Agassiz, Elizabeth Cabot

Agassiz, Elizabeth Cabot

 orig. Elizabeth Cabot Cary

(born Dec. 5, 1822, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died June 27, 1907, Arlington Heights, Mass.) U.S. naturalist and educator. She was educated at home, and in 1850 she married Louis Agassiz. She helped organize and manage several of his field expeditions, and together they founded a marine laboratory in Buzzards Bay, Mass. After his death she pursued her idea of a college for women to be taught by the Harvard University faculty. She was instrumental in launching the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women (1882); she served as its president until 1894, when it was renamed Radcliffe College, and she continued as president until 1899.