Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz

American educator and science writer

• Born: December 5, 1822
• Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
• Died: June 27, 1907
• Place of death: Arlington Heights, Massachusetts

One of the founders and the first president of Radcliffe College, Agassiz was an influential pioneer in higher education for women and was also noted for her writings on natural history and her work with her husband, naturalist Louis Agassiz.

Early Life

Born Elizabeth Cabot Cary, Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (ah-gah-see) was a member of a well-connected Massachusetts family. The second of the seven children of Thomas and Mary Cushing Perkins Cary, she received no formal education because of her physical weakness and fragile health as a child. Instead, she was taught at home by a governess who tutored her in languages, music, and art. However, the overall scope of her schooling was somewhat haphazard. During her youth, she exhibited no particular interest in science, which would become one of her keenest interests later in life.

At the age of twenty-eight, Elizabeth met Louis Agassiz , a Swiss professor of natural history employed at Switzerland’s University of Neuchâtel. Agassiz had recently been widowed and left with his three children. When he met Elizabeth, he was on his first trip to the United States on a speaking engagement at Harvard. Shortly after returning home, he decided to emigrate to the United States to accept a position at the prestigious Harvard University as chair of natural history in the Lawrence Scientific School. Elizabeth married him in April, 1850, and became mother to his children. They had no children together.

To help support her family and to promote education among girls, Elizabeth opened the Agassiz School for Girls in her Cambridge, Massachusetts, home in 1856. During the seven years that she operated her school, she never taught in it herself but oversaw its management and day-to-day operations. Her husband, however, taught natural history to her students, in addition to his work at the university. Elizabeth often attended his classes and developed a keen interest in natural sciences. Her notes from her husband’s lectures became the basis for much of his published work in later years. After the school closed in 1863, Elizabeth devoted herself to supporting her husband’s field expeditions. She organized and traveled with him on his field trips and collaborated with him on the documentation of the marine and biological life that he observed.

Louis Agassiz was not only a naturalist but also a man who left his mark as an innovator in educational methods. Scholars remember him as a brilliant educator as well as a famed naturalist because he used an innovative approach to learning natural history by interacting with nature rather than studying it only in books. In Europe, he was recognized as one of the foremost ichthyologists of his time. He also put forth the idea of the ice age. Elizabeth contributed significantly to his success in both areas.

Life’s Work

Elizabeth Agassiz organized, managed, and accompanied her husband on the Thayer expedition to Brazil in 1865-1866 and the Hassler expedition to the Strait of Magellan in 1871-1872. She and her husband founded the Anderson School of Natural History, a marine laboratory on Penikese Island in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. She attempted to write in a way that made scientific inquiry accessible and interesting to nonscientists. Multiple printings of her books attested to her success in achieving this goal. Her own writings included A First Lesson in Natural History (1859), Geological Studies (1886), and an article in the Atlantic Monthly recounting her husband’s expedition to the Pacific Ocean. She also coauthored, with her stepson Alexander Agassiz, the popular textbook and field guide Seaside Studies in Natural History (1865). With her husband, she coauthored A Journey in Brazil (1867).

In 1873, soon after her husband’s death, Agassiz began writing an insightful biography of her famed partner, Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence , that was was published in 1885. The “correspondence” to which the book’s title alludes involved insights selected from a large collection of mostly personal letters Louis Agassiz had written over time to a friend and fellow naturalist, Arnold Guyot, as well as letters to his wife and son.

With her husband gone, Elizabeth Agassiz devoted herself to the care and nurturing of her grandchildren, as well as the book about her husband. Through this initial writing effort, she became recognized as a gifted author. Her work proved to be invaluable to her husband’s career. About four years after completing her husband’s memoirs, she took up a dream she had had since her husband’s death: founding a college for women taught by the faculty of Harvard University. She believed that this would open up extensive resources and opportunities for women that up to that time had been accessible only to men.

Agassiz worked with Arthur Gilman and Alice Longfellow to help develop the “Harvard Annex,” which was incorporated as the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women in 1879. Agassiz herself was appointed its first president. In 1894, the new institution was renamed Radcliffe College in honor of Ann Radcliffe Mowison, who had founded the first Harvard scholarship in 1643. Agassiz remained president until 1899, when she was seventy-six years old. On her retirement, she was given the title of honorary president.

Significance

Agassiz was mostly self-taught—an incredible accomplishment—in a society where this was not encouraged. Her academic achievements gave credence to the importance of educating women, and the potential value of women’s contributions in the field of science. Her unique ability to make scientific notions accessible, interesting, and animated to the nonscientific reader was an important contribution to scientific education.

During World War II, four decades after Agassiz retired, Harvard and Radcliffe signed an agreement allowing women to attend classes at Harvard for the first time. The implementation of the joint instruction began in 1943. This agreement legitimized the education of women both at Harvard and, later, other institutions of higher education, and was, perhaps, the ultimate achievement of Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz.

Bibliography

Agassiz, Elizabeth Cabot Cary, ed. Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence. 2 vols. Bristol, England: Thoemmes Continuum, 2002-2003. Originally published in 1885, this book contains a biography of Elizabeth’s husband and copies of his correspondence with many of the leading scientists of his day.

Agassiz, Elizabeth Cabot, and Alexander Agassiz. Seaside Studies in Natural History. New York: Arno, 1865. Reprint 1970. A textbook and field guide for zoologists.

Howells, Dorothy Elia. A Century to Celebrate: Radcliffe College, 1979-1979. Cambridge, Mass.: Radcliffe College, 1978. A history of the college, describing how its founding aimed to increase educational opportunities for nineteenth century women.

Lurie, Edward. Louis Agassiz: A Life in Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960. A persuasive interpretation of the life of the husband of Elizabeth Agassiz, Louis Agassiz, and an exhaustive study of his papers. Lurie acknowledges Agassiz’s weaknesses and pictures a genius with faults.

Paton, Lucy A. Elizabeth Cary Agassiz: A Biography. 1919. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1974. Still the only full-length biography of Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, this book provides that details on her collaborative writing efforts with her husband and stepson and her role as a pioneer in the education of women.

Tharp, Louis Hall. Adventurous Alliance: The Story of the Agassiz Family of Boston. Boston: Little, Brown, 1959. Describes the lives and work of Elizabeth and Louis Agassiz, Elizabeth’s family’s connections in Boston, and her contributions to women’s education.