Ellen Henrietta (Swallow) Richards (December 3, 1842 – March 30, 1911) was the foremost female industrial and environmental chemist in the United States in the 1800s, pioneering the field of home economics. Richards was the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and its first female instructor, the first woman in America accepted to any school of science and technology, and the first American woman to earn a degree in chemistry.

Ellen was a "pragmatic" feminist, as well as a founding "ecofeminist" who believed that women's work within the home was a vital aspect of the economy.^[1]

Life and work

Born (to Fanny Taylor and Peter Swallow) to an old Dunstable, Massachusetts family of modest means which prized education, Ellen Swallow taught, tutored, and cleaned for years, finally saving $300 to enter Vassar College in 1868, earning her bachelor's degree two years later. After failing to find suitable employment as an industrial chemist after graduation, she entered MIT to continue her studies, "

Notes

1. ↑  Barbara Richardson - Ellen Swallow Richards: 'Humanistic Oekologist,' 'Applied Sociologist,' and the Founding of Sociology. American Sociologist, Fall2002, Vol. 33 Issue 3, p21, 37p [2]

Publications

• Richards, Ellen. First lessons in food and diet. Boston: Whitcomb & Barrows, 1904.

• Richards, Ellen. The Cost of shelter. New York: J. Wiley & Sons, 1905. ISBN 1-4142-3012-5

• Richards, Ellen. Meat and drink. Boston: Health-Education League, [1906?].

• Richards, Ellen. The Efficient worker. Boston: Health-Education League, c1908.

• Richards, Ellen. Health in labor camps. Boston: Health-Education League, c1908.

• Richards, Ellen. Tonics and stimulants. Boston: Health-Education League, [1908 or 1909].

• Richards, Ellen. Air, water, and food: from a sanitary standpoint. 4th ed., rev. and rewritten. New York: J. Wiley & Sons, 1914.

• Richards, Ellen Euthenics: The Science of Controllable Environment : A Plea for Better Conditions As a First Step Toward Higher Human Efficiency (Public health in America) ISBN 0-405-09827-8