The Remarkable Life and Career of Ellen Swallow Richards: Pioneer in Science and Technology

Source Notes

FOREWORD

p. vii “The quality of life depends on the ability of society to teach its members how to live in harmony with their environment.”: spoken by Ellen Swallow Richards in her 1910 MIT Convocation address.

PROLOGUE

p. xiii “… a spicy adventure, especially coming down.”: Hunt, p. 246

CHAPTER 1: ELLENCYCLOPEDIA

p. 1 “Each town was a small but perfect republic, as solitary and secluded in the New England wilderness as the Swiss cantons among the Alps.”: George W. Curtis, qtd. in Nason, p. 14

p. 1 “Ellencyclopedia”: nickname given to Ellen by her sister-in-law, Laura E. Richards, the daughter of Samuel Gridley Howe, founder of the Perkins Institute for the Deaf and Blind, and of Julia Ward Howe who wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic“

p. 2 Ellen’s great-great grandfather, Ensign John Swallow (1709–1776) built the farm home and large attached barn in 1757. When Ensign John died, the farm passed to his son, Peter (1743–1813). Peter, who fought in the American Revolution, willed the farm to his son, Archelaus (1784–1855). He married Susanna Kendall (1788–1842), and they were Ellen’s grandparents. Archelaus and Susanna had several children, and the eldest was Ellen’s father, Peter Swallow (1813–1871). He married Fanny Gould Taylor (1817–1892). Their only child was Ellen Henrietta Swallow

p. 7 “Wise physician”: Hunt, p. 11

p. 7 “Air and Water are Food”: Clarke, p. 6

p. 7 Through the letters that cousin Annie Swallow saved from Ellen, we are able to learn about the earlier ...