Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz
| Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
December 5, 1822 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | June 27, 1907 (aged 84) Arlington, Massachusetts |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields |
Education Natural history Philosophy |
| Institutions | Radcliffe College |
| Known for | The first president of Radcliffe College |
| Spouse | Louis Agassiz |
Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (née Cary) (December 5, 1822 – June 27, 1907) was an American educator, and the co-founder and first president of Radcliffe College. A researcher of natural history, she was a contributing author to many scientific published works with her husband, Louis Agassiz.
Elizabeth Cary was born in 1822 into a Boston Brahmin family of New England ancestry. She was born on December 5, 1822 in Boston, Massachusetts at the house of her grandfather, Thomas Handasyd Perkins, on Pearl Street. She was born to Mary Ann Cushing Perkins Cary and Thomas Graves Cary (who was a graduate of Harvard University in 1811). The Cary and Perkins families were from England, and came to Massachusetts during the seventeenth century. Elizabeth Cary was the second of five daughters and seven children and was referred to as “Lizzie” by her immediate family and close friends. Because of her fragile health, she was tutored at home in Temple Place, Boston, which included the study of languages, drawing, music, and reading. She additionally received informal history lessons from Elizabeth Peabody.
Following the marriage of her older sister Mary to Harvard Professor Cornelius Conway Felton (later president of Harvard University), she began socializing with a group of intellectuals in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1846, she met scientist Louis Agassiz at a dinner with Mary and her husband. Though they wanted to marry, he still had a wife and three children (Pauline, Ida and Alexander) in Switzerland. His wife died in 1848. In December 1849—when socially acceptable to wed—Lizzie's father gave his blessing. They married on April 25, 1850 in Boston, Massachusetts at King's Chapel.
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