page_title: Cornelia Clapp
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Cornelia Clapp / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: Subject: Clapp, Cornelia M (Cornelia Maria) 1849-1935 Syracuse University University of Chicago Mount Holyoke College Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole, Mass.) Type: Black-and-white photographs Topic: Women scientists Ichthyology Biology Local number: SIA Acc. 90-105 [SIA2008-0113] Summary: Clapp was a noted biology professor at Mount Holyoke College. She earned both the first (Syracuse, 1889) and second (Chicago, 1896) biology doctorates awarded to women in the United States. She began research at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory from the time of its establishment in 1888; and later served as lecturer and librarian, and was elected a trustee in 1910 Cite as: Acc. 90-105 - Science Service, Records, 1920s-1970s, Smithsonian Institution Archives
context_page_description: Cornelia Maria Clapp was an American zoologist and academic specializing in marine biology. She was born in Montague, Massachusetts, the first daughter and oldest child of two teachers, and was rated as one of the top zoologists in the United States in her lifetime.
  Clapp attended Syracuse University and the University of Chicago, earning both the first and second Ph.B. degrees awarded to women in the United States, in 1889 from Syracuse and 1896 from Chicago. Mount Holyoke’s Cornelia Clapp Laboratory, built in 1924 to house the school’s biology classes, was named in her honor.
context_section_description: At a time when the world of science was just opening up to women, Cornelia Clapp's influence as a teacher was great and enduring. While she published little during her career, her major influence was to extend scientific knowledge and opportunity to women through education.
  Her direct teaching manner can be felt in the experience of Louise Baird Wallace, who arrived at Mount Holyoke in 1891. Her school principal in Ohio told her: “You ought to study under Dr. Clapp. She keeps live frogs in tanks.” Of Clapp, Louise wrote, “I came, I saw; she conquered. I felt then and have felt ever since that I was never fully alive until I knew her.”
caption: Cornelia in later life outside Gardiner Road cottage
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