THE GIRL WHO TESTED THE WATERS

An impressive tribute to MIT’s first woman student, who went on to a distinguished career as an ecologist and food scientist.

“Home economics” may sound quaint today, but it was once an innovative concept, championed by Ellen Swallow (later Richards). Not only did she serve as the first president of the Home Economics Association, but along with being an early user of the term ecology, she also helped lead the way in bringing public health into the domestic sphere. Daniele sketches out her subject’s progress from a homeschooled farm child with a love of nature and an active mind to her 1871 entry into MIT at age 28; at first she wasn’t even allowed into the classrooms. From there, she went on to a grueling two-year study of pure and polluted water sources around Boston and similar investigations of unsanitary groceries—both of which led to new state pure food and water standards. What readers may miss unless they read the closing timeline and author’s note is that, despite being denied a doctoral degree, she also opened and ran an instructional “Women’s Laboratory” at MIT in a garage before finally being admitted to the faculty. Her vital legacy continues, the author writes, in the ongoing “fight for clean water and a healthy environment.” In Wu’s softly textured color pencil illustrations, Ellen stands out as an alert, bright-eyed figure.

A warm portrait of a pioneering mind and spirit.