Katharine Blunt

Katharine Blunt
Born Philadelphia
Nationality American

Katharine Blunt (1876–1954) was a chemist who specialised in the fields of home economics, food chemistry and nutrition.[1]

Life and education

Katharine Blunt was born on May 28, 1876 in Philadelphia. She was the first of three daughters of Stanhope English and Fanny Smyth Blunt.[2] Charles Henry Smyth, Jr., was a first cousin.[3] Katharine first attended Porter School in Springfield, Massachusetts, then later enrolled in Vassar College. In 1898, she received a B.A. degree in 1898 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After four years at home, she enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1902.[2]

Career

A year later, Katharine accepted a position as an assistant in chemistry at Vassar College. In 1905, she left Vassar to study at the University of Chicago and earned the Ph.D degree in organic chemistry in 1907. For a year she was an instructor in chemist at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York,[2] then returned to Vassar in 1908 as an instructor in chemistry. In 1913, Katharine left Vassar again, this time for a position as an assistant professor in the department of home economics at the University of Chicago. She was later promoted to associate professor in 1918 and eventually became a full professor and chair of the home economics department in 1925.[2] From 1917-1918, Katharine worked for the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food Administration, preparing pamphlets on food conservation. The pamphlets were later published as the textbook. Food and the War. Katharine contributed articles on food and nutrition to scholarly journals quite often, and for several years she served as an editor of the University of Chicago's Home Economics Series. In 1929, Katharine was named the first woman president of Connecticut College for Women, a four-year liberal arts college. As president, Kathrine made improvements which led to the college's accreditation in 1932.[2] In 1943, she retired at the age of 67, but was recalled as president in 1945 and served in that position for another year.

Death

After her retirement, she traveled extensively and died of a pulmonary embolism in 1954 while recovering from a broken hip.[2] Katharine believed that "the days of confining college education to the campus are over" and that women "with their belief in the force of education and their fresh political energy, can do much to serve the democracy which has helped them."[2]

References

  1. ↑ Janice Law Trecker (1980), "Blunt, Katharine", Notable American Women: The Modern Period, Harvard University Press, pp. 87–88, ISBN 9780674627338
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Leavitt, Judith (1985). American Women Managers and Administrators: A Selective Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Leaders in Business, Education, and Government. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-23748-4.
  3. ↑ A. F. Buddington. Memorial to Charles Henry Smyth, Jr. Proceedings of the Geological Society of America for 1937, Jun. 1938, pp. 195–202

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