My current project on Ellen Richards emerged from an exploratory summer research project I conducted in May 2012 under Dr. Jonathan Hagood, who is an Assistant Professor of History at Hope College. While researching the history of the Grand Rapids Nursing School, Dr. Hagood came across a source that stated that this school was based on "the Vassar model." After a few preliminary internet searches he discovered that Minnie Cumnock Blodgett (1862-1931), a resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan and Vassar Alum (1886), had organized the 1918 Vassar Training Camp for Nurses. He also discovered that she was very invested in promoting Ellen Richards's scientific movement, euthenics. My job was to determine if Blodgett's interest in euthenics impacted the curriculum and structure of the Vassar Training Camp. As I was reading the literature on euthenics and Richards, I became more interested in the way in which the field of euthenics (as well as oekology and home economics) impacted the lives of women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Dr. Hagood was gracious enough to let me pursue my own project.  



In August 2012, I decided to pursue this topic for my Junior Mellon Scholars project. Dr. Jeanne Petit, Assistant Professor of History at Hope College and Department Chair of Women's Studies, served as my Mellon mentor. Under Dr. Petit's guidance, I composed a twenty-five page research paper on the role of women in Ellen Richards's nutrition reforms, entitled "Ellen H. Richards: Her Attempt to Save Society One Meal at a Time." 



In January 2012, Dr. Anne Heath, professor of Art History at Hope College, and I stated to plan a mini-museum exhibit that would display and demonstrate my research in true Ellen Richards's fashion for Hope College's 2013 Celebration of Undergraduate Research on April 12, 2013. 

About the Project