Legacy – Cornelia and concrete

A. Elizabeth Adams, class of 1914

A. [Amy] Elizabeth Adams began working as a laboratory assistant in the zoology department immediately after graduating from Mount Holyoke in 1914. She stayed in the department for her whole career in zoology, only leaving briefly to earn her MA (Columbia, 1918) and PhD (Yale, 1923).

A woman smiles as she swings on her knees on an outdoor wooden swing. There is snow on the ground and trees in the distance. — ^{_{A. Elizabeth Adams on a swing, 1926}}

A woman in a fur coat poses outside a brick building, on a patio with a stone fence. The trees behind her are bare. — ^{_{A. Elizabeth Adams, 1931}}

Woman sits in grass, eating food off of a plate. She smiles at the camera. There is a brick house behind her. — ^{_{A. Elizabeth Adams, undated}}

Adams worked in experimental zoology and endocrinology, both of which were new fields when she began her career. She was among the first researchers to experimentally study the effects of different hormones and glands, and she published her work extensively. Over the course of her life, she authored around 50 articles in scientific journals. At Mount Holyoke, she taught courses in embryology and experimental zoology – the latter, which she introduced in 1923, was the first class of its kind offered at any college or university in the country.

An older woman and younger student smile for a photo, partially obstructed by lab equipment, including glass bottles. — ^{_{A. Elizabeth Adams and student in a laboratory, 1938}}

An older woman in a lab coat sits at a desk, reading notes. — ^{_{A. Elizabeth Adams reading, 1938}}

Handwritten menu which reads "MISS ADAMS MENU. 1st Course: Leucocytes in Circulation. 2nd Course: Mud Puppies with Long Bones and Marrow. 3rd Course: Juice of the Tissues with Semicircular Canals. Bulbi Artcriosi. Mallci and Inci. N.B. All Utensils have been Sterilized!" — ^{_{Menu from Comparative Zoology class party, February 12, 1919}}

Like Cornelia Clapp, with whom she took classes as a student and briefly taught alongside as an instructor, Adams was widely beloved for her kindness, genuine curiosity, and approachability as well as her sharp intelligence, her near-encyclopedic knowledge of her field, and her delightfully dry and surprisingly silly sense of humor.

Ann Haven Morgan

A woman poses outside in the grass, in front of a house, car, and tree. She wears a long coat. — ^{_{Ann Haven Morgan outside, 1931}}

A smiling, young Ann Morgan in a white dress poses with her hands on the arm and shoulder of an older Cornelia M. Clapp. Clapp wears a dark, collared dress. They stand outside on pavement, with trees and a tall, narrow building behind them. — ^{_{Ann Haven Morgan (left) and Cornelia Clapp (right), c. 1913}}

Ann Haven Morgan began working as an assistant in zoology at Mount Holyoke in the fall of 1906, right after she graduated from Cornell University. Exactly ten years later, Morgan succeeded Cornelia Clapp as the department head; she would lead the department until she retired 31 years later in 1947.

Seven female students in a field digging through the dirt in search of specimen. They are wearing white button ups and black skirts, and hold shovels and buckets. — ^{_{Ann Haven Morgan and students collecting specimens, c. 1910s}}

Morgan brought the department through large-scale structural changes – literally as well as figuratively. When Williston Hall burned down in 1917 and the zoology laboratories and classrooms were destroyed, she kept her department running while overseeing the construction of Clapp Laboratory as the new life sciences building. Nearly as significant for Mount Holyoke zoology, Morgan also completely redesigned the introductory course to ensure that it would be valuable to major and non-major students alike, and it ranked among the most popular courses across the College for decades.

Five students and a professor huddle around an ice hold with nets and buckets. There is heavy snow around. — ^{_{Ann Haven Morgan and students collecting in the snow, c. 1930-1940}}

Five students and one professor stand in a body of water. They are holding nets and looking at the specimen the professor holds. — ^{_{Ann Haven Morgan with students in Stony Brook, c. 1947}}

Morgan also introduced new courses in line with her own research work to the College. She earned the nickname “Mayfly” early in her career after focusing on the insect for her Ph.D, and briefly taught courses in entomology before shifting both her writing and teaching toward the growing field of ecology. Morgan and her students spent many days wading through Upper Lake and Stony Brook, finding all kinds of creatures without even leaving campus. Her publications in ecology included two field guides for popular audiences, a substantial book that worked as both a zoology textbook for college students and as casual non-fiction for interested readers, and contributions to both academic and popular journals and magazines.

Book cover titled "Field Book of Ponds and Streams, An Introduction to the Life of Fresh Water." Written by Ann Haven Morgan. A drawing of a pond with lily pads and bulrush, as well as flies and frogs. The book cover is a light yellow. — ^{_{Field guide to ponds and streams, Ann Haven Morgan}}

Two women stand in front of a car. They both wear hats and coats, and smile at the camera. — ^{_{A. Elizabeth Adams (left) and Ann Haven Morgan (right) at Woods Hole, 1923}}

Ann Haven Morgan and Elizabeth Adams lived together for many years, sharing faculty housing on Park Street until they moved into a house of their own at 72 Woodbridge Street in 1936. They often hosted department gatherings and meetings of the Zoology Club in their home, which was, as graduate student Louise Ireland, M.A. 1936, reported in a letter home, “the most tastefully and cosily furnished house I have ever been in.”

Eight students stand and talk on a house's outside staircase, while two students sit and talk on the staircase. There are plants around the staircase, and it leads to a porch. — ^{_{Zoology department outside Morgan-Adams house for Mountain Day, 1931}}

A large house sits on a hill. A driveway leads up to it, with multiple trees in the grass yard. — ^{_{Morgan-Adams house at 72 Woodbridge Terrace, South Hadley, Mass., 1939}}

In the same letter, Ireland also mentioned how nice it was “to hear Miss Adams call Miss Morgan ‘dear’ in the little, casual, natural way that a wife would call her husband.” While we have no records from either woman’s personal perspective about their identities, they clearly shared their lives with one another, and their relationship forms a part of Mount Holyoke’s LGBTQ history.

Two women pose for a photo standing in front of a tree. They both wear long dresses, while one wears a hat. — ^{_{A. Elizabeth Adams and Ann Haven Morgan, c. 1940s}}

Two women pose for a photo outside a brick house. They both wear long coats. — ^{_{A. Elizabeth Adams and Ann Haven Morgan outside their home, 1932}}

Christianna Smith, class of 1914

Two women pose outside in graduation robes. — ^{_{Christianna Smith (left) and Ann Haven Morgan (right) at Smith’s graduation from Mount Holyoke, 1915}}

A woman poses outside in front of a bush. She swears a sweater and skirt. — ^{_{Christianna Smith outside, 1931}}

After graduating from Mount Holyoke in the spring of 1914, Christianna Smith began working as an assistant in the zoology department in the fall. After a few years on the department’s staff, she left and worked at a number of different institutions. She returned to Mount Holyoke after finishing her PhD at Cornell in 1924, where she stayed until she retired from teaching in 1958.

Two photos of a woman at a desk in a lab. The desk is crowded with equipment. — ^{_{Page of Christianna Smith’s scrapbook from Woods Hole, c. 1920s}}

Smith’s interests lay in the realm of medical zoology and histology, the study of tissues and cells, teaching courses in microscopy and histology, and researching biology at the micro scale. For the first part of her career, her work was mainly concerned with leukocytes, or white blood cells; later, her attention shifted toward understanding the cellular process of aging in animals.

A woman sits at a table in an office, posing with a large, fluffy dog. Caption on photo reads "'Chief' Chrissie and Amber." — ^{_{Christianna Smith and her dog Amber, c. 1930s}}

Six men and one woman sit on steps outside a home, smiling at the camera. Ivy covers the wall behind them, as well as shrubbery next to them. — ^{_{Christianna Smith (top row, second from right) on steps with other zoologists, c. 1920s}}

One student sitting pricks the finger of another student standing in a blood lab. There is a poster behind them showing different types of blood smears. — ^{_{Students working on histology of blood in lab, c. 1940s}}

Much of Smith’s research specifically looked at these structures and processes in female animals, resisting the tendency in biological research to privilege male organisms to draw conclusions about entire species.

An elderly woman wears a white lab coat while she holds a microscope slide. — ^{_{Christianna Smith preparing histology slides, n.d.}}

Drawing with notes of a bone and the process of ossification within it. Various small circles and shaded ovals make up the diagram. — ^{_{Frey ossification drawings, 1934}}

As a professor, Smith held students and assistants to a very high standard for their work. While students sometimes complained in the moment, many of her former students later reflected that her high expectations had vastly improved the quality of their work, in and out of zoology, and they appreciated her for it.

Handwritten letter in cursive. — ^{_{Louise Ireland-Frey letter to parents, 1934}}

“The courses are terrific. I never worked so hard…as we are going to here”

“Alas! These women surely do know things. They are no clinging vines…”

“‘Crissie’ Smith, my hardboiled, short-haired irresistable [sic], untouchable, slave-driving major professor whom I adore humbly and fear greatly and hope to become closely acquainted with…”

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