As we look back into history, we sometimes find photographs of important people. The photo we find of Ellen Richards is one of an older, severe-looking matron. We should remember that “you can’t tell the book by the cover”, because her story is one of a cheerful, vigorous, outgoing woman who studied and questioned the world around her throughout her lifetime. Richards constantly challenged women to take on the important issues of the day themselves. Her professional writings influenced leaders in the social, scientific, and educational fields of her day, and she was instrumental in changing the way people looked at the home, both physically and as a social institution. Instead of a matron, we should see a leader. Instead of severity, we should see a visionary.
In the mid 1800’s the Louisiana Purchase was complete. The United States was now bigger than ever, and the country was energized. Educational movements were abundant in the Eastern United States, the Morrill Act had started the Land Grant Colleges, and people were demanding education for all of their children, female as well as male. Education appeared to be the key to solving all of society’s problems, and so Ellen Swallow came into a world ready for her ideas about the home and sanitation.
Ellen Henrietta Swallow was born on December 12, 1842, the only child of Peter and Fanny Swallow. Ellen’s father was a teacher and a farmer who enjoyed being outside. Their small family lived on the farm until 1859 when the Swallows moved to town so that Ellen could receive an education at the academy in Dunstable, Massachusetts. Although her father opened a store, and was a merchant for the rest of his life, he never was very prosperous in his business, and Ellen from an early age helped him in his work.
Ellen was a small child, and her parents worried that she was frail and weak. The family doctor instructed them to let her run outside in the fresh air for her health, and Ellen turned into a tomboy. She did farm chores as long as they lived in the country-although her mother would not let her milk cows for fear that it would “ruin her hands”. This early freedom to enjoy nature stayed with her throughout her lifetime. From her writing, it seems that Ellen considered physical exercise one of life’s greatest pleasures and responsibilities. The Swallows were both educated for their times, and so were very interested in Ellen’s schooling. Usually Ellen was educated at home by her parents because they were very critical of the local teachers. Ellen’s mother taught her how to do housework, and to cook as well as sew. As a result, Ellen Swallow was a bright, energetic, and inquisitive child who was given free rein to explore her world.
In 1859 the family moved to the nearby town of Westford, Mass. Ellen continued her education at the Westford Academy and started to work at the store as her father’s assistant. Again, she enjoyed being outside and undertook the study of flowers and gardening. She was a teenager who was always occupied, either at the store, or in helping her mother at home, or tutoring younger children. It appears that she was one of those people who look at life as an adventure to be relished.
1862 found Ellen finished with school. She decided to become a teacher, and moved with her family again three miles to Littleton, Mass. where her father had purchased a bigger store. Finally in June 1864 Ellen began to teach. But in September, Fanny became sick and Ellen stopped teaching to stay with her mother. This was obviously a very rough time for Ellen. Her letters in 1868 describe a period of depression and sadness. Ellen had done what she considered her responsibility, but it had left her without an ongoing purpose. However, in the fall of 1868 everything changed. Ellen enrolled at Vassar, a woman’s college. She had found her passion. She remained at Vassar for two years, and then graduated. Those years were exciting, filled with study and new ideas. Ellen was irritated with the notion that women needed to guard their health against too much study. It was felt that females simply couldn’t take the strain of mental work. She pushed to be allowed to study freely without limits, and to study outside in fieldwork. Not only was she an excellent student, she also enjoyed the social life of the school. She seemed to genuinely relish all of life. Two teachers in particular made a mark on her: Maria Mitchell, an astronomer, and Professor C.A. Farrar, the head of the Natural Science and Math Department at Vassar. (Later, Ellen said that even though she loved astronomy, she thought that she chose chemistry because of her concern for social conditions.) At Vassar Ellen tutored other students to pay for her education and expenses and lived very frugally. She seemed to consider that not a burden however, but a virtue. This economic feature remained with her throughout her life. One of her favorite discussions was based on society’s need to discard possessions that do not add value to life. In her Vassar days, Ellen foresaw that women would probably win the right to vote in her lifetime. She however didn’t think that the women of her time were educated enough to take advantage of it.
As a Vassar graduate, Ellen again tried to become a teacher. She had joined a program for teachers in Argentina and was waiting to travel there when war broke out in that country. Ellen was forced to withdraw from the program, and was at a loss for work. She attempted to get employment as a chemist’s apprentice, but no one would hire her. A sympathetic chemist advised her to go to M.I.T and enroll as a student. This was an extraordinary suggestion: no women were enrolled at the school. When Ellen applied to M.I.T., the faculty decided they were not yet ready to open their doors to all women. Ellen’s application forced their decision: each female would be considered on her own merits. Ellen Swallow was admitted in 1871 because she came highly recommended, but the school did not charge her a fee. In this way, if Ellen was not the student M.I.T. hoped she was, the school could say that she was not an actual student.
Again, Ellen threw herself into her work. She relished the chance to learn everything and especially enjoyed chemistry and laboratory work. Even when her father was injured in a train accident and then died, Ellen stayed in school as she settled his affairs for her mother. During her years in M.I.T., she was a student, then a chemistry assistant, and finally an instructor. In 1873, she received her BS in Chemistry and a MA from Vassar. Although Ellen wanted to pursue a doctorate in chemistry, she could not get work in “pure science” and so was not able to do the original work required to earn that degree.
Ellen became involved in 1870 in a project headed by Dr. William Nichols of M.I.T.. Massachusetts had formed a State Board of Health in 1869, and one of their first concerns was the waters of the state. Dr. Nichols chose Ellen to be his assistant, and it was Ellen who analyzed most of the daily water samples taken throughout the state for the next two years. The study tested the water used by 82% of the population during that time. A model of naturally occurring chlorine was developed that was used worldwide as an indicator of likely chlorine levels in relation to distance from saltwater bodies (the Normal Chlorine Map). Ellen was instrumental in the development of that model.
When Ellen was not able to continue her doctoral pursuit, she remained at M.I.T. as a research assistant. According the Caroline Hunt, her biographer, Ellen studied anything that she could put under a microscope. Her particular interests were things involved in the home including air and water quality, ventilation, and garbage disposal. Ellen even did work without charging fees for her friends, and institutions dear to her heart: Vassar and M.I.T. She often checked the conditions at the schools in an effort to ensure that the students and faculty were safe from contaminants. She became the research assistant to Dr. Ordway, an industrial chemist, and was named the chemist for the Manufacturers’ Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Her work dealt with spontaneous combustion of oils used in industry, and was the forerunner to underwriter’s institutes. She also worked with Edward Atkinson, who invented the Aladdin oven, and studied the application of heat in foods. Ellen studied the reclamation of wool grease and composition of cottonseed oil, both important industrial products of the day. In 1877, she created a new method for determining the amount of nickel in ore and so became an authority in metallurgy.
In 1875, Ellen became Ellen Richards when she married Dr. Robert Richards, a geology and chemistry professor at M.I.T. Two years her junior, Robert shared her enthusiasm for laboratory work and outdoor life. Throughout their life, they often took trips with students to mines and natural wonders all over the world. Although older than most newlyweds, according to Hunt, the Richards faced the same blunders common to them. On the morning after their wedding, Dr. Richards found that he had not packed a tie to wear that day (men of his station always wore a tie in public) but Ellen had a larger problem-she had not packed any clothes at all. Dr. Richards had to return to Ellen’s old apartment so that she could dress in something other than her wedding dress.
The Richards home was a model of Ellen’s education. She cooked with gas instead of coal, had a telephone as soon as they became available, and experimented with vacuum cleaners. Interested in economy of all kind, she discarded her carpet when she discovered that they took so much time to maintain. Unlike many homes of her day, her house was designed with lots of ventilation and natural light.
Ellen and her husband felt that they should support their students in all ways. They often had students living in their home and working for room and board to pursue an education. Vacations were taken in the form of field trips with students. In 1876, the Woman’s Laboratory was opened on M.I.T. campus with Mrs. Richards as instructor. The entire school at the time was faced with financial difficulty. Many professors and instructors, including Mrs. Richards, worked without salaries for several years. In addition, she gave the school one thousand dollars every year for seven of those years. Women were faced with many hardships as they pursued their education. Public opinion was against them. It was an accepted “fact” that women could not stand the rigors of study, and so many females fell prey to their own perceived weaknesses. Mrs. Richards tried to inspire her students to not succumb to these fallacies by providing a model for them. She produced volumes of scholarly work and was always ready to take on a new leadership role.
The adult portion of Mrs.Richards life was one of idealism. She was instrumental in the formation of the Woman’s Laboratory in M.I.T.(which led to the acceptance of women into M.I.T. in 1878). In 1976 also, she began work on a correspondence course in conjunction with The Society to Encourage Studies At Home. This group was interested in the education of all women who sought it from their homes. Mrs. Richards’ contribution came in the Science department where she devised a curriculum that included the use of microscopes and glass slides for the study of nature and science. She also corresponded with her students answering their questions and encouraging them. In 1886, Mrs. Richards instituted a new study: Sanitary Science. This course was concerned with the home and its new conveniences-gas, indoor plumbing, ventilation, electricity, furnaces, hot water heaters, and other issues. 1893 was the year for the World’s Fair in Chicago. Mrs. Richards was in charge of the Rumford Kitchen at the Fair, which sold meals to the public. In addition to preparing meals that the customers enjoyed, the cost of preparation along with the caloric and nutritional content was published in the menus. In this way, Mrs. Richards tried to educate the public about the economies of food.
According to Hunt, the last thirty years of Mrs. Richards life was spent in examining the home. She was convinced that many of society’s problems could be solved in the family house itself, and so she wrote and lectured tirelessly on the subject. She described this study as the “science of controllable environment” and called it “Euthenics”. She believed that knowledge was power, and urged women to become knowledgeable about new household products so that manufacturers would not be able to fool them with faulty claims. In order to make a home safe, it was important to understand the dynamics of all the systems in it. “Housework” was drudgework, but “housekeeping” was science. Education was the key to solving most social ills, and everyone deserved that education. Mrs. Richards believed in hands-on learning and industrial education. The “labor of the hands” was most valuable in her estimation. The formation of the New England Kitchen led to a plan for making school lunches available to students in Boston in 1894. Mrs. Richards’ connection with this institute led directly to an involvement with the recently established Hatch Act state experiment stations as a nutritional consultant.
In 1899, at Lake Placid New York, the formal discussion of “Household Science” was begun in earnest. Ellen Richards, elected president of the club, drove its philosophical questioning. After a lifetime of work in this field, she had come to believe passionately that the home was linked with society and that the study of that partnership was vital. Her leadership in the next ten years provided the encouragement to see the development of a new name, Home Economics, a new outline for a body of knowledge, a plan for teacher training, new curriculum for all grade levels in public schools, and a coordination with new vocational programs instituted by the Federal government. Her ideas about the value of the home had finally been taken up by a larger group of people who would continue to press for more recognition in education after her death in 1911.
"The Urgent Need of Sanitary Education in the Public Schools." Reprinted from Transactions of the American Public Health Association, vol. 24. Columbus, Ohio, 1899.
With Alice W. Palmer. "Notes on Antimony Tannate." No. II. American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. 16, November 1878.
"Notes on the Potable Waters of Mexico." Reprinted from Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Mexico, 1901.
"The Significance of the Presence and Amount of Carbon Di-oxide in Potable Waters." Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Twenty-ninth Annual Meeting, American Public Health Association, Buffalo, N.Y., September 1901.
"Wanted, A Test for 'Man Power.'" Reprinted from Clarkson Bulletin, vol. 3, no. 3, 1906.
"An Apparatus for Determining the Liability of Oils to Spontaneous Combustion." Technology Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 4, December 1891.
With Lily Miller Kendall. "Permanent Standards in Water Analysis." Reprinted from Technology Quarterly, vol. 17, no. 3, September 1904.
With Charles W. Moulton. "Ten Years' Experience with Broad Irrigation at Vassar College." Reprinted from Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies, vol. 36, no. 4, 1906.
"Air Supply Examination." Reprinted from Papers and Reports of the American Public Health Association, vol. 32, pt. 2.
With George William Rolfe. "Reduction of Nitrates by Bacteria and Consequent Loss of Nitrogen." Reprinted from Technology Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 1, March 1896.
With E. Marion Wade, Royce W. Gilbert, Carl E. Hanson, and James M. Talbot. "Methods of Testing the Efficiency of Ventilation." Reprinted from Technology Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 3, September 1908.
With Edwin O. Jordan. "Investigations upon Nitrification and the Nitrifying Organism." September 1890.
"Analysis of Samarskite from a New Locality." Reprinted from Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. 17, 1874-75.
Minerals. Boston, 1882.
With Elizabeth Mason. "The Effect of Heat upon the Digestibility of Gluten." Reprinted from Technology Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 1, April 1894.
With Marion Talbot. Food as a Factor in Student Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1894.
"Domestic Science as a Synthetic Study for Girls." Reprinted from Proceedings of the National Educational Association, 1808.
"Alum in Walter. A. H. Low's Modification of the Logwood Test." Reprinted from Technology Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 4, December 1902.
Foreword to The Story of the New England Kitchen, by Mary Hinman Abel. Boston, 1890.
"Municipal Responsibility for Healthy School-houses." Reprinted from Transactions of the American Public Health Association, 1897.
"Dietaries for Wage-Earners and Their Families." From 17th Report (1893) of the State Board of Health of New Jersey.
"The Science of Nutrition." 1897.
With Mary Hinman Abel. "The Right Application of Heat to the Conversion of Food Material." Paper read at meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, August 1890.
With Lottie A. Bragg. "The Distribution of Phosphorus and Nitrogen in the Products of Modern Milling." Reprinted from Technology Quarterly, vol. 3, no. 3. Boston, 1890.
"Carbon Dioxide as a Measure of the Efficiency of Ventilation." Reprinted from Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 15, no. 10, October 1893.
"Good Luncheons for Rural Schools without a Kitchen." Boston, 1906.
"Domestic Economy in Public Education." Educational monograph published by the New York College for the Training of Teachers, vol. 2, no. 4, July 1889.
"Sanitary Science in the Home." Reprinted from Journal of the Franklin Institute, August 1888.
"Paper on the Adulterations of Groceries." Boston, 1880.
"The Relation of College Women to Progress in Domestic Science." Paper presented to the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, 1890.
"University Laboratories in Relation to the Investigation of Public Health Problems and to Commercial Work." Reprinted from Transactions of the American Public Health Association, vol. 25. Columbus, Ohio, 1890.
Air, water, and food from a sanitary standpoint.
New York: Wiley, c1900.
RA430.R6 1900
Air, water, and food from a sanitary standpoint.
2nd ed., rev. and enl. New York: Wiley, c1904.
RA430.R6 1904
Air, water, and food from a sanitary standpoint.
With Alpheus G. Woodman. 4th ed., rev. and rewritten. Boston: Wiley, c1914.
RA430.R6 1914
The art of right living.
Boston: Whitcomb & Barrows, c1904.
RA776.R52 1904
The chemistry of cooking and cleaning: a manual for housekeepers.
[1st ed.] Boston: Estes & Lauriat, 1882.
TX531.R53 1882
The chemistry of cooking and cleaning: a manual for housekeepers.
2nd ed. rev. and rewritten. Boston: Home Science Publishing Co., c1897.
TX531.R53 1897
The chemistry of cooking and cleaning: a manual for housekeepers.
3rd ed. rev. and enl. Boston: Whitcomb & Barrows, 1912.
TX531.R53 1907
Conservation by sanitation; air and water supply; disposal of waste (including
a laboratory guide for sanitary engineers).
New York: Wiley, 1911.
RA425.R54 1911
The cost of cleanness.
1st ed. New York: Wiley, 1911.
RA431.R46 1911
The cost of food: a study in dietaries.
1st ed. New York: Wiley, c1901.
TX551.R49 1901
The cost of food: a study in dietaries.
1st ed. New York: Wiley, 1902.
TX551.R49 1902
The cost of food: a study in dietaries.
2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 1913.
TX551.R49 1913
The cost of food: a study in dietaries.
3rd ed., rev. New York: Wiley, c1917.
TX551.R49 1917
The cost of living as modified by sanitary science.
2nd ed., enl. New York: Wiley, 1900.
TX321.R54 1900
The cost of living as modified by sanitary science.
2nd ed., enl. New York: Wiley, 1901.
TX321.R54 1901
The cost of living as modified by sanitary science.
3d ed., enl. New York: Wiley, 1905.
TX321.R54 1905
The cost of living as modified by sanitary science.
3rd ed., enl. New York: Wiley, 1913.
TX321.R54 1913
The cost of shelter.
1st ed. New York: Wiley, c1905.
TX301.R51 1905
The dietary computer. Explanatory pamphlet; the pamphlet containing tables
of food composition, lists of prices, weights, and measures, selected recipes
for the slips, directions for using the same.
1st ed. New York: Wiley, 1902.
TX551.R51 1902
Euthenics, the science of controllable environment: a plea for better living
conditions as a first step toward higher human efficiency.
[1st ed.] Boston: Whitcomb & Barrows, c1910.
HN64.R545 1910
Euthenics, the science of controllable environment: a plea for better living
conditions as a first step toward higher human efficiency.
2nd ed. Boston: Whitcomb & Barrows, 1912.
HN64.R545 1912
First lessons in food and diet.
Boston: Whitcomb & Barrows, c1904.
TX355.R52 1904
First lessons in minerals.
Boston: Press of Rockwell & Churchill, 1882.
QE366.R51 1882
Food materials and their adulterations.
Boston: Estes & Lauriat, 1886.
TX533.R52 1886
Food materials and their adulterations.
New and cor. ed. Boston: Whitcomb & Barrows, 1898.
TX533.R52 1898
Food materials and their adulterations.
3d ed., Whitcomb & Barrows, 1906.
TX533.R53 1906
Home sanitation: a manual for housekeepers.
Rev. ed. Boston: Home Science Publishing Co., 1898.
TD905.R53 1898
Laboratory notes: sanitary chemistry and water analysis.
c1896.
T171.M42ga.R5 1896
Laboratory notes on industrial water analysis: a survey course for engineers.
1st ed. New York: Wiley, c1908.
QD142.R5 1908
Laboratory notes on industrial water analysis: a survey course for engineers.
2nd ed. New York: Wiley, c1910.
QD142.R5 1910
University laboratories in relation to the investigation of public health problems
and to commercial work.
Columbus, Ohio: Berlin Printing Co., 1900.
RA428.R53 1900
Plain words about food: the Rumford kitchen leaflets, 1899.
Boston: Home Science Publishing Co., c1899.
TX353.P53 1899
With Edward Atkinson. The science of nutrition, in three parts. Treatise upon
the science of nutrition.
Springfield, Mass.: Clark W. Bryan and Company, 1891.
TX651.A85 1891
With Isabel F. Hyams. Notes on oscillaria prolifica (Greville).
[S.I.: S.n., 190-?]
QR99.7.O82.H9 1900
from:http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/esr/esr-bibliography.html Ellen Swallow Richards: Bibliography: Institute Archives & Special Collections: MIT, August 1999
Hunt, C., The Life of Ellen Richards, 1912, Whitcomb and Barrows, Boston
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