Character

Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards

Dunstable (Massachusetts) 03-12-1842 ‖ Massachusetts 30-03-1911

Period of activity: From 1877 until 1900

Geographical classification: America > United States

Socio-cultural movements

Groups by dedication

Technologists > Engineers

Writers > Essayists

Context of feminine creation

Ellen Swallow Richards is considered one of the founders of ecology and environmental engineering and developed her work in the analysis of air, water and soil. She was a contemporary of scientists such as Maire Curie, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Mary Waton (1827- c.1900), engineer and inventor, pioneer in the fight for the environment, atmospheric pollution and noise pollution, who invented different systems to alleviate pollution in large cities, Eunice Foote (1819-1888) who, from her kitchen, was the first scientist to theorise about the relationship between the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) and significant global warming. Her scientific activity, like that of Eunice Foote, Anita Conti and Rachel Carlson, was always governed by her concern for the environment.

Her predecessors were: the naturalist Maria Sybilla Merian (1647-1717), the anatomy teacher Anna Morandi Manzolini (1716-1774). Laura Bassi (1711-1778) promoted the constitution of a network of experimenters that connected Italy with the scientific culture of France and England.

Heirs to this work in engineering and environmental awareness we can find the scientist Rachel Carlson (1907-1964), marine biologist, zoologist and writer, dedicated herself to the observation of her natural environment and concluded after several studies that pesticides were destroying it, the Hungarian Mária Telkes (1900-1995), considered the pioneer of solar energy. She designed the first solar-heated house, the Dover Solar House in Massachusetts (USA). She also devised the first thermoelectric refrigerator and the first solar storage systems. Ruzena Bajcsy (1933 - ) also holds a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science, and is a leading researcher in robotics, artificial intelligence and computer vision.

In the 21st century, environmental activism has been spearheaded by the young Greta Thunberg (2003- ) a Swedish activist, focusing on the risks posed by global warming and environmental activism.

Review

She was the first woman to be member of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. She worked as a consultant in industrial chemistry and conducted some research on water pollution and on the provision of potable water in a new lab created in the sanitary chemistry MIT. There, she opened a chemistry lab for women. She was part of the committee of the Naples Table Association for Promoting Laboratory Research by Women, an association that promoted scientific research among women. She was also part of the National Education Association council, where she was in charge of supervising domestic economy teaching in publich schools. That same year, she received an honorary Ph. D. by Smith College.

Justifications

She was the first woman to join the prestigious MIT.
Pioneer of current environmental engineering and protection. She consecrated her work to analysing the air, water and soil.
She developed test methods that are still used nowadays.

Biography

She started her education at home, where she would help her family with work at the farm. Her first formal studies were at Vassar College in New York, one of the few institutions to accept women at the time. There, she was a student of the astronomer Maria Mitchell. In 1873, she joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she studied chemistry; she was the first woman to be admited in this institution. However, she was not able to get a doctorate, since the professors at the MIT did not approve that the first Ph. D. in chemistry would be received by a woman.
In 1875, Ellen married Robert Richards, head of the engineering department at the MIT.
In 1876, she managed to have the Women's Education Association of Boston pay for a women's lab at the MIT, where she worked as an assistant director with professor John Ordway. There, women were taught industrial and basic chemistry, biology and mineralogy.
She worked as an expert consultant in industrial chemistry and potable water supplying. Moreover, she became head of the science section of the Society to Encourage Studies at Home, an association that trained housewifes and families in different issues: domestic economy, nutrition, etc. Ellen worked to improve school lunch meals and fought for the introduction of domestic economy in the public schools of Boston.
In 1884, she started working with William Nichols in a new sanitary chemistry lab for the MIT. From her position as a teaching assistant, she introduced training in biology in the MIT and contributed to the founding of the oceanographic institute Woods Hole. She researched water contamination and designed safe systems for water provision. She was also part of the Naples Table Association for Promoting Laboratory Research by Women, an association that gave an annual prize to women consisting of a year's funding for research in biology labs, such as the Stazione Zoologica in Naples or Woods Hole. After her death, the award was named Ellen Richards Award.
From 1890 on, Richards focused her career on improving the nutrition of working classes: she participated in the creation of affordable restaurants, advised hospitals and schools about diets, and advocated for the introduction of domestic economy courses in public schools. In 1899, she outlined the training and certification characteristics that this new science should have, which gave rise to the creation of the American Home Economics Association, of which she was the first president, and the Journal of Home Economics.
Richards passed away on March 30, 1911, in her Jamaica Plain home in Massachusetts, after suffering with angina.

Works

The Chemistry of Cooking and cleaning: a manual for housekeepers (1882) 2.ª ed. (1897), 3.ª ed. (1912)

The science of nutrition, in three parts. Treatise upon the science of nutrition (1891)

Laboratory notes: sanitary chemistry and water analysis (c. 1908), 2.ª ed. (c. 1910)

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 (1902)

First lessons in food and diet (1904)

Health in labour camps (c. 1908)

Euthenics, the science of controllable environment: a plea for better living conditions as a first step toward higher human efficiency (c. 1910), 2.ª ed. (1912)

Conservation by sanitation; air and water supply; disposal of waste (including a laboratory guide for sanitary engineers) (1911)

The cost of cleanness (1911)

Bibliography

Wiki de wikipedia (19/10/2020) <https://es.qaz.wiki/wiki/Ellen_Swallow_Richards>

Wikipedia (19/10/2020) <https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Swallow_Richards>

Mujeres con Ciencia, 10/10/2020, <https://mujeresconciencia.com/2014/09/08/ellen-swallow-richards-pionera-de-la-ingenieria-medioambiental/>

H. P. TALBOT, 1985. Technology Review, volume 13, pp. 365-373. MIT Institute, 10/10/2020, <https://wayback.archiveit.org/7963/20190702115713/https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/esr/esr-biography.html>

Mujeres de ciencias, 11/10/2020, <http://mujeresdeciencias.ftp.catedu.es/4.BIOGRAFiAS/Ellen%20Richards.html>

Enciclopedia Británica, 11/10/2020, <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ellen-Swallow-Richards >

EcuRed, 11/10/2020, <https://www.ecured.cu/Ellen_Henrietta_Swallow_Richards>

Universitat Rovira i Virgili , 11/10/2020, <https://www.urv.cat/es/vida-campus/universidad-responsable/observatorio-igualdad/ano-mujeres-ciencias/dones-i-ciencies/dones-enginyeres/ellenswallowrichards/>

Delgado, Paulet, 11/10/2020, “¿La economía doméstica es relevante en el siglo XXI?” Información para la igualdad, Amecopress <https://amecopress.net/La-economia-domestica-es-relevante-para-el-siglo-XXI>

Didactic approach

Biology and geology in 3rd of ESO.
She can also be studied in physics and chemistry.