Born December 3, 1842
Dunstable, Massachusetts

Died March 30, 1911
Boston, Massachusetts

Chemist, educator, and founder of the discipline of home economics

"I hope in a quiet way 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 privilege to clean up and sort of supervise the room and sew things, etc., is winning me stronger allies than anything else."

The first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Ellen Richards was a chemist and the founder of the discipline of home economics, now often called family and consumer sciences. In addition to being a student pioneer at MIT (she was the first American woman to earn a bachelor of chemistry degree) and then as a...