Abstract

Today’s heightened attention to food production, nutrition, and public health has a notable antecedent in the work of Progressive Era activist, Ellen H. Richards (1842-1911), the most prominent female chemist of her time. While attending Vassar College (1868-1870) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1870-1873), Richards’s interest in nutrition developed into a vocational calling. After graduating from MIT, she created three scientific fields, oekology, home economics, and euthenics, and set out to “save society” from their “nutritional ignorance” one book and one meal at a time. Because her attempts to improve people’s lives were numerous, this project and exhibit focus only on her efforts to raise awareness about adulterated food products and to improve the dietary habits of teenagers through school lunch programs. While Richards’s contribution to the field of nutrition was substantial, recent scholars have focused on the accomplishments of her male contemporaries, such as Edward Atkinson, Robert Hunter, and Upton Sinclair. The goal of this project and exhibition is to reinsert Richards into the history of Progressive Era nutrition reforms. Reexamining this topic will not only provide a better understanding of the comprehensive effort to prevent food adulterations and improve people’s nutritional habits throughout the Progressive Era, but it may also provide a better understanding of the development of America’s current nutrition movements and laws.