Fanny R. M. Hitchcock

Life She was born on February 7, 1851, to Elizabeth and Julius Hitchcock. Before enrolling with any American university she was undertaking research in vertebrate paleontology, amongst other topics. She presented her paper on Edestus fossils to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1887. In pursuit of science, she then worked in the chemistry department at the University of Berlin in 1892, though she applied for a passport in 1894. She received her Ph. D. at the University of Pennsylvania with her thesis on “The Tungstates and Molybdates of the Rare Earths”; her doctoral advisor was Edgar Fahs Smith.

She returned to the University of Pennsylvania and became the first director of the women's graduate department in 1897. This was also the location of Mistucky Brook. Miss Hitchcock entered a legal covenant with the city of Warwick which prohibited using land within a certain range of the brook for constructing buildings to reduce pollution, which resulted in a lawsuit in 1989. In 1909, she began working on her patent for “Food Compound for Promoting the Rapid Growth of Poultry”, which was finalized in 1913. In 1914 she wrote to a George H. Earle Jr. over World War I from London, and opinions on submarines in 1914. Mr. Earle then wrote to a judge with her information in 1917. She was declared incompetent in 1932, and was also in multiple lawsuits (one in 1933 and another in 1934) at the end of her life, regarding property and payments. She died on September 25, 1936.

Throughout her life, she joined many different scientific communities. While at the University of Pennsylvania, she was one of the first women to ever join the fraternity Kappa Kappa Gamma. She also joined the Sigma Xi Society, and was still a contributing member in 1925. Beta Alpha was the third university organization that she joined, where she created the first philanthropy, an annual prize of a table, accepted by the fraternity. This later developed into the Student Aid Fund. She joined the New York Academy of Sciences in 1881 and eventually became a fellow, and was also a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1888, she conducted the 15th meeting of the New York Mineralogist Club in her house. She became a member of the American Mathematical Society in 1894 (and was a member until 1910), which was also known as Project Euclid and the New York Mathematical Society. She also joined the American Electrochemical Society, the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Engineers (joining in 1920), and the Franklin Institute.

Scientific contributions and articles "The Tungstates and Molybdates of the Rare Earths" (1895)

"XI.—Further Notes on the Osteology of the Shad, (Alosa sapidissima)" (1889)

"Introductory Note on the Reduction of Metallic Oxides, At High Temperatures" (1898)

"Notes on the Atomic Mass of Tungsten" (1898)

The following articles can be found by name only, with no accompanying research.

"Occurrence of Early Stages of Blepharocera" (1886) "Preliminary Paper on Structure of Alosa Sapidissima" (1887) "Petrological Microscope, with Various Accessories, Designed by Fuess of Berlin" (1897) "Some Substances found in Uranium Compounds and in Iron Ores of Orange County, N.Y." (1912) "Beta Rays and the Chemical Elements" (1915) "Some Undescribed Disintegration Products of Radioactive Elements" (1917)