Archives at Cornell

Ida H. Hyde letter

Collection — manuscript box: 21 - folder 1

Identifier: 138m

Scope and content

Letter from Ida Henrietta Hyde, from Strassburg, Feb. 8, 1894, to "My dear Dr. Whitman" [presumably Charles Otis Whitman, b. 1842-d. 1910] concerning her experiences at the University of Strassburg where she studied physiology, but was unable to obtain the Ph.D. degree because of University regulations. She comments on the general opposition to higher education for women to be found among the educated class in Germany and tells of her success in persuading the faculty of the University of Heidelberg to allow her to become a candidate for the Ph.D. degree.

Dates

1894.

Creator

Hyde, Ida Henrietta. (Person)
Whitman, Charles Otis, 1842-1910. (Person)

Biographical / Historical

Ida Henrietta Hyde, Cornell University Class of 1891; Heidelberg Ph.D., 1896, was the first American woman to get a Ph.D. at a German university.

Biographical / Historical

Dr. Whitman, judging from internal evidence in the letter, appears to be the director of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood's Hole, Mass. from its foundation in 1888 to 1908, and, from 1892 until his death, professor and head of the Zoology Department at the University of Chicago.