Fanny Rysan Mulford Hitchcock

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Fanny Rysan Mulford Hitchcock
FAAAS[1]
BornFebruary 7, 1851
DiedSeptember 25, 1936
Known forOne of only 13 women to receive their doctorates in chemistry in the 1800s
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry, paleontology, osteology, ichthyology
InstitutionsUniversity of Pennsylvania University of Berlin
Thesis Tungstates and Molybdates of the Rare Earths (1894)

Fanny Rysan Mulford Hitchcock (February 7, 1851 – September 25, 1936)[2] was one of only 13 American women to receive their doctorates in chemistry during the 19th-century,[3] and was the first woman to receive a doctorate in Philosophy of Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.

She made contributions to entomology, fish osteology, and plant pathology.[4] She began her studies at Columbia University publishing several papers, and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. She worked at the University of Pennsylvania for years, and devoted her life to helping women pursuing an education at the university. Her name can be found spelled as Fannie, Rysam, and any combination of all spellings. She can also be found as Miss Fanny R.M. Hitchcock, or Miss F.R.M. Hitchcock, not to be confused with Irish Reverend and writer F.R.M Hitchcock.[5][6]

Life[edit]

She was born on February 7, 1851, to Elizabeth and Julius Hitchcock (1828-1916 and 1823-1888, respectively).[1][2] She had an older sister named Caroline (1848-1885) and a younger brother named Cyrus (1853-1921).[2] Before enrolling with any American university she was undertaking research in vertebrate paleontology, amongst other topics.[7] She presented her paper on Edestus fossils to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1887.[7] She began her university studies at Columbia University, and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. While the University of Columbia was not accepting female students at the time of her first publications, she had offered the board of trustees at Barnard College, the women's college, to help raise funds for a laboratory for the following year, when women would be able to begin attending the university.[8] In pursuit of science, she then worked in the chemistry department at the University of Berlin in 1892, though she applied for a passport in 1894.[9] She received her Ph. D. at the University of Pennsylvania with her thesis on “The Tungstates and Molybdates of the Rare Earths”;[10][11] her doctoral advisor was Edgar Fahs Smith.

She returned to the University of Pennsylvania and became the first director of the women's graduate department in 1897.[4] She also attempted to establish one or more undergraduate courses for women at the University of Pennsylvania, but her proposal was rejected by the trustees of the University, which made her step down from her position of director in 1901.[1] No successor of this position was named. Aside from her academic studies, she maintained a laboratory in both her home in Philadelphia and her country residence in Warwick, New York.[1] In 1921, she retired from her life as a chemist at seventy years old and donated all of her equipment to the University of Pennsylvania in the case of a women's fund or women's college getting formed.[1] She was known to support the financial needs of students who could not afford to attend the University, and even rented a gym for the women to use while she was director at Pennsylvania.[1] She died on September 25, 1936, in her Warwick country residence.

After obtaining her Ph.D. in chemistry in 1894 from the University of Pennsylvania, she began experimenting more with metals. She bought a mountain to have access to Uranium, known as "Taylor Hill" in Bellvale.[12][13] This was also the location of Mistucky Brook. Miss Hitchcock entered a legal covenant with the city of Warwick which prohibited using land within a certain range of the brook for constructing buildings to reduce pollution, which resulted in a lawsuit in 1989.[14] In 1909, she began working on her patent for “Food Compound for Promoting the Rapid Growth of Poultry”, which was finalized in 1913.[15] In 1914 she wrote to a George H. Earle Jr. over World War I from London, and opinions on submarines in 1914. Mr. Earle then wrote to a judge with her information in 1917.[16] She was declared incompetent in 1932, and was also in multiple lawsuits (one in 1933 and another in 1934) at the end of her life, regarding property and payments.[17][18] She died on September 25, 1936, and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York with the rest of her family.[2]

Throughout her life, she joined many different scientific communities. While at the University of Pennsylvania, she was one of the first women to ever join the fraternity Kappa Kappa Gamma.[19] She also joined the Sigma Xi Society, and was still a contributing member in 1925.[20] Beta Alpha was the third university organization that she joined,[21] where she created the first philanthropy, an annual prize of a table, accepted by the fraternity. This later developed into the Student Aid Fund.[22] She joined the New York Academy of Sciences in 1881[23] and eventually became a fellow, and was also a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[24] In 1888, she conducted the 15th meeting of the New York Mineralogist Club in her house.[25] She became a member of the American Mathematical Society[26] in 1894 (and was a member until 1910),[27] which was also known as Project Euclid[28] and the New York Mathematical Society. She also joined the American Electrochemical Society,[29] the American Chemical Society,[30] the American Physical Society,[31] the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Engineers (joining in 1920),[32] and the Franklin Institute.[33]

Scientific contributions and articles[edit]

"The Tungstates and Molybdates of the Rare Earths" (1895)[30]

"XI.—Further Notes on the Osteology of the Shad, (Alosa sapidissima)" (1889)[34]

"Introductory Note on the Reduction of Metallic Oxides, At High Temperatures" (1898)[35]

"Notes on the Atomic Mass of Tungsten" (1898)[36]

The following articles can be found by name only, with no accompanying research.

  • "Occurrence of Early Stages of Blepharocera" (1886)[37]
  • "Preliminary Paper on Structure of Alosa Sapidissima" (1887)[37]
  • "On the Homologies of Edestus" (1887)[37]
  • "Preliminary Notes on the Osteology of Alosa Sapidissima" (1887)[37]
  • "Notes on the Larvae of Ambylstoma" (also known as "Karyokinesis in Larval Amblystoma") (1888)[37][38]
  • "Petrological Microscope, with Various Accessories, Designed by Fuess of Berlin" (1897)[39]
  • "Some Substances found in Uranium Compounds and in Iron Ores of Orange County, N.Y." (1912)[40]
  • "Beta Rays and the Chemical Elements" (1915)[41]
  • "Some Undescribed Disintegration Products of Radioactive Elements" (1917)[31]
  • "The Effect of Lead Upon Thorium Nitrate in Aqueous Solution" (1919)[42]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Fanny Rysam Mulford Hitchcock (1851 - 1936)". University of Pennsylvania University Archives. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
  2. ^ a b c d "Fanny R M Hitchcock (1851-1936) - Find A Grave..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  3. ^ Rothenberg, Marc (2001). The History of Science (1st ed.). New York, NY: Garland Publishing. p. 116. ISBN 978-0815307624.
  4. ^ a b Creese, Mary (1998). Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of their Research (1st ed.). Lanham, MD & London: The Scarecrow Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0810832879.
  5. ^ "Magazines". The Irish Church Quarterly. 6 (21): 85–87. 1913. ISSN 2009-1664. JSTOR 30067763.
  6. ^ Hitchcock, F. R. M. (1923-12-01). "Is the Fourth Gospel a Drama?". Theology. 7 (42): 307–317. doi:10.1177/0040571X2300700602. ISSN 0040-571X. S2CID 172085133.
  7. ^ a b Ewing, Susan (2017). Resurrecting the shark : a scientific obsession and the mavericks who solved the mystery of a 270-million-year-old fossil. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 50–51. ISBN 978-1-68177-392-6. OCLC 981759896.
  8. ^ Gilder, Jeannette Leonard; Gilder, Joseph Benson (1889). The Critic. Good Literature Publishing Company. p. 320.
  9. ^ "Join Ancestry®". www.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  10. ^ belles-lettres (France), Académie des inscriptions & (1895). Comptes rendus des séances - Académie des inscriptions & belles-lettres (in French). Éditions Klincksieck. p. 277.
  11. ^ Meeker, George H (1937). "Edgar Fahs Smith" (PDF).
  12. ^ Gardner, Sue. "LibGuides: GEOLOGY OF WARWICK, NEW YORK: Introduction". guides.rcls.org. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  13. ^ "The Notebook of William Benjamin Sayer". azkurs.org. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  14. ^ "MATTER OF HUDSON HOLDING | 108 B.R. 32 (1989) | 108br321132 | Leagle.com". Leagle. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  15. ^ US 1066615, Hitchcock, Fanny R. M., "Food compound for promoting the rapid growth of poultry", published 1913-07-08 
  16. ^ Congress, United States (1917). Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 540.
  17. ^ Supreme Court (Harry M. Overstreet Lawsuit).
  18. ^ Zélinde, comedie: ou, La veritable critique de L'escole des femmes, et la critique de La critique (Frederick W. Bartlett Lawsuit). J. Gay et Fils. 1868.
  19. ^ The Key, No 1 ed., vol. 28, Kappa Kappa Gamma, 1911, pp. 40–42. February
  20. ^ Ehlers, J. H.; Albrecht, W. A.; Schriever, Wm.; Scott, John W.; Roe, Joseph W. (1925). "CHAPTER REPORTS: Cornell, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois". Sigma Xi Quarterly. 13 (2): 58–87. ISSN 0096-977X. JSTOR 27824264.
  21. ^ Gamma, Kappa Kappa (July 1902). "The Key Volume 19 No. 3" (PDF).
  22. ^ "Beta Alpha | Kappapedia". wiki.kkg.org. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  23. ^ Fairchild, Herman Le Roy (1887). A History of the New York Academy of Sciences: Formerly the Lyceum of Natural History. The author. p. 140.
  24. ^ Science, American Association for the Advancement of (1903). Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. p. 100.
  25. ^ The Mineralogists' Monthly: Devoted to Mineralogy, Archaeology, Geology, and Miscellaneous Reading. Chamberlain Printing Company. 1885. p. 8.
  26. ^ Society, American Mathematical (1899). Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. Society. p. 11.
  27. ^ Kenschaft, Patricia C. (2005). Change Is Possible: Stories of Women and Minorities in Mathematics. American Mathematical Soc. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-8218-3748-1.
  28. ^ Projecteuclid.org, projecteuclid.org/journalArticle/Download?urlid=bams%2F1183417136. Page 21
  29. ^ American Electrochemical Society (1902). Transactions of the American Electrochemical Society. Harvard University. Philadelphia, Pa. : The Society. p. 12.
  30. ^ a b Hitchcock, Fanny (1895). "The Tungstates and Molybdates of the Rare Earths". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 17 (6): 483. doi:10.1021/ja02162a006.
  31. ^ a b Cole, A. D. (1917-02-23). "The American Physical Society". Science. 45 (1156): 193–195. Bibcode:1917Sci....45..193C. doi:10.1126/science.45.1156.193. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17794546. S2CID 35080432.
  32. ^ Engineers, American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum (1923). Directory and Year Book: List of Members, Awards, Constitution and Bylaws. p. 135.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  33. ^ Journal of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania. Franklin Institute. 1923. p. 125.
  34. ^ Hitchcock, Fanny (1889). "XI.—Further Notes on the Osteology of the Shad,(Alosa sapidissima)". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 4 (1): 225–228. Bibcode:1889NYASA...4..225H. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1889.tb57039.x. S2CID 85160197.
  35. ^ Hitchcock, Fanny (1898). "Introductory Note of the Reduction of Metallic Oxides, At High Temperatures". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 20 (3): 232–233. doi:10.1021/ja02065a009.
  36. ^ Sciences, New York Academy of (1898). Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences. New York Academy of Sciences. p. 332.
  37. ^ a b c d e Britain), Royal Society (Great (1916). Catalogue of Scientific Papers (1800-1900): ser. 4 , 1884-1900. C. J. Clay and sons. p. 870.
  38. ^ The American Naturalist. Essex Institute. 1889. p. 827.
  39. ^ Society, New York Microscopical (1894). Journal of the New-York Microscopical Society. The Society. p. 69.
  40. ^ Journal of the American Chemical Society. American Chemical Society. 1912. p. 92.
  41. ^ Journal of the American Chemical Society. American Chemical Society. 1915. p. 57.
  42. ^ Parsons, Charles L. (1919). "The American Chemical Society. II". Science. 50 (1297): 441–444. Bibcode:1919Sci....50..441P. doi:10.1126/science.50.1297.441. ISSN 0036-8075. JSTOR 1641349. PMID 17776817.
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