Who Are You?
In celebration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, this is the fourth in a series of installments from Smithsonian Institution Archives staff highlighting women in science photographs. We will post portraits of women science here throughout the month.
In 1990, the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) acquired part of the Science Service morgue file (SIA Accession 90-105). This collection contains biographical information, images, and subject files on scientific topics ranging from atomic energy to vitamins. During the first fourteen years we had custody of Accession 90-105, it didn't get much play, and that's not surprising, because there was no information out there advertising it. In recent years, however, it has become increasingly popular and a "go-to" collection for finding images of scientists. When I started at the Archives, I was on the team that brought in all new accessions and maintained Archives collections. One of our "other duties as assigned" was to go to our off-site storage facility to retrieve boxes requested by researchers. It's funny how one learns where certain collections live without looking up a location, even in a warehouse that stored over 12,000 boxes. We all knew where 90-105 was, 1) because it was large (68 cubic feet) and 2) because we started getting requests for 2-3 boxes a month. When one of these requests came in, the first question was not, "Where is it?" but "How high will we have to climb?" Sometimes the boxes were on the highest of 12 shelves. Roll out the ladder! 
The most popular part of this morgue is the biographical section. Because of this popularity, we started digitizing the thousands of images contained in 90-105. To date, we have scanned over 5,400 photographs (about one half of the images). As one of our intern scanners said, many of the portraits are of "dead white guys," but there are also a good number of women scientists represented in the collection. We are showcasing just a few of those this month. However, there's still work to do after digitization. For many images (some are posted here) there are no captions or other information indicating exactly who these people were. This week we are posting several photographs for which we have no description other than the woman's name (and sometimes only the husband's name). We invite you to contribute your research to our project. 
Comments (18) – Leave a comment
Super post Tammy. Hope we get some help in identifying these women. Let's see how our social media works with this challenge. Anne
K. M. Drew could be Kathleen Mary Drew (1901-1957), listed in Ogilvie and Harvey, _The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science_ as "British botanist....Drew was a distinguished worker in the field of red algae. She spent most of her academic life in the department of cryptogamic botany at the University of Manchester....she spent two years in the United States, working at the University of California. During this time, she produced systematic studies and her first substantial monograph....She was one of the founders of the British Phycological Society and was its first president."
Penny: We think you've identified her correctly. Images of Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker on other websites look like a match. Thanks for your input and all your great comments to our "Women in Science" set! We're following other leads you posted on Flickr as well.
Tammy, what an excelent job you are doing at SIA to get this stuff out there. Your comments about the off-site storage brought back memories of those ladders we had to use. I still remember the heaviest box I ever found there was way up on a top shelf.
Elizabeth S. Goodwin could be either of these people: http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/AF/individual_record.asp?recid=20... http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/PRF/individual_record.asp?recid=1...
Thank you for your research Brylie! We're looking into it now.
I think Elizabeth Sabin Goodwin may have been an artist, rather than a scientist - from the 7/27/1924 Washington Post": I haven't been able to find an obituary yet.
Looks like tags aren't tolerated - here's the article: http://polaris.umuc.edu/~rshepard/elizabeth_sabin_goodwin.jpg
I'm pretty sure I've figured who Elizabeth Sabin Goodwin was: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/3397805195/
rockcreek: I think you're right. Science Service collected and took thousands of photos that they maintained in their morgue file (in which this photo resides). Most were of scientists, or documented scientific themes and objects, but not all. Sometimes images they kept were of political figures, other people in the mainstream news, notable historical persons, or individuals related in some way to the news stories the Science Service wrote (or just planned to write). It may not be clear why they acquired and had this image of Elizabeth Sabin Goodwin, but your search has resulted in much more information about her life. Thanks for you continued pursuits to gather more details about our posts in this blog and on Flickr!
Wow! I love browsing through archives like this! I'm a research addict! Is the public able to visit the Morgue File? Thanks for writing about this!
Bobby: Currently researchers must personally visit the Smithsonian Institution Archives to consult the bulk of the morgue file. Our hours and contact information are located at: http://siarchives.si.edu/sia/main_contact.html. We are working hard to digitize all the biographical images in this collection and hope to eventually have them available online, as well.
The information at the beginning of this article seems to be accurate to a point. I have recently met her son, William, and he is the spitting image of her! I have acquired several unsigned artworks (from Elizabeth S. Goodwin) from him. I will try to speak to him again. As I recall from our conversation, her work life revolved around libraries and cataloging, and maybe even illustrating, however her heart was with painting and she did have works publicly displayed in galleries throughout the Northeast. I'll try to get back to this in a week or two. (I posted this over on the previously mentioned Flickr link as well)
Elizabeth Sabin Goodwin was my grandmother's first cousin. An artist, she lived in Washington DC on M Street at Thomas Circle as a child and then later at Martha's Vineyard, MA. I have more info and a painting by her in my family history collection.
Sarah: Thanks for your note! It's great to learn so much about Elizabeth Sabin Goodwin through these comments and those on Flickr. We still don't know the reason why her image is in a morgue file for a science publication. Do you know if she did any work for the Smithsonian? Her image appears to be in a series of photos of Smithsonian employees, but her name doesn't appear in curators' or annual reports of the Institution.
I have just completed a book on the history of biochemistry at tulane medical school. Willet Glover Denis (shown in one of you photos) was chair of biochemistry from 1925-1929, the first woman to chair a major department at a US medical school. I would be happy to share the information I have on Denis. Just let me know how.
William Baricos
Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry
Tulane Medical School
Dr. Baricos-
Thank you so much for stopping by the Archives! I'll pass along your information to Tammy, but I'm assuming you're speaking of this photograph: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/3397784605/?
If so, it looks like we might have a misspelling on our end as we have her first name as Willey. Thank you very much for your willingness to share information. Please feel free to share your information in the comments of the photo on Flickr or here on our blog.
Best wishes,
Catherine
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