Elizabeth Cary Agassiz

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Grave of EC Agassiz

Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (nee Cary) (born December 5, 1822 in Boston , Massachusetts , † June 27, 1907 in Arlington Heights , Massachusetts) was an American educator and naturalist and the first president of Radcliffe College .

Life

Elizabeth Cary was born into the Boston upper class in 1822. Because of her poor health, she received home schooling. In 1850 she married a widower, the natural scientist Louis Agassiz , who had previously (1849) emigrated from Switzerland to the USA with his three children. She organized the household together, took care of the family's finances and the children of his first marriage. She also worked closely with her husband on his scientific studies.

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Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz directed the Agassiz School for Girls from 1855 to 1859.

She was the wife of the scientist Louis Agassiz and accompanied him on his extensive travels, such as to Brazil and the Galapagos, and kept a record of the discoveries. After the death of her husband (1873) she published several books on natural history, some together with her stepson Alexander Agassiz .

In 1879 she became one of the seven female directors of the Society for the Private Collegiate Instruction for Women (Harvard Annex). Agassiz played a key role in transforming the Harvard Annex for the education of women at Harvard University into Radcliffe College in 1894 . From 1894 to 1900 this college was under her direction and from 1900 to 1903 she was Honorary President. With her tact and fundraising skills, she promoted the college and contributed significantly to its continuity.

She was (from 1869) one of the first female members of the American Philosophical Society (together with Mary Fairfax Somerville and Maria Mitchell ).

Fonts (selection)

  • Actaea, a First Lesson in Natural History. 1859
  • An Amazonian Picnic. In: The Atlantic Monthly March 17, 1866, pp. 313-323
  • The Hassler Glacier in the Straits of Magellan. In: The Atlantic Monthly October 30, 1872, pp. 472-478.
  • In the Straits of Magellan. In: The Atlantic Monthly January 31, 1873.
  • A cruise through the Gallapagos. In: The Atlantic Monthly May 31, 1873.
  • Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence , 2 volumes. Macmillan, London, 1885.
  • with A. Agassiz: Seaside Studies in Natural History. Marine Animals of Massachusetts Bay. Radiates. 2nd edition, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1871.
  • with L. Agassiz: A Journey in Brazil. Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1868.

literature

  • Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie : Women in science: antiquity through the nineteenth century: a biographical dictionary with annotated bibliography . 3. Edition. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 1991, ISBN 0-262-65038-X , p. 23 f.

Individual evidence

  1. Kate Lindemann: Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz 1822-1907: Feminism, Philosophy of Science. In: Society for the Study of Women Philosophers. 2016, accessed on May 16, 2019 .
  2. Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, Galapagos , accessed May 30, 2011.
  3. ^ Agassiz, Elizabeth Cabot Cary, 1822-1907. Papers, 1884-1959: A Finding Aid. In: Radcliffe College Archives. July 2007, archived from the original on July 9, 2010 ; accessed on May 16, 2019 (English).