promising
field for her generalship. She had enthusiasm, and
the power to inspire it in others. She believed in
others and made them believe in themselves and have
confidence in their own ability. She rated them by
what they could do and not by what they were unable
to do. Her knowledge of workers in Home Eco-
nomics and related fields was wide and her under-
standing of their powers and capabilities deep. Many
of them she had discovered for herself at times when
they were trying to decide upon a life work, had been
suddenly thrown upon their own resources, or were
trying to regain a place in the world's work after
having been set aside by sickness or discouraged by
failure. Her capacity for establishing intimate, per-
sonal relationships where others would at the best
have formed only casual acquaintances was unlimited.
An introduction after a lecture or at a reception,
with a brief word from a person as to her hopes,
her difficulties, her aspirations, was sufficient. Hence-
forth Mrs. Richards had that person on her mind.
She sought news of her progress, thought of her
when she was asked to recommend workers, sent her
literature or helpful suggestions.
HOME ECONOMICS MOVEMENT 299
Others had recognized the educational need which
Home Economics was to fill and scattered forces had
been set in motion. Mrs. Richards went further.
She planned a campaign, and through the force of
her own personal influence organized a body of work-
ers and moved them forward a solid front.
CHAPTER XVI
FULLNESS OF LIFE
A PERIOD characterized not so much by new forms
of service as by enlarging influence, brought to a
close a working life in which increasing power had
succeeded in finding enlarging opportunities and
increasing fitness to teach an enlarging audience.
This larger audience was secured chiefly through
lecturing and writing.
During the last fifteen years of her life, Mrs. Rich-
ards's literary output was very great. Besides sci-
entific papers and magazine articles and published
addresses, she wrote the following books: "The Cost
of Living," in 1899; "The Cost of Food," in 1901 ;
"First Lessons in Food and Diet" and "The Art
of Right Living," in 1904, and "The Cost of
Shelter," in 1905; "Sanitation in Daily Life," in
1907; "The Cost of Cleanness," in 1908; "Indus-
trial Water Analysis," in 1908; "Euthenics," in
1910; and "Conservation by Sanitation," in 1911.
In writing these books she had two distinct pur-
poses. The first was to record successful instances
of the application of science to the problems of daily
life, and the second was to plead for further appli-
300
FULLNESS OF LIFE 301
cation. They embody a large amount of information
gained from extensive reading, practical experience,
and travel, and are peculiarly suggestive and stimu-
lating. Their style is vigorous and forceful rather
than finished. The chief criticism made upon them
was with reference, not to their subject matter, but
to their arrangement. The wish was, in fact, often
expressed that she would spend more time in revision
even at the expense of producing less. Her writing,
however, was the result of a deliberate plan on her
part. She wanted her influence to go toward keep-
ing people thinking and doing, and with this in view
she thought that time spent in polishing was wasted.
"Keep thinking," she would often put at the end
of a letter, and after reading one of her stimulating
books it is easy to see in imagination these two
words written at the close. She was willing to accept
criticism if she could only render the service which
she thought most needed at the given time.
She wrote much also that was embodied in other
publications than her own. She made valuable con-
tributions to the reports of the Commission on
Country Life, and to the Report on National Vital-
ity prepared by Dr. Irving Fisher for the Committee
of One Hundred on Public Health; wrote a section
on "Domestic Waste" for the Report of the Massa-
chusetts Commission on Cost of Living; contributed
several articles on "The Farm Home a Center of
Sanitary and Social Progress," to Dean L. H.
Bailey's "Cyclopedia of American Agriculture."
302 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
Because of its bearing on the relation of the
domestic service problem to the labor movement,
the report of the Household Aid Company, of
Boston, which she helped to prepare during this
period, has special importance.
The Household Aid Company was organized in
1903 for the purpose of providing private families
with skilled help by the day or hour, and of "study-
ing at first-hand the problems of household labor."
Shortly after it was formed, Mrs. Richards said in
an address: "We none of us claim that we have
found the right new way, but we are sure that every
honest attempt to cut a path will help just so much.
Light cannot come at once in so great a revolution,
but it will come sooner for the efforts made. This
little experiment is started, not to help twenty or
forty families to live more fashionably or more eco-
nomically, not to give work to twenty picked women,
but to establish a great principle for future prac-
tical use. Its breadth entitles it to come legitimately
under an educational head."
"It is misunderstood," she said, "because the
public assumes that an attempt is being made to
ameliorate present conditions. Disabuse your minds
of that. The conditions are beneath us, dragging us
under; the sooner we cut the ropes the quicker we
shall rise to the surface. This is my own message,
true or false. It is my belief that we are done with
the domestic service ideas of twenty years since. We
FULLNESS OF LIFE 303
must, however, have knowledge and patience to try
and try again."
Mrs. Richards had an active part in the enter-
prise from the beginning, but her most important
contribution was its report, which has frequently
been commended for the conciseness and clearness
with which it presents, not only the work of the
company, but also the social conditions which were
revealed by the experiment. Others cooperated with
her in preparing it, but if it had not been for her
initiative, the work would have passed unrecorded
and its results would have been largely lost to the
world. The story of the undertaking is a good illus-
tration of what has been called her "tonic" literary
style, and it embodies very many of the shrewd yet
kindly observations on life and people for which she
was famous, and which some one has said ought
to be collected into a "Richards's Philosophy."
The report states in full the commonly recognized
disadvantages of household labor to the worker and
the ways in which they were to be met by the com-
pany : Required residence in the house of her em-
ployer is not satisfactory to a self-respecting girl,
therefore a house was to be secured, furnished, and
run for twenty Aids as their home, not a mere lodg-
ing place. Hours of work were long and indefinite,
therefore the Aids were to go out for a definite period
only. Lack of congenial companionship and recrea-
tion was to be met by making the home life attrac-
tfO-t ELLEN H. RICHARDS
five; and injustice in the demands for service by
mediation on the part of the company.
Certain equally well-recognized disadvantages on
the part of the employer scarcity of workers, low
grade of intelligence and of skill, unreliability,
danger of infection when outside help is brought into
the house, and the necessity for frequent changes
were, according to the report, to be met by estab-
lishing an educational test, by requiring six weeks
of training, by investigations of complaints, by a
sanitarily conducted home, and by the maintenance
of a reserve group of employees.
In August, 1903, a house was opened as an office
for the company and a home for the Aids. It was
decided to receive young women only after a pro-
bationary pericd of two weeks, and to require that
they be seventeen years of age and have a grammar
school education or its equivalent. The plan was
to give six weeks' training and have the workers
available by October, when the demand would be
most active. Miss Ellen A. Huntington, a graduate
of Pratt Institute and of the Household Science
Department of the University of Illinois, was chosen
as director.
Financially the plan was a failure, and it was
abandoned at the end of two years, when the com-
pany had lost five thousand dollars ; but in the course
of the work many interesting facts were brought
out concerning the character of household service
FULLNESS OF LIFE 805
demanded "in this free and democratic country":
the inability of employers to appreciate good serv-
ice, and their unwillingness to pay for it; and the
peculiar difficulties attending such a solution of the
domestic service problem as the company contem-
plated. These facts are so set forth in the report
as to make it invaluable for those who are seeking
light upon this peculiar aspect of the labor problem.
Another undertaking into which Mrs. Richards
entered during the later years of her life was the
Health-Education League of Boston, which pub-
lishes booklets selling for from two to ten cents
apiece and disseminates information about hygiene
and sanitation by means of lectures. The story of
her connection with this organization is best told
in the minutes of the first annual meeting held after
her death :
"Whatever success we have won or good we have
done is due in large measure to Mrs. Richards's
wise counsel, self-sacrificing labors, and splendid
enthusiasm. She took an active and leading part
in the organization of our Society and was Chair-
man of our Board of Directors from the start. She
was present at almost every meeting of our execu-
tive committee for nearly seven years. Of the
twenty-one booklets that we have thus far published,
she wrote five herself, and made the remainder more
valuable by her suggestions. She gave many lee-
306 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
tures for us without pay, and on one or two occa-
sions when she was paid, she gave us the whole
amount for the extension of the work.
"Beside writing the booklets, it was her custom
when lecturing in different parts of the country to
distribute hundreds of copies free, after paying for
them out of her own purse.
"For a long time she desired to do something
more to help the great army of workers in shops
and factories, and when she was stricken she was
engaged in preparing a booklet on Industrial
Hygiene/'
During these last years she continued to serve
as expert in water analysis, examining the water
supply of many large corporations and also those
of private estates, and giving advice with reference
to new supplies. She was frequently consulted, also,
with reference to the food of institutions, and dur-
ing the last three years af her life, according to her
own testimony, she "gave advice on the subject of
foods in nearly two hundred institutions and acted
as general sanitary adviser to two scores of cor-
porations and schools/' During these years, also,
she was serving as chairman of the Hygiene Com-
mittee of the Boston School and Home Association.
She was constantly consulted, too, with reference
to school lunches, and particularly with reference to
the feeding of anaemic children in connection with
the campaign against tuberculosis.
FULLNESS OF LIFE 307
During all this time, too, she was making fre-
quent trips through the country, speaking before
schools and classes in Home Economics and giving
advice about the development of this branch of
instruction.
The longest trips of her later years were to
Mexico in 1901 and to Alaska in 1903. On both
of these trips she took a portable water laboratory
and examined the water supplies of many out-of-the-
way places, making studies of future possibilities.
The results were published in The Proceedings of
the American Institute of Mining Engineers and
in The Technology Quarterly. Her unfailing inter-
est in all phases of life is shown by her diaries, from
which the following notes are taken:
"November 6, 1901. Las Cruces. Tired; not up
very early ; out to river for water ; women washing.
Took an hour's drive to the silver mines. Wonder-
ful views all the way, surrounded by mountains red
and rugged. Green valley with huge trees, green
plain, Costilla, cactus, Turk's-head, huge prickly
pears, and many desert flowers, jack rabbits, lizards,
goats, burros. Stone shelters way up on the moun-
tain where we got good specimens of minerals. The
train disappeared so Miss Hyams and I took a mule
train balky mule to cathedral and shops."
While in Mexico she attended a bull fight because
it was in honor of the American Institute of Mining
Engineers, which was in session. She did not care
#08 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
for this form of entertainment, but there were some
things which she disliked more, as the following
entries in her diary show:
"November 6, 1901. Went to bull fight because
it was in our honor. There were four bulls, two of
which were killed. Horrid!"
"November 8, 1901. Torreon. Old town, so
squalid, vile odors, rags, beggars. Beyond descrip-
tion. Narrow, steep, dirty streets. Worn foot
stones, five centuries old. A nightmare, worse than
the bull fight."
It was during these last years that she developed
an idea of instructive inspection in connection with
sanitary projects. When one of the Boston papers
asked her to contribute to a symposium upon what
might be done with Boston's share of the money
which the Government was proposing to spend on
battleships, she outlined a plan for the disposal of
waste which involved appropriations for crematory,
modern forms of containers and wagons, and also
for a full corps of inspectors whose duties should
be those of the educator as well as those of the
policeman.
One project that Mrs. Richards had in mind at
the time of her death was the publication of the
Louisa M. Alcott Club Leaflets, which should treat
of subjects connected w r ith sanitation and enlight-
ened housekeeping methods in the simple way in
FULLNESS OF LIFE 309
which the Rumford Kitchen Leaflets had presented
the matter of food. The Louisa M. Alcott Club
owes its existence to Mrs. Richards's habit of medi-
tation in the early morning hours. Ideas came which
she used to call her "visions," and many of these she
hastily jotted down, to be put into being later. A
word to Miss Isabel Hyams, in regard to adapting
the principles and practice of Domestic Science to
the child's intellectual growth and his physical devel-
opment, led to the establishment of graded courses
with equipment for children ranging in age from
four to fifteen years. This work has served as a
model for other settlements and schools in many
cities, and an exhibit sent to the Fifth International
Congress on Tuberculosis in 1905, entitled, "Laws
of Hygiene Taught through Domestic Science and
Nature Study to children from four to sixteen years
old (as a means of prevention of tuberculosis)," was
awarded a special silver medal and diploma.
Toward the last, honors came thick and fast, or
shall we say that she had throughout a long life
of faithful service honored herself, and, as she neared
the end, others made public recognition of these
honors.
In 1907 she was made honorary life member of
the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, at its annual
meeting in Denver.
In October, 1910, when Dr. Marion L. Burton
was installed as president of Smith College, honorary
310 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
degrees were conferred upon nine American women.
Of these, seven received the degree of Doctor of
Humanities; and two, Florence R. Sabin of Johns
Hopkins and Mrs. Richards, received the degree of
Doctor of Science. The degree was conferred upon
Mrs. Richards in the following words :
"Ellen Henrietta Richards, Bachelor and Master
of Arts of Vassar College, Bachelor of Science of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and
there for over a quarter of a century instructor
in Sanitary Chemistry. By investigations into the
explosive properties of oils and in the analysis of
water, and by expert knowledge relating to air, food,
water, sanitation, and the cost of food and shelter,
set forth in numerous publications and addresses,
she has largely contributed to promote in the com-
munity the serviceable arts of safe, healthful, and
economic living."
On January 7, 1911, the Association of the
Women of the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
ogy gave a luncheon in Mrs. Richards's honor, and
presented her with a purse of one thousand dollars
for research work. For this occasion a booklet was
published containing a picture of Mrs. Richards in
her academic costume, and a large number of pithy
sayings collected from her writings.
A growing pallor and shortness of breath, which
friends afterwards realized were signs of the ap-
FULLNESS OF LIFE 311
preaching end, were the only indications of increas-
ing physical weakness. The three long flights of
stairs leading to her office in the Institute of
Technology seemed for the first time to tax her
strength. Her associates begged her to use the ele-
vator, which, though specially intended* for carrying
laboratory supplies, was often used to save the
strength of those much younger than she. But she
refused all such assistance, and went bravely forward
on her accustomed way, relaxing in no degree her
stern discipline of self.
During August, 1910, seven months before her
death, there was a sharp attack of sickness one night
when Professor Richards was out of town, and there
was no one in the house to realize the seriousness
of the indications. She was at work the following
day, giving no sign of what had happened except in
a brief note pinned to the wall of her office giving
the name of the physician who was to be called in
case of sudden sickness.
At the St. Louis Convention of the Home Eco-
nomics Association, held in December, she was her
most active and forceful self, though looking worn.
When the convention was over, instead of resting
as many younger members did, she looked about
her for a theater companion. The following day she
made a trip of inspection to the settling tanks along
the Mississippi River, and then sped on her way to
Boston. On the train she had no thought of rest-
ing, for there were those who had been absent from
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
the meeting and must be told about its transactions
for friendship's sake.
About the middle of January, 1911, she went to
New York to deliver an address before the Home
Economics Association of Greater New York at its
annual luncheon. She chose as the title, "The Con-
servation of Human Energy," and spoke with her
usual vigor, urging again the message which her
whole life had carried: "Subject the material world
to the higher ends by understanding it in all its
relations to daily life and action."
At the time of this visit to New York, she called
an Executive Committee meeting of the American
Home Economics Association, and she seemed to take
special pains to make it satisfactory so far as work
was concerned and to make it unusually gay and
cheerful in social intercourse, as if she knew it might
be the last and wished the memory of it to be pleasant.
About February 1 she began the preparation of
an important paper on "The Elevation of Applied
Science to the Rank of the Learned Professions"
for the semi-centennial celebration of the granting
of the charter to the Institute of Technology. This
paper was finished just before her death and pub-
lished in full in one of the daily papers of Boston
on the day of her funeral.
On Friday night, March 17, she lectured at the
Universalist church in Haverhill. As the church was
but a stone's throw from the house where she was
FULLNESS OF LIFE
being entertained, it was not thought necessary to
order a carriage. On the way to the lecture she was
seized with a violent spasm of pain, and was obliged
to rest for some time on the road before she was
able to go on; but when it was over she insisted on
carrying out her part of the program, and lectured
as if in perfect physical health.
The following Sunday she gave an address in Ford
Hall, Boston, in a course of lectures conducted by
the Baptist Social Union, selecting as the subject,
"Is the Increased Cost of Living a Sign of Social
Advance?" In the address she showed that the high
c::st of living was due to a growing love of pleasur-
able sensations and to a habit of speeding up life all
along the line, and urged that unless there is a high
and noble purpose behind it all, it marks no advance.
The audiences at these lectures have a character of
their own, being composed largely of those who are
wedded firmly to one plan or another of social re-
form, and are ready to defend their creeds with
vigor. While the lecturer is speaking there is a sense
of repressed activity, and at the close a volley of
questions. Safety-valves we have learned to call
such meetings, and have grown accustomed to recog-
ni/e their value for this purpose. Mrs. Richards
WHS in no physical condition to meet the interroga-
tions which continued for nearly an hour, but her
mind was as alert as ever, for her answers came
prompt and to the point. This was her last public
address.
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
The following day she was in her laboratory and
again on Tuesday, but for the last time. Wednesday
and Thursday she was at home, but as she had no
definite engagements, it was not necessary to explain
to Professor Richards why she did not leave the
house. Always mindful of him, and wishing him to
have his thoughts free for his work, she concealed
from him the fact that she was suffering. On Thurs-
day night, for the first time, he learned that some-
thing was wrong when she took a little bell from
the mantelshelf in the dining room, saying that she
might need him during the night. During the night
the call came. A physician was summoned and pro-
nounced the trouble angina pectoris. There followed
a week's struggle, during which hope alternated with
fear among those who watched with her, and dur-
ing which her thought was constantly for others.
Wednesday morning she seemed to have gained
strength, and summoning her secretaries, one at a
time, she gave them directions about her work. One
she asked to go down town and buy a wicker couch
on which she could be carried into her study, there
to direct the work of her assistants. Thursday
morning she seemed even stronger, but during the
day began to sink, and at twenty-five minutes after
nine on the evening of March 30, 1911, she died.
On Sunday there was a service for the family at
her home, followed by a public service at Trinity
Church, where the religious exercises of the Institute
FULLNESS OF LIFE 315
of Technology are held. Beautiful Trinity! And
never more beautiful than that day when the chancel
overflowed with the flowers she loved. At the close of
the service the casket was rolled to the west door
of the church, and those who had gathered to do her
honor saw her last bathed in the glory of the setting
sun.
The final service was at the Crematory in Forest
Hills Cemetery, and the burial was in the Richards's
family cemetery in Gardiner, Maine.
Dead at sixty-eight? No, say rather alive, and
abundantly alive, for sixty-eight years, and into that
brief span pressing the labors of a century.
CHAPTER XVII
STILL, LEADING OX
IN a world and in an age in which there is a
temptation to grasp and to acquire material things,
to demand the service of others for one's own selfish
advantage, and to claim honor and credit, Mrs. Rich-
ards succeeded in living a life in which the current
p was all the other way. She was the center of a great
outpouring. She demanded no service of others, but
gave it unstintingly herself; she sought knowledge
only that she might give it back to the world in
helpfulness ; and in spite of the fact that she had
earned a substantial income for many years, she died
with no money except that which had been given her
a few weeks before for research work, and which
she had not had time to use.
For the peculiarly outgoing quality of her life,
we must thank those unseen powers which determine
what our inner impulses shall be; but for the abun-
dance of her service and for its fine adjustment to
\ the needs of her times, we must look to her own
splendid determination to set no limit or bound to
her labors and to her patient, unremitting efforts
to multiply the talents which she had received.
316
STILL LEADING OX 317
She once said, in speaking of her life, that she
had tried to show what an average American woman
could accomplish. As to whether or not she was
an average person, with the average opportunities
of a woman of her period, opinions will differ. She
certainly was below the average in the physical vigor
with which she was endowed by nature, and such
beauty as she had seemed rather the outward con-
formation to the demands of a strong, sweet spirit
than a mere matter of form and color.
Since she had no great endowment of strength,
it would not have been strange if her great public
labors had been at the expense of attention to those
little matters which make life sweet and gracious,
but in some way she found time for
"... the whole sweet round
Of littles which great life compound."
From the stories of her "deeds of week-day kindness"
which poured in after her death, volumes might be
written. The daughter of an old friend wrote that
she had told Mrs. Richards casually in June that she
was to enter Vassar College in September, and had
not seen her again nor had any communication with
her before college opened. Then she. found on every
hand that welcome had been prepared for her through
Mrs. Richards's thoughtfulness. A distant cousin,
whom Mrs. Richards had not seen since she was a
child, came from the West to study art in New York.
Mrs. Richards gave her letters of introduction, and,
318 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
as the cousin discovered years afterwards, sent money
to several friends to be spent in providing the
stranger with amusements and diversion during the
first weeks of absence from home. A teacher known
to Mrs. Richards only as hundreds of others are,
moved to Jamaica Plain, expecting to make her
presence known after she had become settled, but
early the next morning Mrs. Richards was at her
doorstep, a pot of hyacinths in her hand, and a
welcome to Jamaica Plain on her lips.
She had a way of remembering not only her
friends, but her friends' friends, even though they
were quite unknown to her personally, and particu-
larly if they were old, sick, or in trouble. It was
for this friendliness once-removed that her friends
hold her in tenderest affection.
The birthdays of her friends were never forgotten.
"True to the day and hour, the greeting from you
comes to my hand," one friend expressed it. Nor
was the welcome for the coming baby ever forgotten,
even in her busiest moments: "It was more than kind
of you, in the midst of all the preparations for your
journey, to think of me and the little one that is
coming. I could not have been more surprised and
pleased than when I received your letter and the
package (a little lace cap) that accompanied it."
Books and magazines she showered abroad as
I liberally as she did flowers. Many a year her orders
i to her publishers for books that she gave away
STILL LEADING ON 319
nearly balanced her royalties. She always remem-
bered the libraries in the little towns where she had
lived in girlhood, or with which she had special
connection. A request from a woman's club in
Panama for information about books brought not
information alone, but a boxful of books themselves.
She had a plan for all the periodicals for which she
subscribed. After they had been read by her they
were sent to some friend, reading room, or club.
In spite of her businesslike attitude toward life,
she was sentimental with reference to anniversaries.
Two intimate Jamaica Plain friends had birthdays
that fell, one near Professor Richards's birthday
and the other near her own. and with the two yearly
celebrations of the four birthdays nothing was ever
allowed to interfere. These celebrations frequently
took the form of all-day excursions to the seashore
or to the woods, sometimes on foot and sometimes
by electric car. "Eventless is your life? Then it is
your fault. If you have a good back and twenty
cents to spend, you can make a panorama of events
pass before you which, like the biograph, will illumine
hundreds of otherwise dreary hours."
Her beauty love, which was part of her rich, full
life, went out most spontaneously to flowers. She
was interested in works of art, but chiefly because
she believed that such an interest had a place in a
well-ordered life, and she wished to be able to sym-
pathize with it in others. She could work herself
320 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
up to it, but it never mastered her. With flowers,
however, it was different. She raised tulips, hya-
cinths, and daffodils in profusion in her house every
winter, tending them while they put forth leaf and
bud, and when they had reached the glory of full
bloom, she sent them broadcast among her friends.
Part of the ceremony of making Professor Richards
comfortable for a long period of work at his desk
was to place the best of her flowering plants near
by for him to see when he looked up from his books.
She understood the needs of plants as she did those
of people, and she fed and watered and tended them
intelligently, taking no chances. Her reward was
the perfection of their beauty.
She loved animals too, horses in. particular. But
she had not time to give a horse the needed exercise,
and for this reason she seldom was able to have one
of her own. Kittens came next in her affection, but
they were not in favor with those who did her house-
work, so she finally settled upon parrots. Diaz h:id
a short existence, but Carmen was a familiar house-
hold figure for many years, tenderly and intelligently
cared for.
She knew the secrets of healing. One summer,
when she was taking a carriage trip with a friend
in Vermont, she stopped at a farmhouse to inquire
the way, and found that a son in the family had
just sprained his ankle. In the absence of a physi-
cian she gave the necessary first-aid. A few days
PROFESSOR AND MRS. RICHARDS, 1904
STILL LEADING ON
later her companion, traveling that way, inquired
how the young man was doing. The reply was,
"Very well, thanks to your friend, the trained nurse."
Though she was keenly interested in professional
life for women, she was equally anxious that, they
should have happy homes. When a young woman
who owed her professional training largely to
Mrs. Richards's interest and generosity tremblingly
told her that she was going to be married very soon,
Mrs. Richards said: "I am glad of it. I know him
and he is too nice a boy to keep waiting."
She saw no reason, however, why women should
lose their individuality in marriage. In writing
about marriage as it is portrayed in modern fiction,
she said :
"This age is one which is dealing with personal
questions concerning spheres, rights, and duties, and
anything which will warn from the rocks and quick-
sands is to be welcomed. The great majority of
marriages are getting to be unhappy. The artificial
life of our villages, with the struggles for positions
as represented by clothes and service, is ruining
many a home. I see so much of it in real life that
I am glad if any picture can be drawn which will
help some to see whither they are tending before
it is too late.
"I believe this class of fiction is more wholesome
than that which deals with lovers' trysts and escapes
from cruel parents only to live happy ever after,
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
marriage being the sum and substance of woman's
ambition, and the end of her life. It is becoming
recognized that woman has a personality that is not
in her husband's control, that the mere fact of
marrying him does not make her his devoted slave."
To the quickness of her perceptions and other
mental processes may be attributed not only the
speed with which she worked, but also the large
variety of interests which she was able to keep up.
Among her papers were found rough notes she had
made upon a slight earthquake shock that had been
felt in Jamaica Plain. These notes had been copied
and sent to an authority upon seismic disturbances,
to serve as far as one person's observations could to
determine the characteristics of the phenomenon.
Sitting alone in her library, she had passed calmly
through this experience, and at the close was able
to report which pictures had swung out from the
wall and which had suffered most disturbance.
From the time when she had kept the records at
Vassar, she was interested in forecasting the weather.
She always had a full set of weather maps on hand
and followed the predictions. Occasionally she would
think that the prophecy was wrong, and bringing
out the diagrams for half a dozen days back she
would demonstrate her belief; and it is said that
when she and the official forecaster differed, she was
quite as likely to be right as he.
STILL LEADING ON 323
As a result of her many interests, conversation
with her was an invigorating mental gymnastic, and
the reaction was usually a violent effort to bring
one's self up to date. Her sister, Mrs. Laura E.
Richards, gave her the name of "Ellencyclopedia."
In the course of a short conversation she would
refer to this great engineering venture, that man out
West who had made such an interesting discovery,
or that woman in New York who was carrying on
such an important experiment. Those who talked
with her usually left her presence determined to
"catch up." Her letters, which had an exhilarating
quality about them and always carried with them an
impression of abiding loyalty, were best described
by the friend who wrote to her, "Your letters are
like a breath of the ocean and a glimpse of the
everlasting hills."
Even after due allowance has been made for her
quickness, there is a temptation to say that the
way in which she managed to do so many little as
well as so many great things cannot be explained,
but it is wiser to admit that it can be explained in
part. She had no more hours in a day or days in a
year than other people, and the fact that she appar-
ently had more at her disposal was the result of
thought and planning. "I wish I were triplets,"
she once said, and being unable to carry out this
wish, she did the next best thing tried to treble
the amount of her available energy and time. She
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
was up and had breakfasted and taken a walk or
a bicycle ride around Jamaica Pond before most
people were out of their beds. She used to claim,
half in fun, a peculiarly life-giving quality in air
upon which the sun was shining. "The elixir of life
is said to be most abundant in connection with the
oxygen of air in motion on which the sun is shining."
She was up, therefore, with the sun or before it, all
the year around.
She saved time, too, by her quick decisions. When,
for example, she received a letter, she almost invari-
ably knew by the time she had read it once what she
was going to do with it, or what action it called for,
and she never handled it again. She made a hiero-
glyphic on the envelope, which indicated to her the
character of the answer to be given and the dispo-
sition of the letter. Her handwriting, too, was labor-
saving. It was not beautiful and many of the words
were only half-formed. The saving came in leaving
off the obvious. If the only way in which a word
could possibly end and make sense in a given connec-
tion was in "ing" or "en," she saw no use of form-
ing these endings. If "wh" could mean only "what"
and not "who" nor "whose" in a given place, it
served as well as the full word. And her small draw-
ings introduced here and there in her letters often
saved many sentences. For example, in one letter,
after she had said of two organizations which she
was supporting, but not very enthusiastically, "They
FACSIMILE OF A LETTER WRITTEN IN 1911
STILL LEADING ON 325
are plodding on successfully, but without any great
object," she made a line of dots which moved bravely
forward for about an inch in a horizontal line, and
then suddenly curved upward and backward upon
themselves.
Her efficiency was due partly to the fact that she
wasted no energy in vain regrets. Her yesterdays
she put well behind her, except so far as they might
serve for guidance in the future. Impatience came
nearer than vain regrets to retarding her progress.
She wanted to see things accomplished, and when
she was irritable it was usually with some one
whom she thought to be dawdling. She understood
herself in this respect, and not long before the end
she said significantly that real happiness had come
to her only when she had learned to put seed into
the ground and then wait twenty years for it to
spring up.
She regretted the foibles, fears, and inconsistencies
which she believed were handicapping women in their
work, and sought to free herself from them as far
as possible. She often preached against them, too.
The absence of pockets she never forgot to mention
when she heard women demanding their rights. To
a friend who held a professorship in a college she
wrote: "What is this I hear? Fainting away like
a silly schoolgirl? Fie on you! What is the matter
with your cook? Take beef three times a day for
a fortnight to tone yourself up, and don't do it
326 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
again. It is fully as important to keep in physical
condition as to have a mental grasp. Nowadays the
last card they can trump up against us is that we
are not physically equal to what we try to do. The
more prominent we are, the more closely they watch
us. Just now, too, when so much is in the air against
woman's education! Think of the example for the
girls ! Now I know you are going to be sensible and
learn just what you can do and what you cannot."
At another time she said: "One of the greatest
faults of the women of the present time is a silly
fear of things, and one object of the education of
girls should be to give them knowledge of what things
are really dangerous."
With her perfect self-mastery she was sometimes
considered unsympathetic with human frailties, only,
however, by those who did not know her personally,
and chiefly because she seldom joined in organized
efforts to help the weak. There can be no doubt
that she loved power, and had a pleasurable interest
in all its manifestations, except those involving
cruelty, whether they were of man over matter, of
man over the dumb animals, or of man over man.
She believed in war, or at least thought that prepa-
ration for war involved helpful discipline and had
been the means of utilizing many of the facts of
science which peace had neglected. Fellowship she
seldom preached in words, though unremittingly
through her unnumbered acts of kindness. It used
STILL LEADING OX 327
to seem almost as if, in spite of the fact that she
was giving her all for others, she was afraid of put-
ting her thoughts on the subject of cooperation
into words, lest she appear to undervalue the help
which she believed the individual could and should
give to himself, and the self-control and the sense
of individual responsibility which she believed lay at
the foundation of all progress and should be the
end of all education.
Her democracy was of the perfect kind not that
which overlooks differences, but that which does not
see them; her faith, which was simple, she once out-
lined by saying that she "believed in a guiding spirit
and tried to keep her ears open to the whisperings
and her eyes clear for the inner light." She had a
sense of humor which "oft lit up gray eyes with
summer lightnings of the soul," and which carried
her serenely through the stress and strain of many a
difficult situation.
Such was the leader's personality. Such a life
does not lose its power and vitality when it passes
away from us. One catches here and there glimpses
of it at work in the life of the world. In the Naples
Aquarium laboratories, American women students
have for years found place and means for research
through her efforts and those of others in the Naples
Table Association, and her leadership is now empha-
sized also in the Association's Ellen Richards Re-
search Prize. In more than one of the colleges, in-
328 ELLEN H. RICHARDS
structor.s who came from her laboratory are teaching
some branch of science as applied to human welfare ;
her "Euthenics," the science of the environment con- .
trolled for right living, is given increasing academic
welcome ; her bold prophecies and loyal struggles for
better living conditions attained through applica-
tions of chemistry, economics, science generally, find
fulfillment in new curricula and in increasingly in-
telligent public opinion. One striking testimonial
to her continuing leadership is the Ellen Richards
Home Economics Fund now forming to continue
unbroken the activities of research and of propa-
ganda which she initiated for the advancement of the
American home.
We can trace her influence at work in many other
ways in schools and colleges and other educational
institutions, in scientific and popular societies, and
in the more efficient activities of public agencies and
private undertakings which she touched. Her life
goes on in a thousand forms and in a thousand places,
and the most skillful social survey could not reveal
them all. To those who knew her and worked with
her there remains, moreover, the personal presence
of the leader, the counselor, the friend, in the labo-
ratory, at the desk, in the conference room and the
convention hall wherever tasks must now be faced
alone which once were faced with her.
3tt
ELLEN H. RICHARDS
A voice is hushed: but ere it failed,
The listening echoes caught its tone,
And now its message clear and keen
On every wind of heaven is blown.
A staff' is broke: but ere it snapped,
Those who had leaned on it so long
Had made its steadfast fibre theirs,
And fare now forward, straight and strong.
A I'ujht ix quenched: but ere it paled,
It lit a hundred torches' flame,
That shine across the darkening sky,
And star with gold one honored name.
April, 1911 LAURA E. RICHARDS
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