Henrietta Hooker
{{short description|American botanist and educator (1851–1929)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Henrietta Edgecomb Hooker
| image = Henrietta Hooker (1893).png
| alt = Bust-length portrait of Henrietta Hooker
| caption = Hooker in 1893
| birth_date = December 12, 1851
| birth_place = Gardiner, Maine
| death_date = {{death date and age|1929|05|13|1851|12|12}}
| death_place = Holyoke, Massachusetts
| fields = Botany
| workplaces = Mount Holyoke College
| education = Mount Holyoke College
| signature = Signature of Henrietta Edgecomb Hooker (transparent).png
| signature_alt = Signature of Henrietta Edgecomb Hooker on transparent background
| thesis_title = On Cuscuta Gronovii
| thesis_url = https://archive.org/details/jstor-2994045
| thesis_year = 1889
}}
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,{{Cite web |last=Farnum |first=Becca |date=February 2020 |title=150 Years of "Brains and Heart": The History of Syracuse Womxn in STEM |url=https://sulondon.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Syracuse-Womxn-in-STEM-Showcase.pdf}} which made her one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. in botany from any U.S. university.{{cite journal|last1=Shmurak|first1=Carole B.|last2=Handler|first2=Bonnie S.|title=Castle of Science: Mount Holyoke College and the preparation of women in chemistry, 1837-1941|journal=History of Education Quarterly|date=1992|volume=32|issue=3|page=320|doi=10.2307/368548|jstor=368548|s2cid=146910131 }}
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.{{cite book|author=Mary R.S. Creese|title=Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research |date=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=amtGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-585-27684-7|pages=9–}} 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. Hooker taught in Vermont public schools from 1869 to 1870, and at the Academy of West Charleston from 1870 to 1871.{{cite book |editor-last=Ogilvie |editor-first=Marilyn |editor-last2=Harvey |editor-first2=Joy |editor-link1=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie |editor-link2=Joy Harvey |date=2000 |title= The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century |url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict00ogil_0 |url-access=registration |publisher=Routledge }}
Hooker entered Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1871 and graduated in 1873. She did graduate work at MIT, and the universities of Syracuse, Berlin, and Chicago. She earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse University in 1889 with a dissertation on the vine Cuscuta gronovii.{{Cite book |last=Hooker |first=Henrietta E. |url=http://archive.org/details/jstor-2994045 |title=On Cuscuta Gronovii |date=1889-02-01 |publisher=Botanical Gazette }} Hooker was among the first women to earn a Ph.D. in botany in the United States.
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.{{Cite web |last=Herbert |first=Robert |date=2019 |title=THE TWO CAREERS OF HENRIETTA HOOKER (1851-1929): From Botany to Buff Orpingtons |url=https://ida.mtholyoke.edu/bitstream/handle/10166/5631/Two_Careers.pdf}} 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).{{cite book|author=Miriam R. Levin|title=Defining Women's Scientific Enterprise: Mount Holyoke Faculty and the Rise of American Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9WlznmaCgTsC&pg=PA118|year=2005|publisher=UPNE|isbn=978-1-58465-419-3|pages=118–}}{{cite web |title=150 Years Timeline |url=https://www.syracuse.edu/150years/150-years-timeline/ |access-date=21 March 2021 |website=www.syracuse.edu |publisher=Syracuse University}}
Hooker taught at Mount Holyoke for thirty-five years. 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. Her research focused on the morphology and embryology of Cuscuta, a genus of parasitic plants.
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.{{cite web|url=http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/mountholyoke/mshm203.html|title=Hooker papers, 1873-1942 (bulk 1884-1927)|publisher=asteria.fivecolleges.edu|accessdate=2014-05-28|archive-date=2014-05-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529103439/http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/mountholyoke/mshm203.html|url-status=dead}}
Mount Holyoke awarded her an honorary Sc.D in 1923,{{cite web |url=https://lits.mtholyoke.edu/archives-special-collections/asc-research/asc-research-guides/honorary-degree-recipients |title=Honorary degree recipients |author= |website=Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections |access-date=2022-11-17 }} and Hooker Auditorium is named in her honor.{{cite web |url=https://meetatmhc.com/events-services/facilities/ |title=Facilities |author= |website=Meet at Mount Holyoke College |access-date=2022-11-19 }}
Works
- {{cite journal|journal=Botanical Gazette|volume=14|url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-2994045|year=1889|pages=31–37|title=On Cuscuta Gronovii|doi=10.1086/326377|last1=Hooker|first1=Henrietta E.|issue=2|s2cid=85098984}}
- {{cite book|last=Hooker|first=Henrietta E.|title=Memorial of Lydia W. Shattuck|publisher=Beacon Press|date=1890|pages=[https://archive.org/details/memoriallydiaws00unkngoog/page/n33 25]–31|chapter=Lydia W. Shattuck as a Student and Teacher of Science|url=https://archive.org/details/memoriallydiaws00unkngoog}}
- {{cite magazine |magazine=New England Magazine |volume=15 |number=5 |last=Hooker |first=Henrietta |year=1897 |title=Mount Holyoke College |url=https://archive.org/details/mountholyokecoll00hook}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://aspace.fivecolleges.edu/repositories/2/resources/202 Hooker papers, 1873-1942 (bulk 1884-1927)], Mount Holyoke College Archives & Special Collections
- [https://ascdc.mtholyoke.edu/exhibits/show/the-photographs-of-asa-kinney The Photographs of Asa Kinney] includes a portrait of Henrietta Hooker and many photographs of her chickens.
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henrietta Hooker |sopt=t}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hooker, Henrietta}}
Category:American women botanists
Category:Syracuse University alumni
Category:Mount Holyoke College alumni
Category:Mount Holyoke College faculty
Category:People from Gardiner, Maine
Category:Scientists from Maine
Category:19th-century American botanists
Category:19th-century American women scientists