In Her Footsteps: The Door Opens - Ellen Swallow Richards' MIT (1871-1911) - Clio

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1. Site of MIT's William Barton Rogers Building - The Door Opens

As Ellen Swallow stepped onto the MIT campus for the first time, she encountered a college and city poised for rapid growth. From 1870 to 1910, MIT's enrollment increased from 224 to 1508 students, and Boston's population more than doubled. The Boston Back Bay reverberated with the constant chorus of earth-moving equipment creating the land MIT occupied then and occupies now.Boston's growth continued well into the 20th century. Today, nothing remains of MIT's original Boston campus, its footprints buried beneath more modern structures. The original Rogers Building was demolished in 1938 to make way for the current building. A plaque commemorating MIT's founding is located to the right of the main entrance at 497 Boylston Street. Dioramas of the history of the site, including MIT, can be found in the Lobby, close to the Newbury Street entrance. Please check in with Security before viewing the dioramas.

2. Site of the MIT Woman's Laboratory (1876-1883) - STEM Education for Women

Ellen Swallow graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1873 with a Bachelor of Science in just two years, yet MIT’s doors remained closed to women. The Institute believed her to be an exception, an outlier. Ellen proved to be an exception - an exceptional advocate for women’s education. In 1876 she established the Woman’s Laboratory to create better opportunities for the scientific education of women. Over the next six years, Ellen instructed over 100 women - most were educators who would go on to prepare hundreds of young women to pursue STEM fields.The building that originally housed the Woman's Laboratory was demolished in 1883 to make way for the Walker Building completed in 1884. Standing at the corner of Boylston Street and Clarendon Street, the Church steeple visible to the left is the same church steeple seen in the photograph of the exterior of the Woman's Laboratory (MIT Annex).

3. Site of the Margaret Cheney Room - MIT Pierce Building (1898 - 1916)

In 1883, the demolition of the Women’s Laboratory left MIT without dedicated rest rooms and laboratory space for women students. Concerned by what the lack of suitable facilities for women could mean for the future of women at MIT, Ellen Swallow Richards, MIT’s first female graduate and fierce supporter of higher education for women, immediately when to work. This is the story of how one room and a determined group of local women secured a full and permanent place for female students at MIT.Now the site of the John Hancock Tower, the Pierce Building was demolished and Stuart Street extended by 1922.

4. Union Church - Ellen H. Swallow Marries Robert H. Richards June 4, 1875

Originally named the Union Congregational Church, the church was completed in 1870 and is located a few blocks from where Ellen lived with the Blodgetts. On June 4, 1875, Reverend Henry. M. Parsons, one of the church’s first ministers, married Ellen Henrietta Swallow and Robert Hallowell Richards.3.10In 1948, the Union Congregational Church merged with the Old South Church. A new congregation purchased the building and re-dedicated the space as the Union Church in 1949.1,7

5. Ellen Swallow's Neighborhood - Mrs. Blodgetts's Boarding House (1871-75)

Starting in January 1871, following her admission to MIT, Ellen Swallow (1873, SB Chemistry) rented a room at Mrs. Blodgett’s boarding house at 523 Columbus Avenue in Boston. It was not unusual at the time for families to augment their income by renting out rooms in their homes and providing meals to boarders. Living with a family was a safe and economical option for a single young woman moving to the city. Now a private home, Mrs. Blodgett’s brick townhouse in what was one of Boston’s newer neighborhoods was less than a mile from MIT’s location on Boylston Street.

6. Site of the Girls' Normal & High School - Boston's First Public Teacher Education & Secondary School for Women

Three pioneering public schools at this site played a prominent role in establishing girls' education and were closely connected to MIT in the late 19th Century: Girls' Normal School, Girls' High School, and Girls' Latin School. Through 1941, one-third of the women who came to MIT from public schools graduated from one of these schools. Many brought their technical skills into the classroom to educate and lead the next generation of young women. Bessie Tilson Capen (Class of 1878) was the first teacher from the school to study at MIT and became Ellen Swallow Richards' (1873 S.B. Chemistry) lifelong friend and colleague. Clara Preston Ames (S.B. Chemistry) and Carrie Rice Clark (S.B. Chemistry) became the first Girls' High School alumnae to earn MIT degrees in 1882.The City of Boston closed the Girls' High School in 1974. The building was later demolished. In 1986, the City of Boston built the Thomas O'Day Playground.

7. Site of The New England Kitchen - A Scientific Approach to Cooking & the Launch of Boston's Public School Lunch Program

Ellen Swallow Richards (1873, S.B. Chemistry) and Mary Hinman Abel opened the doors of the New England Kitchen on January 24, 1890, as "an experiment to determine the successful conditions of preparing, by scientific methods, from the cheaper food materials, nutritious and palatable dishes, which should find a ready demand at paying prices.”1 Originally located at 142 Pleasant Street, the Kitchen soon expanded to other neighborhoods. After securing a contract to prepare lunches for Boston's public high schools in 1894, the Kitchen consolidated operations at this 485 Tremont Street location. During this time, Ellen also worked as a full-time MIT instructor teaching Sanitary Chemistry classes at MIT and, with Professor Thomas M. Drown, conducted a landmark survey of Massachusetts waterways. To accomplish her goals, Ellen recruited an army of intelligent women to fund, promote and manage the work of the New England Kitchen, demonstrating the collective power of women committed to social reform.The original New England Kitchen site at 485 Tremont Street was demolished and now is the "backyard" of the Berkley Street Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology established in 1908. The School has plans to move to Roxbury in 2024.

8. Trinity Church: MIT Bids Farewell to Ellen Swallow Richards

Trinity Church and MIT have a long, intertwined history. In 1872, Boston's Summer Street Trinity Church was destroyed in the Great Fire. Following the fire, the congregation gathered in the Rogers Building‘s Huntington Hall every Sunday for five years until architect H. H. Richardson completed their new building. The new Trinity Church would be adjacent to the MIT campus.Over the years, the church came to be MIT’s meeting house. It was the site of annual convocations and community gatherings. Following Ellen Swallow Richards’ death, everyone gathered at the Trinity Church for the memorial service on Sunday, April 2, 1911. She was a pioneer, educator, seeker, extremely hard worker, and a dear friend. Above all, she sought to be of service to her beloved husband, parents, students, friends, and colleagues.

9. The Frog Pond on Boston Common - Birth of Boston's Public Water System

In a ceremony that drew 100,000 people, Boston’s public water system was born in 1848 as water flowed into the Frog Pond on Boston Common.(4) Yet, deadly Typhoid outbreaks(3) in 1849 and 1866 and the Great Fire of 1872 would demonstrate that Boston’s water supply was neither safe nor sufficient. Ellen Swallow Richards (1873 S.B. Chemistry) would be at the forefront of the 19th-century Sanitary Revolution that would improve public health, child survival, and life expectancy. She also led the way to new fields within science, engineering, and medicine: ecology, toxicology, epidemiology, environmental engineering, and planetary health.According to the 1875 President’s Report, MIT’s Chemistry laboratories were located in the basement of the Boylston Street Rogers Building. From 1876-1883, Ellen would also have worked, alongside her students, at the Woman’s Laboratory in the MIT Annex. However, by 1884, Ellen would be assigned a dedicated laboratory space on the third floor of the new Walker Building for her work in Sanitary Chemistry.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

In Her Footsteps: The Door Opens - Ellen Swallow Richards' MIT (1871-1911)

Created by Coleen Smith on March 18th 2022, 12:29:38 pm.

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It's been 150 years since Ellen Swallow Richards, MIT's first alumna, graduated with an Sc.B. in Chemistry. During her lifetime, the reclaimed land in Boston Back Bay would witness new conversations about higher education and women's rights. Born in December 1842, Ellen's life and experiences occurred against the backdrop of MIT's founding and development as a premier university. Her spirit and leadership opened the door to technical education for women. Since 1871, over 36,000 women have followed in Ellen's footsteps to earn degrees from MIT. The Industrial Revolution required a new generation of engineers and scientists. Yet the 19th century offered few opportunities to pursue the "Industrial Arts." In 1846 William Barton Rogers proposed a "Plan for a Polytechnic School in Boston" to shift technical education from in-house apprenticeships to college programs. Chartered in 1861, MIT officially opened in 1865 with fifteen students and offered classes in Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Civil Construction, French, and Free-hand Drawing. Following her graduation in 1870 from Vassar College, Ellen decided to become an Analytical Chemist, and like her male contemporaries, she applied for several apprenticeships. One company, Merrick & Gray, suggested she apply to MIT for a "scientific degree." When Ellen wrote to MIT asking if they admitted women, its total enrollment numbered 204 men. While not all Faculty were enthusiastic about a woman attending MIT, on December 10th, with President John D. Runkle's full support, the Faculty voted to admit Ellen to MIT as "a special student in Chemistry." The door had opened — but for just one woman. Note: MIT's original Boston properties no longer exist except as photographs and building plans preserved in archives. A few contemporary structures, such as the Historic Natural Science Museum, designed by the same architect as the Rogers Building, have been preserved. Other sites included in this tour are private businesses and homes and are not open to the public.

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