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Anna Lockhart Flanigen

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Anna Lockhart Flanigen
A young woman with hair in an updo with short curled bangs, wearing a high-collared dress with a striped pinafore apron
Anna Lockhart Flanigen, photographed in the 1870s, from an 1899 publication
BornJanuary 26, 1852
Philadelphia
DiedFebruary 19, 1928
Philadelphia
Other namesAnnie L. Flanigan
Occupation(s)Chemist, college professor

Anna Lockhart Flanigen (January 26, 1852 – February 19, 1928) was an American scientist. She was one of the first two women students at the University of Pennsylvania, and later taught chemistry at Mount Holyoke College.[1]

Early life and education

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Flanigen was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of William C. Flanigan and Jane Adams Flanigan. (Her family name is spelled variously in sources as Flanigen, Flanigan, Flanagan; she used the first spelling in publications.)[2]

Flanigen attended the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. She enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania's Towne Scientific School as a "special student" in 1876,[2] along with Gertrude Klein Pierce;[3] they were the first women students at Penn.[4][5] They were allowed to take courses but were considered ineligible for a degree, instead receiving "certificates of proficiency" in 1878.[6] Flanigen pursued further studies in Berlin and London,[7] worked with William Ramsay, and returned to Penn to complete a Ph.D. in 1906.[8][9] Her doctoral thesis under Edgar Fahs Smith was titled "The electrolytic precipitation of copper from an alkaline cyanide electrolyte" (1906).[10]

Career

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Flanigen taught physics and chemistry at Penn after college, and worked as a chemist and assayer at the Keystone Watch Case Company from 1883 to 1898.[2][4] She was secretary of the New Century Guild of Working Women when it formed in Philadelphia in 1886.[11] She attended the Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics in 1903.[12] She was an assistant professor of chemistry at Mount Holyoke College from 1903[13] to 1910.[7]

Personal life

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Flanigen died in 1928, in Philadelphia, aged 76 years.[14]

References

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  1. ^ "First women students at Penn". Penn Today. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  2. ^ a b c A Record of the Class of 1878 of the College University of Pennsylvania, 1878 to 1898 (J. B. Lippincott Company 1899): 54-55.
  3. ^ "Mrs. Easby Dies, First Penn Coed". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1953-10-09. p. 48. Retrieved 2021-09-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b Mallon, Linda; Sama, Anita (2002-03-11). Franklin's Daughters: Profiles of Penn Women. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 6–8. ISBN 978-0-8122-1813-8.
  5. ^ Molloy, Ruth B. (1957-02-17). "Penn's First Coeds". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 166. Retrieved 2021-09-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Haas, Kimberly (June 11, 2021). "Women's Work: Female Science Pioneers in 19th Century Philadelphia". Hidden City Philadelphia. Archived from the original on 2021-06-13. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  7. ^ a b Mount Holyoke College, The Llamarada (1910 yearbook): 20.
  8. ^ Davis, Heather A. (March 4, 2010). "First women students at Penn". Penn Today. Archived from the original on 2021-09-28. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
  9. ^ "Penn Turns Out Student Army". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1906-06-14. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-09-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Flanigen, Anna Lockhart (1906). The electrolytic precipitation of copper from an alkaline cyanide electrolyte ... Philadelphia, Pa.: The John C. Winston co.
  11. ^ "A Boon for Bachelors". The Times. 1886-02-08. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-09-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference. Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics. July 1903. p. 62.
  13. ^ College, Mount Holyoke (1903). Annual Report of the President ... p. 6.
  14. ^ "Anna L. Flanigen". The Morning Post. 1928-02-21. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-09-28 – via Newspapers.com.