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Christine Ladd-Franklin
Christine Ladd-Franklin (December 1, 1847 – March 5, 1930) was an American psychologist, logician, and mathematician.
Christine Ladd, sometimes known by the nickname "Kitty", was born on December 1, 1847, in Windsor, Connecticut, to Eliphalet, a merchant, and Augusta (née Niles) Ladd. During her early childhood, she lived with her parents and younger brother Henry (born 1850) in New York City. In 1853 the family moved back to Windsor, Connecticut, where her sister Jane Augusta Ladd McCordia was born the following year. Family correspondence shows that Augusta and one of her sisters were both staunch supporters of women's rights. Before Ladd turned five, her mother had taken her to a lecture given by Elizabeth Oakes Smith, a well-known proponent of women's rights. Additionally, her father was a graduate professor who was supportive of his eldest daughter's education.
Following the death of her mother in spring 1860 of pneumonia, Ladd went to live with her paternal grandmother in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she attended school. Ladd's father remarried in 1862 and had two further children, her half-sister Katherine (born 1862) and half-brother George (born 1867). Ladd was reportedly a precocious child who sought to find "a mean to continue her education beyond secondary school." Her father enrolled her in a two-year program at the coeducational Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. At Wesleyan Academy she took the same courses her male classmates took to prepare for entrance to colleges such as Harvard.
In 1865, Ladd graduated from Wesleyan Academy and pursued further education at Vassar College,[unreliable source] supported by her family.
In the fall of 1866, Ladd enrolled in Vassar College, financed by a loan from her aunt Juliet Niles, but left at the end of the spring term due to financial hardship. Ladd then worked as a public school teacher until her aunt's aid allowed her to re-enroll in Vassar. She earned an A.B. degree in 1869. While attending Vassar, Ladd began working under the mentorship of an astronomy professor, Maria Mitchell, who was famous for having been "the first woman to discover a new comet, using a telescope, in 1847". Mitchell was also a suffragette and strove to inspire women to gain more self-confidence to enter into the male-dominated academia of the time. Under the guidance of Mitchell, Ladd became proficient and developed a love for physics and mathematics. Because women in nineteenth-century America were prohibited from working in physics laboratories, Ladd chose to study mathematics. Later in life, Ladd would reflect on her decision, saying, "had it not been for the impossibility, in those days, in the case of women, of obtaining access to laboratory facilities," she would have studied physics.
In 1887, Vassar College awarded Ladd an honorary LL.D.
After graduating from Vassar, Ladd taught science and mathematics at secondary level in Washington, Pennsylvania; Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania; Massachusetts; and New York for nine years, although her diary entries indicate that her interest in teaching may have diminished over time. During this time, Ladd contributed seventy-seven mathematical problems and solutions to the Educational Times of London. She also published six items in The Analyst: A Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics and three in the American Journal of Mathematics.
In 1878, Ladd was accepted into Johns Hopkins University with the help of James J. Sylvester, an English mathematician among the university's faculty who remembered some of Ladd's earlier works in the Educational Times. Ladd's application for a fellowship was signed "C. Ladd", and the university offered her the position without realizing she was a woman. When they did realize her gender, the board tried to revoke the offer, but Sylvester insisted that Ladd should be his student, and so she was. She held a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University for three years, but the trustees did not allow her name to be printed in circulars with those of other fellows, for fear of setting a precedent. Furthermore, dissension over her continued presence forced one of the original trustees to resign.
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Christine Ladd-Franklin
Christine Ladd-Franklin (December 1, 1847 – March 5, 1930) was an American psychologist, logician, and mathematician.
Christine Ladd, sometimes known by the nickname "Kitty", was born on December 1, 1847, in Windsor, Connecticut, to Eliphalet, a merchant, and Augusta (née Niles) Ladd. During her early childhood, she lived with her parents and younger brother Henry (born 1850) in New York City. In 1853 the family moved back to Windsor, Connecticut, where her sister Jane Augusta Ladd McCordia was born the following year. Family correspondence shows that Augusta and one of her sisters were both staunch supporters of women's rights. Before Ladd turned five, her mother had taken her to a lecture given by Elizabeth Oakes Smith, a well-known proponent of women's rights. Additionally, her father was a graduate professor who was supportive of his eldest daughter's education.
Following the death of her mother in spring 1860 of pneumonia, Ladd went to live with her paternal grandmother in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she attended school. Ladd's father remarried in 1862 and had two further children, her half-sister Katherine (born 1862) and half-brother George (born 1867). Ladd was reportedly a precocious child who sought to find "a mean to continue her education beyond secondary school." Her father enrolled her in a two-year program at the coeducational Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. At Wesleyan Academy she took the same courses her male classmates took to prepare for entrance to colleges such as Harvard.
In 1865, Ladd graduated from Wesleyan Academy and pursued further education at Vassar College,[unreliable source] supported by her family.
In the fall of 1866, Ladd enrolled in Vassar College, financed by a loan from her aunt Juliet Niles, but left at the end of the spring term due to financial hardship. Ladd then worked as a public school teacher until her aunt's aid allowed her to re-enroll in Vassar. She earned an A.B. degree in 1869. While attending Vassar, Ladd began working under the mentorship of an astronomy professor, Maria Mitchell, who was famous for having been "the first woman to discover a new comet, using a telescope, in 1847". Mitchell was also a suffragette and strove to inspire women to gain more self-confidence to enter into the male-dominated academia of the time. Under the guidance of Mitchell, Ladd became proficient and developed a love for physics and mathematics. Because women in nineteenth-century America were prohibited from working in physics laboratories, Ladd chose to study mathematics. Later in life, Ladd would reflect on her decision, saying, "had it not been for the impossibility, in those days, in the case of women, of obtaining access to laboratory facilities," she would have studied physics.
In 1887, Vassar College awarded Ladd an honorary LL.D.
After graduating from Vassar, Ladd taught science and mathematics at secondary level in Washington, Pennsylvania; Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania; Massachusetts; and New York for nine years, although her diary entries indicate that her interest in teaching may have diminished over time. During this time, Ladd contributed seventy-seven mathematical problems and solutions to the Educational Times of London. She also published six items in The Analyst: A Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics and three in the American Journal of Mathematics.
In 1878, Ladd was accepted into Johns Hopkins University with the help of James J. Sylvester, an English mathematician among the university's faculty who remembered some of Ladd's earlier works in the Educational Times. Ladd's application for a fellowship was signed "C. Ladd", and the university offered her the position without realizing she was a woman. When they did realize her gender, the board tried to revoke the offer, but Sylvester insisted that Ladd should be his student, and so she was. She held a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University for three years, but the trustees did not allow her name to be printed in circulars with those of other fellows, for fear of setting a precedent. Furthermore, dissension over her continued presence forced one of the original trustees to resign.