Queer Places:
University of Cambridge, 4 Mill Ln, Cambridge CB2 1RZ
Wellesley College (Seven Sisters), 106 Central St, Wellesley, MA 02481
University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland
Mary Alice Willcox (April 24, 1856 – June 4, 1953) was an American zoologist, educator, and professor. Born in Kennebunk, Maine, she was the eldest of three children born to
Congregational minister William H. Willcox and Annie Holmes Goodenow. Her family background was distinguished, as her great-grandfather John Holmes served as one of Maine's
first senators and her grandfather Daniel Goodenow was a justice of the Supreme Court of Maine. Early in her life, her family relocated to Reading, Massachusetts, where she
attended Salem State Normal School before teaching at the Frederick Female Seminary in Maryland and Charlestown High School in Boston. She furthered her scientific training
during the summers by attending Alexander Agassiz's marine laboratory and studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Boston Society of Natural History.
Willcox traveled to England in 1880 to study at Newnham College, Cambridge, completing her studies there in 1883, though Cambridge did not grant degrees to women at the
time. With her father's assistance, she secured a position to establish and build the zoology department at Wellesley College from scratch. Although her mother initially
regretted the career path because it meant giving up traditional prospects of marriage, Willcox's departmental leadership flourished, and she introduced innovative teaching
methods that drew future prominent women zoologists. Specializing primarily in ornithology and malacology, she published the Pocket Guide to the Common Land Birds of New
England in 1895. To cement her academic standing, she took a leave of absence in 1896 to pursue doctoral studies, conducting research at the University of Zurich and the
Naples Zoological Station, and earning her Ph.D. in 1898 with a dissertation on mollusk anatomy.
During her tenure on the Wellesley faculty from 1900 to 1910, she continued her comparative anatomical research on invertebrates before retiring as professor emeritus in
1910. Following her retirement, which was reportedly prompted by health issues such as rheumatism, she remained active for decades in public and civic life, working with the
League of Women Voters, the Federation of Women's Clubs, the National Audubon Society, and the Boston Society of Natural History until her death in Pocasset, Massachusetts,
in 1953 at the age of 97.
Regarding LGBTQ links, historical documentation or mainstream biographical records do not establish or discuss any specific LGBTQ links, partnerships, or personal
identifications for Mary Alice Willcox, aside from notes that her academic career choice meant she did not marry.
References:
Other references:
- Creese, Mary R.S. (2000). Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research. Scarecrow Press, pp. 89-91.
- Lindberg, David R. (1977). Mary Alice Willcox, 1856-1953. Annual Report, The Western Society of Malacologists, vol. 10, pp. 16-17.
- Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z. Taylor & Francis, vol. 2, p. 1380.
- Leonard, John William, ed. (1914). Woman's Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada. American Commonwealth Company, vol. 1, p. 886.
- Singer, Sandra L. (2003). Adventures Abroad: North American Women at German-speaking Universities, 1868-1915. Contributions in Women's Studies, Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 111.
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