• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

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 Prize The 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 the ON 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 who the hope was expressed that they and others influence had known the inspiration of her personal world might have an opportunity to show her to the 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 to a response request for material which might be of service, many letters written by Mrs. Richards were and also received, 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 life Mrs. Flora and home ; to her classmates, Hughes and Miss Anna Mineah, and other college friends for of valuable letters to the Woman's a large number ; Education Association of Boston for permission to examine its early records; to Miss Margaret E. Dodd the Studies for bringing to light many facts about 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- of the ment of Agriculture; to many graduates 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 to Louisa P. of years ; Miss Hewins, 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 far fallen few of those who have helped ; how we have 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.

Load more

  398

Copy Link