When Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842-1911)—one of the most influential chemistry minds of the late-19th century—found herself the first female student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she calmed her doubters by offering not just scientific knowledge, but her sewing skills. Mending the clothes of her male classmates made her intellect less threatening, a strategy she felt the need to employ at a school that, at the time, prioritized gender over genius.

Richards’s practical application of science impacted many things we take for granted: clean drinking water, sanitation, school lunches… we can thank her for them all.

Born on a farm in rural Dunstable, Massachusetts, Richards was home-schooled by her parents prior to attending Westford Academy, the oldest continuously operating co-educational school in the country. She taught briefly before enrolling in Vassar College, eventually becoming the first American woman to earn a degree in chemistry.

After being denied an industrial chemistry apprenticeship, Richards applied to MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she became the first American woman accepted into any school of science and technology. While there she completed a second bachelor’s degree and her master’s thesis from Vassar; however, she was not allowed to present herself as a candidate for an advanced degree as the Institute was unwilling to award her a doctorate. Richards would not only have been the first woman to receive an MIT doctorate at that time but, she would have also achieved the unimaginable—earning that degree ahead of any man.

Richards recognized the need to educate more women to teach science and persuaded MIT to provide space for that purpose, procuring funding for the purchase of laboratory equipment. When the MIT Women’s Laboratory opened in 1876, she donated her services, teaching nearly 500 women and, upon its closure, receiving a faculty appointment as instructor in sanitary chemistry—a position she held for twenty-seven years.

In the late 1880s, Richards directed a comprehensive Massachusetts water survey, generating the famous Normal Chlorine Map. Tracking man-made pollution, the survey led to the first water-quality standards and first modern municipal sewage treatment plant in America, both established in Massachusetts.

Believing the environment had the greatest impact on quality of life, she created the term “euthenics” to refer to the improvement of the environment both outside—and inside—the home, inspiring the “Home Ecology” or Home Economics movement. In 1908, the American Home Economics Association was formed, and Richards named its first president.

Richards pioneered the New England Kitchen, a “scientific take-out restaurant,” offering economical, nutritious meals to the urban poor, while demonstrating sanitary cooking methods. This led to the development of a school lunch program for Boston Latin High School, a model for other cities. Her book Food Materials and Their Adulterations led to the passage of the first Pure Food and Drug Act in Massachusetts.

Once overlooked by virtue of being a woman, she became a force for social reform, improving the quality of American life. Well respected at the time of her death, her memory is honored through MIT’s Ellen Swallow Richards Professorship for distinguished female faculty members.