Lydia White Shattuck

Lydia White Shattuck (June 10, 1822 – November 2, 1889) was an American botanist, naturalist, chemist, and professor at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College).

Early life and education Shattuck was born in 1822 in East Landoff (now Easton), New Hampshire to first cousins Betsey Fletcher and Timothy Shattuck, and she was the only one of their first five children to survive past infancy. When she was a young girl, her mother would take her on excursions through the woods, which inspired a love of nature, particularly wildflowers.

Career Immediately after her graduation in 1851, Shattuck became a professor of botany and chemistry at her alma mater. Initially, she would also teach subjects ranging from astronomy to geometry to physiology, She would also regularly advocate for and acquire updated department equipment and household appliances (e.g., "steam heating, the elevator, the artesian well") for the school.

In the very beginning of the seminary, science had a prominent place in its course of study. Botany was in both the first and second years of the three years' course. Chemistry, geology, astronomy, natural philosophy, physiology, and philosophy of natural history had each its appointed place — seven sciences in a course of twenty-three studies. Names have changed since then, and work had broadened; botany and zoology have stretched out into the deeper researches of biology. [...] since this is a scientific age and we are bound to keep abreast of the times; since every college has its own particular individuality — let us press onward in these lines till we obtain full recognition among the colleges of New England, claiming the right to confer degrees whenever it can be shown that our pupils have done as much and as good work as other colleges require for the same degrees. — Lydia Shattuck, 1887 reunion In 1873, the year the school opened, its founders, including Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, the first president of Radcliffe College, selected fifty scientists to attend the inaugural session, and Shattuck was one of sixteen women selected. She was also one of a handful of women chemists at the first meeting of the 1874 Priestly centennial, from which the American Chemical Society was born. However, she was excluded from a picture taken of the founders, as she had been asked to stand with the wives of the male chemists in attendance.

She retired in 1889, one year after Mount Holyoke received its collegiate charter, and was given the title of professor emeritus.

Her letters are considered key historical documents that provide insight into 19th century scientific inquiry.