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“Castle of Science”: Mount Holyoke College and the Preparation of Women in Chemistry, 1837–1941

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Carole B. Shmurak  and
Bonnie S. Handler
Carole B. Shmurak
Affiliation:
Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, Conn.
Bonnie S. Handler
Affiliation:
Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, Conn.
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Extract

When Lucy Goodale, Mount Holyoke Seminary Class of 1841, wrote home to her parents, she called the seminary her “castle of science.” She could not have known how apt that phrase would become in the next hundred years; she knew only that the chemistry course she was taking, part of a seven-science sequence, was full of “miracles.” Nonetheless, Lucy Goodale's “castle” would become a citadel for women in science; a college that would produce more women who went on for doctorates in the physical sciences from 1910 to 1969, more women who obtained doctorates in chemistry from 1920 to 1980, and more women listed in the 1938 American Men of Science than any other undergraduate institution. Additionally, during the years 1927—41, it would be twice as productive in publishing chemical research as any other liberal arts college (coeducational or single-sex) in the country. Besides exploring how Mount Holyoke Seminary, later Mount Holyoke College, achieved this remarkable record, this paper also examines M. Elizabeth Tidball's hypothesis, that the higher the ratio of women of accomplishment present in a college environment, the more likely the college is to produce women graduates who proceed to postcollege accomplishment themselves, particularly in nontraditional fields like the sciences. Additionally, we demonstrate the attempts at what is today referred to as “networking” that began early in Mount Holyoke's history and continued into the present century. Differences between the generations of women scientists at the college will also be explored.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , Fall 1992 , pp. 315 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by the History of Education Society 

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References

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