Frances Fisher Wood

Frances Fisher Wood (September 22, 1852, Waltham, Massachusetts – August 30, 1938, Bedford, Pennsylvania, sometimes styled Mrs. William Benjamin Wood) was an educator, lecturer, and scientist.

A graduate of Vassar College, Frances Fisher Wood supported women's suffrage and education. She was a teacher and principal at what later became the Hathaway Brown School for Girls in Cleveland, Ohio; lectured and published a book on the scientific upbringing of infants and children (Infancy and Childhood, 1897); developed the first commercial business in the United States for the sterilization of milk for infants; and was a founder and one of the original trustees of Barnard College for women.

Early life Frances Fisher was born on September 22, 1852, in Waltham, Massachusetts in Ohio. Her family background qualified her as a member of the Colonial Dames of the State of New York (incorporated on April 28, 1893)

Vassar College Frances Fisher attended Vassar College as part of the Class of 1874. The school's first graduates had been the Class of 1867. Speaking to the graduating class in 1924, Fisher recalled attitudes to women students 50 years earlier.

At Vassar, Frances Fisher studied mathematics and astronomy with Maria Mitchell. She also contributed a chapter about Mitchell to The National Exposition Souvenir: What America Owes to Women, a memorial book for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.

While a student at Vassar, Frances Fisher was an enthusiastic proponent of "rational dress", petitioning for the right to wear a "mountain dress, consisting of a short kilted skirt and a comfortable jacket."

Fisher graduated from Vassar College in 1874, as president of her class. Fisher was a founding member and the first president of the Cleveland, Ohio branch of Vassar College Alumnae. She later served as president of the alumnae association of Vassar College, from 1878-1879. ). The Woods had one son, Eric Fisher Wood, at No. 17 East 38th Street, and later at No. 33 West 47th Street. Their staff of four included a Japanese butler, Hiroishi Sakamine. In 1917, the Woods sold No. 33 West 47th Street for $60,000.

The Woods were part of a summer colony formed in the 1880s at Onteora ("Hills of the Sky") in the Catskill Mountains. Frances Fisher Wood designed their house, "Yamaga", following a Japanese style of architecture that emphasized low lines, simplicity and lack of ornamentation.

She was variously described as a "Japanese scholar and expert"

Science Between 1880 and 1895, Frances Fisher Wood was active as a lecturer and writer on various topics, including women's education, philanthropy, political economy, and science. and the care of young children. She developed and patented her own processes for sterilization, with the goal of killing germs while otherwise preserving the value of the milk. She started her own farm in the countryside because it was difficult to obtain good results in the city.

quote|The farm is in the pine districts of New Hampshire where there is fine air and fine food for the cattle. Everything about the barns is as cleanly as science and sunshine can make them. No hay is stored in the cows' barn lest the dust infect the milk, and no bedding is kept on the floor. The cows are of the finest Jersey blood—each registered at the American Cattle Club. They are regularly inspected by a physician and are given the best of care... Their food is studied and apportioned so that they shall give the richest milk rather than a great quantity of it. The Kingwood" standard demands twenty per cent, cream—the "choice milk" at city markets, nine per cent. As soon as the milk is taken from the cow it is bottled, hermetically sealed, and steamed in the sterilizing house. Every part of the apparatus used in the process is antiseptically clean—as instruments for a surgical operation; and until the bottles are uncorked for use there is no source of contamination. If the milk were allowed to stand uncorked after it has once been opened, it would absorb germs as would any other milk. Therefore, knowing that human nature is prone to forget seventy times seven, Mrs. Wood has rounded the bottles so that they cannot be set down uncorked. and published a book on children's care and education, Infancy and Childhood (1897). In it she discussed topics such as rational dress for children and the prevention of disease. She also presented statistics to support the idea that the children of college-educated women were healthy, to refute the idea that education would make women unfit as mothers.

Women and education in New York Frances Fisher Wood was one of the founders of the Public Education Society in New York,

After being recruited by Ella Weed (Vassar, 1873) she became one of the founders, incorporators and first trustees of Barnard College for women. She recommended having a board of trustees entirely of women, but the board was eventually composed evenly of men and women. She was also involved with the National Council of Women of the United States, served on the executive board of the University Extension Society, and was a member of the Wednesday Afternoon Club, Women's University Club, and Association of Collegiate Alumnæ.

World War I During World War I Frances Fisher Wood worked on a volunteer basis writing publicity articles for Camp Sherman, Ohio. Her son Eric Fisher Wood was an officer there in 1917.