Henrietta Hooker

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Henrietta Edgecomb Hooker (December 12, 1851 – May 13, 1929) was an American botanist and educator. She was one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. in botany from an American university.[1] She was born in Gardiner, Maine and died in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Early life[]

Hooker was born to Eliza Annie Hooker and George Washington Hooker in 1851, and was orphaned at the age of seven.[2] At sixteen years of age she began her working life in a New England cotton factory.[2] After a week in the factory, she sought help in finding a different job.[2] Hooker taught in Vermont public schools (1869-1870) and at the Academy of West Charleston (1870-1871).[3]

Academic career[]

Hooker entered Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1871, and graduated in 1873.[2] She did graduate work at MIT, and the universities of Syracuse, Berlin, and Chicago.[2] She earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse University in 1889.[3] Hooker was among the first women to earn a Ph.D. in botany in the United States.[1] In 1899, she was one of two teachers with a Ph.D. at Mount Holyoke.[4]

Hooker's research focused on the morphology and embryology of Cuscuta, a genus of parasitic plants.[3]

Hooker was a teacher at Mount Holyoke for thirty-five years.[2] As the chair of the botany department, she advocated for expansion of the curriculum into newer branches of the field and for improvements to laboratory space and equipment.[2] Hooker's commitment to Mount Holyoke extended beyond her retirement in 1908. She bred prize-winning Buff Orpington chickens and donated the winnings to Mount Holyoke.[5] Mount Holyoke awarded her an honorary Sc.D. in 1923.[2]

Hooker's papers are held by the Mount Holyoke College Archives & Special Collections.[5]

Works[]

  • Hooker, Henrietta E. (1889). "On Cuscuta Gronovii". Botanical Gazette. 14 (2): 31–37. doi:10.1086/326377. S2CID 85098984.
  • Hooker, Henrietta E. (1890). "Lydia W. Shattuck as a Student and Teacher of Science". Memorial of Lydia W. Shattuck. Beacon Press. pp. 25–31.
  • "Mount Holyoke College". New England Magazine. Vol. 15, no. 5. 1897.

References[]

  1. ^ a b Shmurak, Carole B.; Handler, Bonnie S. (1992). "Castle of Science: Mount Holyoke College and the preparation of women in chemistry, 1837-1941". History of Education Quarterly. 32 (3): 320. doi:10.2307/368548. JSTOR 368548.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Mary R.S. Creese (1998). Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research. Scarecrow Press. pp. 9–. ISBN 978-0-585-27684-7.
  3. ^ a b c Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy, eds. (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Routledge.
  4. ^ Miriam R. Levin (2005). Defining Women's Scientific Enterprise: Mount Holyoke Faculty and the Rise of American Science. UPNE. pp. 118–. ISBN 978-1-58465-419-3.
  5. ^ a b "Hooker papers, 1873-1942 (bulk 1884-1927)". asteria.fivecolleges.edu. Retrieved 2014-05-28.

External links[]

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