Ellen Bliss Talbot

Ellen Bliss Talbot (22 November 1867 – 25 January 1968) was an American philosopher and professor of philosophy at Mount Holyoke College, chairing the department of philosophy and psychology for 32 years. Her sister was paleontologist Mignon Talbot - one of the first women to earn a PhD in geology from Yale University. Ellen earned her B.A. at Ohio State University in 1890, working until 1894 as a high school principal.

Career Talbot was Sage Scholar in Philosophy from 1895 to 1897, and Sage Fellow 1897–98, during which time she completed her PhD at Cornell University. In 1904, she studied at the University of Berlin, and the following spring at Heidelberg University. Talbot was one of a relatively small group of American women who completed doctoral work in philosophy during the 19th century, and had a successful academic career. She has since been described by Dorothy Rogers in The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers as "one of the first truly professional academic women philosophers." Rogers has written that:In short, Talbot was a significant philosophical thinker whose influence was felt in her time, and whose prominence among women thinkers makes her a fit subject for further study.