Henrietta Hooker

Henrietta Edgecomb Hooker (December 12, 1851 – May 13, 1929) was an American botanist and professor at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College). She was the second female doctoral graduate in botany at Syracuse University,[1] which made her one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. in botany from any U.S. university.[2]

Henrietta Edgecomb Hooker
Bust-length portrait of Henrietta Hooker
Hooker in 1893
BornDecember 12, 1851
Gardiner, Maine
DiedMay 13, 1929(1929-05-13) (aged 77)
Holyoke, Massachusetts
EducationMount Holyoke College
Syracuse University
Scientific career
FieldsBotany
InstitutionsMount Holyoke College
ThesisOn Cuscuta Gronovii (1889)
Signature
Signature of Henrietta Edgecomb Hooker on transparent background

Early life and education

Hooker was born to Eliza Annie Hooker and George Washington Hooker in 1851, and was orphaned at the age of seven.[3] In 1867, at age sixteen, she began working at a New England cotton factory, but after a week of employment there, she sought help in finding a different job.[3] Hooker taught in Vermont public schools from 1869 to 1870, and at the Academy of West Charleston from 1870 to 1871.[4]

Hooker entered Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1871 and graduated in 1873.[3] She did graduate work at MIT, and the universities of Syracuse, Berlin, and Chicago.[3] She earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse University in 1889 with a dissertation on the vine Cuscuta gronovii.[4][5] Hooker was among the first women to earn a Ph.D. in botany in the United States.[2]

Career

After her graduation in 1873, Hooker joined Mount Holyoke as a faculty member, working alongside her former teacher Lydia Shattuck and zoologist Cornelia Clapp.[6] In 1899, she was one of two teachers with a Ph.D. at Mount Holyoke (the other being Clapp, the first woman in the United States to be awarded that degree in biology).[7][8]

Hooker taught at Mount Holyoke for thirty-five years.[3] 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.[3] Her research focused on the morphology and embryology of Cuscuta, a genus of parasitic plants.[4]

Hooker's commitment to Mount Holyoke extended beyond her retirement in 1908. She bred prize-winning Buff Orpington chickens and donated the winnings to the school.[9][6]

Mount Holyoke awarded her an honorary Sc.D in 1923,[3][10] and Hooker Auditorium is named in her honor.[11]

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.
  • Hooker, Henrietta (1897). "Mount Holyoke College". New England Magazine. Vol. 15, no. 5.

References
  1. Farnum, Becca (February 2020). "150 Years of "Brains and Heart": The History of Syracuse Womxn in STEM" (PDF).
  2. 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. S2CID 146910131.
  3. 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.
  4. Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy, eds. (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Routledge.
  5. Hooker, Henrietta E. (1889-02-01). On Cuscuta Gronovii. Botanical Gazette.
  6. Herbert, Robert (2019). "THE TWO CAREERS OF HENRIETTA HOOKER (1851-1929): From Botany to Buff Orpingtons" (PDF).
  7. 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.
  8. "150 Years Timeline". www.syracuse.edu. Syracuse University. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  9. "Hooker papers, 1873-1942 (bulk 1884-1927)". asteria.fivecolleges.edu. Archived from the original on 2014-05-29. Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  10. "Honorary degree recipients". Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  11. "Facilities". Meet at Mount Holyoke College. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
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