Technology and Engineering Atlas

How Things Are Built
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Engineer

Ellen Swallow Richards

Environmental Engineering

Ellen Swallow Richards was an American chemist and engineer regarded as a founder of the field of sanitary and environmental engineering. The first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she conducted a landmark survey of Massachusetts water quality in the 1880s that mapped pollution across the state's rivers and led to the country's first state water-quality standards, and she helped establish MIT's sanitary chemistry laboratory to train engineers in analyzing water and sewage. She also founded the home economics movement, applying engineering and chemistry to domestic environments, and helped found the American Association of University Women. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Birth Year
1842 1
Death Year
1911 1
Nationality
American 1
FAQs

Who commissioned Ellen Swallow Richards's Massachusetts water survey, and what came of it?

The State Board of Health requested it in 1887, and it led to the first state water-quality standards and the first modern municipal sewage treatment plant, in Lowell.

The Massachusetts State Board of Health asked for the survey in 1887. Richards and her assistants examined the quality of the state's inland bodies of water, many of which were already polluted with industrial waste and municipal sewage. The survey was unprecedented in scale and led to the first state water-quality standards in the nation and the first modern municipal sewage treatment plant, in Lowell, Massachusetts. From 1887 to 1897 she served as official water analyst for the State Board of Health while continuing as an instructor at MIT.
Connections

In Field

Source Ellen Swallow Richards (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
In the Other Atlases

Nationality

Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.

Source Ellen Swallow Richards (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributorsLead sentence 1tier 2
Quote, Lead sentence 1
Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (née Swallow; December 3, 1842 – March 30, 1911) was an American industrial and safety engineer, environmental chemist, and university faculty member in the United States during the 19th century.
Sources
1. Ellen Swallow Richards (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (née Swallow; December 3, 1842, March 30, 1911) was an American industrial and safety engineer, environmental chemist, and university faculty member in the United States during the 19th century.
  • In Field: Environmental Engineering
  • In Group: Sanitary and Environmental Engineers, Lead paragraph
    Her pioneering work in sanitary engineering
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.