The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning, by Ellen Richards, Boston, 1901

The life and work of Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842-1911) broke new ground for women in general and women in science in particular. In 1873, she became the first woman allowed to earn a degree from MIT, where she continued graduate work for two years but was to be denied a Ph.D because MIT did not want to award its first doctorate in chemistry to a woman. In 1874 she was appointed to the faculty as an instructor in chemistry, a post she held for 27 years.

Three main themes dominated Richards’s life: a passion for science, a commitment to improving women’s

education and careers, and, like Beecher, a belief in the home as a resource for social change. In domestic science, she found a way to bring these interests together in a new vocation for herself and other college-educated women. In her laboratory, she applied science to everyday problems that women faced, resulting in the publication of her first book, The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning.