Katharine Blunt

Katharine Blunt
American Chemist, Nutritionist, and Professor
Born May 28, 1876
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died July 29, 1954 (1954-07-30) (aged 78)
Cause of death Pulmonary Embolism
Education

Porter School

Vassar College

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

University of Chicago
Relatives Charles Henry Smyth, Jr. (first cousin)

Katharine Blunt (1876–1954) was an American chemist, professor, and nutritionist who specialized in the fields of home economics, food chemistry and nutrition.[1] Most of her research was done on nutrition, but she also made great improvements to research on calcium and phosphorus metabolism and on the basal metabolism of women and children.[2]

Early life and education

Katharine Blunt was born on May 28, 1876 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the first of three daughters of Stanhope and Fanny Smyth Blunt.[3] Charles Henry Smyth, Jr., was a first cousin.[4] Blunt attended Porter School in Springfield, Massachusetts, then later enrolled in Vassar College, and studied chemistry. In 1898, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After four years at home, she enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1902.[3] Blunt received her Ph.D in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1907.[5]

Career

Blunt accepted a position as an assistant instructor of chemistry at Vassar College in 1903. In 1905, she left Vassar to study at the University of Chicago and earned a Ph.D in organic chemistry in 1907. Blunt was among a number of women with chemistry degrees who became part of the new field of home economics.[6] Blunt believed that women who received their education in this new field were not only stretching the limits of their intellectual capacity and improving their imaginative thinking but were "making a direct contribution to wholesome living."[7]

Leadership

For one year Blunt was an instructor in chemistry at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York,[3] then returned to Vassar College in 1908 as an instructor in chemistry.

In 1913, Blunt left Vassar again, this time for a position as an assistant professor in the department of home economics at the University of Chicago. She was later promoted to associate professor in 1918 and eventually became a full professor and chair of the Home Economics department in 1925.[3] While she was the chair, the department grew to seventeen staff members and produced researchers, administrators, and nutritionists.[6] Blunt was concerned that home economics would not become an established profession, so she worked to make it an appropriate subject of instruction and to plan a scientific curriculum for training professionals. In 1928, the American Home Economics Association observed that Blunt’s administration had enhanced the quality of graduate work in the field, and that her own devotion to research had provided an invaluable example to students.[2] In 1930, Blunt served as an editor of the University of Chicago's Home Economics Series, before becoming president of Connecticut College.

Connecticut College

In 1929, Blunt was named the third, and first woman to serve as president of Connecticut College for Women, a four-year liberal arts college. As president, Blunt made improvements which led to the college's accreditation in 1932.[3]

In her fifteen years as president, dormitories, the student body and faculty had increased. The curriculum was transformed. Blunt acquired endowments, scholarships, and fellowships. In 1934, the Connecticut College Arboretum opened and in 1939, Palmer Auditorium was established.[6]

In 1943, she retired at the age of 67, but was recalled as president in 1945 by the request of the Board of Trustees. Blunt served in that position for another year.

Blunt was determined to prepare the college woman for a life of active public service and to stimulate an interest in civic concerns. College, she believed, should train women so that their desires for public service do not “evaporate into vague benevolence, but develop into well-considered action”.[2]

Scholarship and research

From 1917-1918, Blunt worked for the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food Administration, preparing pamphlets on food conservation. The pamphlets were later published as the textbook Food and the War. While writing these pamphlets, Blunt continued to publish articles on food chemistry and nutrition in scholarly journals. The publication of Ultra-Violet Light and Vitamin D in Nutrition, a summary of research in the field, written with Ruth Cowan was published in 1930. During this time, Blunt also published writings on the education of women. Blunt believed that "the days of confining college education to the campus are over" and that women "with their belief in the force of education and their fresh political energy, can do much to serve the democracy which has helped them."[3]

Death

After Blunt retired from Connecticut College, she traveled extensively and later died of a pulmonary embolism on July 29, 1954[5] while recovering from a broken hip.[3] She was buried on July 31, 1954 in Springfield, Massachusetts.[7]

Publications

  • Blunt, Katharine & Bertram, E. Mary (1936). The Losses of Calcium in Cooking Kale. Oregon: Oregon State Agricultural College[8]
  • Blunt, Katharine (1930). Ultraviolet light and vitamin D in nutrition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. OCLC 701695607.
  • Blunt, Katharine & Moore, C. (1923). Experimental Studies of the A Vitamin: Some Clinical and Anatomic Effects in Puppies and Rats. Portland, Oregon[9]
  • Blunt, Katharine (1918). Food and the war : a textbook for college classes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 597517316.

Awards and honors

Legacy

When Blunt died, she left an apartment building at 640 Williams Street to Connecticut College. In 1946, it was announced that one of the new dormitories at Connecticut College was to be named in Blunt's honor.[7] Today, Katharine Blunt House (most often referred to as "KB") is located in the North Campus of dorms at the College, and houses students of all genders and class years.

References

  1. ↑ Janice Law Trecker (1980), "Blunt, Katharine", Notable American Women: The Modern Period, Harvard University Press, pp. 87–88, ISBN 9780674627338
  2. 1 2 3 "Select Your Library - Credo Reference". search.credoreference.com. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Leavitt, Judith (1985). American Women Managers and Administrators: A Selective Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Leaders in Business, Education, and Government. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-23748-4.
  4. ↑ A. F. Buddington. Memorial to Charles Henry Smyth, Jr. Proceedings of the Geological Society of America for 1937, Jun. 1938, pp. 195–202
  5. 1 2 Perry, Marilyn Elizabeth (2000). "Katharine Blunt". American National Biography Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 Masukawa, Eleanor. "Blunt: Biography of Katharine Blunt, 1/12/1967". Connecticut College Archives. Missing or empty |url= (help); |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  7. 1 2 3 "Presidents: Katherine Blunt: Death/Memorials". Connecticut College Archives. Missing or empty |url= (help); |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  8. ↑ "The Losses of Calcium in Cooking Kale" (PDF).
  9. ↑ "Experimental Studies of the A Vitamin: Some Clinical and Anatomic Effects in Puppies and Rats" (PDF).
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "President Blunt: Clippings regarding various awards". Connecticut College Archives. Missing or empty |url= (help); |access-date= requires |url= (help)
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