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The Personal is Professional: Margaret Maltby’s Life in Physics

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Biographies in the History of Physics

Abstract

Researching the biography of Margaret Maltby is a methodological exercise in recovering a lost voice. To piece together Maltby’s life requires piecing together fragments and interrogating the silences of the archive. The record of Maltby’s life reveals her active and ongoing work to manage her personal and professional lives. Even years after her death, the formation and maintenance of the archival silences reveal that the same balance achieved in her lifetime is uneasily continued in her historical legacy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Margaret Maltby to Svante Arrhenius, 22 December 1897, Svante Arrhenius Papers, Royal Swedish Academy of Science.

  2. 2.

    Margaret Maltby to A. S. Roof, 17 January 1890, Box 673, Folder: Margaret Eliza Maltby, Series: Graduates and Former Students, RG 28/2 Alumni and Development Records, Oberlin College Archives.

  3. 3.

    Author interview with Mary Traynor and Elizabeth Traynor. Guntersville, Alabama. 25 February 2018.

  4. 4.

    Margaret Maltby short biography, undated, Box 673, Folder: Margaret Eliza Maltby, Series: Graduates and Former Students, RG 28/2 Alumni and Development Records, Oberlin College Archives.

  5. 5.

    Margaret Maltby, undated, “Autobiography of Margaret E. Maltby, Ph.D., A.A.U.W. European Fellow, 1895–1896,” Elizabeth Traynor Private Collection, page 1.

  6. 6.

    Margaret Maltby response to an alumni survey, undated circa 1916, Box 673, Folder: Margaret Eliza Maltby, Series: Graduates and Former Students, RG 28/2 Alumni and Development Records, Oberlin College Archives.

  7. 7.

    Author interview with Mary Traynor and Elizabeth Traynor, Guntersville Alabama, 25 February 2018.

  8. 8.

    Physics Department Inventory Checks 1903–1914, Box 1, BC 13.42 Physics Department 1900–1940s, Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard College.

  9. 9.

    1935 Quinquennial Report for Margaret Maltby, Box 673, Folder: Margaret Eliza Maltby, Series: Graduates and Former Students, RG 28/2 Alumni and Development Records, Oberlin College Archives.

  10. 10.

    Author email with MIT Institute Archivist Dana Hamlin, March 1, 2018.

  11. 11.

    Margaret Maltby to Ellen Swallow Richards, 6 December 1908, Folder “Maltby, Margaret,” Ellen Swallow Richards Papers 1882–1910 MS 130, Series II Correspondence General, Smith Collection, Smith College Libraries Special Collections.

  12. 12.

    Maltby response to Oberlin questionnaire, circa 1889, Box 673, Folder: Margaret Eliza Maltby, Series: Graduates and Former Students, RG 28/2 Alumni and Development Records, Oberlin College Archives; Author email with MIT Institute Archivist Dana Hamlin, March 1, 2018.

  13. 13.

    Mary Frances Winston to her mother, 29 October 1893, Mary Frances Winston Papers, MS 213, Folder 10, Family Typed Transcripts 1893–1895 Page 21, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Libraries Special Collections.

  14. 14.

    Mary Frances Winston to Charley, 17 October 1893, Mary Frances Winston Papers, MS 213, Folder 10, Family Typed Transcripts 1893–1895, Page 17, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Libraries Special Collections.

  15. 15.

    Mary Winston, “My Student Days in Germany,” undated manuscript circa 1952, Page 13, Mary Frances Winston Papers, MS 213, Folder 10, Family Typed Transcripts 1893–1895 Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Libraries Special Collections; Mary Frances Winston to Charles, 21 November 1893. Mary Frances Winston Papers, MS 213, Folder 10, Family Typed Transcripts 1893–1895, Pages 34–35, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Libraries Special Collections.

  16. 16.

    Margaret Maltby to Svante Arrhenius, 22 December 1897, Svante Arrhenius Papers, Royal Swedish Academy of Science.

  17. 17.

    Margaret Maltby to Svante Arrhenius, 22 December 1897, Svante Arrhenius Papers, Royal Swedish Academy of Science.

  18. 18.

    Margaret Maltby to Ellen Swallow Richards, Circa 1898, Box 1, Folder 47, Ellen Swallow Richards Papers MS 130, Box 1, Folder 47, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Libraries Special Collections.

  19. 19.

    Margaret Maltby to Svante Arrhenius, 3 September 1902, Svante Arrhenius Papers, Royal Swedish Academy of Science.

  20. 20.

    Margaret Maltby to Newton W. Bates, 23 May 1922, Box 673, Folder: Margaret Eliza Maltby, Series: Graduates and Former Students, RG 28/2 Alumni and Development Records, Oberlin College Archives.

  21. 21.

    Margaret Maltby to Newton W. Bates, 23 May 1922, Box 673, Folder: Margaret Eliza Maltby, Series: Graduates and Former Students, RG 28/2 Alumni and Development Records, Oberlin College Archives.

  22. 22.

    Margaret Maltby to Svante Arrhenius, 22 December 1897, Svante Arrhenius Papers, Royal Swedish Academy of Science.

  23. 23.

    Raymond Gill email to author, 25 November 2018.

  24. 24.

    Margaret Maltby to Laura Gill, 24 July 1906, Box 6, Folder 41, BC 5.1 Dean’s Office Correspondence 1906–1908, Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard College.

  25. 25.

    Laura Drake Gill to Margaret Maltby, 30 July 1906, Box 6, Folder 41, BC 5.1 Dean’s Office Correspondence 1906–1908, Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard College.

  26. 26.

    Laura Drake Gill to Margaret Maltby, 30 July 1906, Box 6, Folder 41, BC 5.1 Dean’s Office Correspondence 1906–1908, Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard College.

  27. 27.

    Margaret Maltby to Laura Gill, 9 September 1906, Box 6, Folder 41, BC 5.1 Dean’s Office Correspondence 1906–1908, Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard College.

  28. 28.

    New York State Census Records for Manhattan Borough and Bronx (1905), Election District 47, Assembly District 21, Block M, Page 88, Lines 35–36. FHL microfilm 1,433,097. Accessed via FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/SPF8-VYL. Last updated 21 December 2017.

  29. 29.

    Eleanor Myers Jewett Scrapbook, vol. 4, 1911–1912, Page 132, Inclusion 1, Barnard College Archives. http://digitalcollections.barnard.edu/islandora/object/BC15-14:1666.

  30. 30.

    Raymond Gill email to author, 26 November 2018.

  31. 31.

    United States Census (1900), Worcester City in Worchester County, Massachusetts, Precinct 2, Ward 6, Enumeration District 1760, Sheet 5B, Family 128, Line 78. NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,697. Accessed via FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M9BD-384.

  32. 32.

    New York State Census Records for Manhattan Borough and Bronx (1905), Election District 47, Assembly District 21, Block M, Page 88, Lines 35–36. FHL microfilm 1,433,097. Accessed via FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/SPF8-VYL. Last updated 21 December 2017.

  33. 33.

    Margaret E Maltby Passport Application, May 24–25, 1909. Certificate #6536 from Passport Applications, January 2, 1906—March 31, 1925, NARA Microfilm series M1490, Roll 86 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.). Accessed via FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/QKDX-BQLN. Updated 16 March 2018.

  34. 34.

    Author interview with Raymond Gill and Jane Gill, Brooklyn, New York, 18–19 January, 2017; Author interview with Mary Traynor and Elizabeth Traynor, Guntersville, Alabama, 25 February 2018.

  35. 35.

    Margaret Maltby to her family in Ohio, 27 May 1894, Elizabeth Traynor Personal Collection.

  36. 36.

    Letter Margaret E. Maltby to the Secretary of State, 24 May 1909. Margaret E Maltby Passport Application, May 24–25, 1909. Certificate #6536 from Passport Applications, January 2, 1906–March 31, 1925, NARA Microfilm series M1490, Roll 86 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.). Accessed via FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/QKDX-BQLN. Updated 16 March 2018.

  37. 37.

    Author interview with Raymond Gill and Jane Gill. Brooklyn, New York. 18-19 January, 2017.

  38. 38.

    Author interview with Elizabeth Traynor, Guntersville, Alabama, 24–25 February 2018; Elizabeth Traynor email to author 26 November 2018.

  39. 39.

    Author interview with Raymond Gill and Jane Gill. Brooklyn, New York. 18–19 January, 2017.

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Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the invaluable help of Margaret Maltby’s descendants, including Raymond and Jane Gill and Elizabeth and Mary Traynor. Thanks are also due to the Barnard College Archives, Columbia University Archives, MIT Archives and Museum, Oberlin College Archives, Royal Swedish Academy of Science, Smith College Archives, Lake Erie College Archives, and the Wellesley College Archives, as well as Joris Mercelis and the Johns Hopkins Gender History Seminar. This work was made possible by a Research Fellowship of the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine.

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  1. Johns Hopkins University, American Institute of Physics, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Joanna Behrman

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  1. Joanna Behrman
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Correspondence to Joanna Behrman .

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  1. Ernst-Haeckel-Haus, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany

    Christian Forstner

  2. Union College, Schenectady, NY, USA

    Mark Walker

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Behrman, J. (2020). The Personal is Professional: Margaret Maltby’s Life in Physics. In: Forstner, C., Walker, M. (eds) Biographies in the History of Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48509-2_3

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