STEM WOMEN
Winifred Edgerton Merrill; 1886, PhD, Mathematics, Columbia University
When she was a child, Winifred Edgerton Merrill’s parents built her a small home observatory. She studied the skies and the stars. She earned the B.A. from Wellesley College in 1883. Later, she applied for admission to Columbia where her enrollment made history. She was granted entrance as “an exceptional student” and cautioned “not to disturb the male students.” She studied mathematics and astronomy, and was required to work as a laboratory assistant to the director of the Columbia observatory.
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In 1886, Winifred Edgerton Merrill was the first woman to receive a degree from Columbia University, and the first American woman to earn a PhD in mathematics. She was awarded a PhD with highest honors.
The New York Times reported that “[n]othing unusual occurred until Miss Winifred Edgerton, A.B., Wellesley College, came to the stage to accept her degree…She was greeted with a terrific round of applause which the gallant students in the body of the house kept up for fully two minutes…She bore herself modestly and well in the face of the applause of the Professors and Trustees on the stage, and the slight flush on her face was perceptible only to those quite near her.”
