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Elizabeth Hodges Clark (May 15, 1855 – 1932) was an American museum assistant, secretary and scientific illustrator employed by the Harvard's
Museum of Comparative Zoology The Museum of Comparative Zoology (formally the Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology and often abbreviated to MCZ) is a zoology museum located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of three natural-history r ...
(MCZ) from 1873 to at least 1910. As an assistant, Clark categorized marine specimens and, later, accepted a promotion to become the personal secretary to museum director (and son of the founding director
Louis Louis may refer to: People * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer Other uses * Louis (coin), a French coin * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also ...
)
Alexander Agassiz Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz (December 17, 1835March 27, 1910), son of Louis Agassiz and stepson of Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, was an American scientist and engineer. Biography Agassiz was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and immigrated t ...
, a job which left Clark in charge of the day-to-day management of the MCZ when the younger Agassiz was afield.Museum of Comparative Zoology Harvard University Annual Report 2017-2018 - https://mcz.harvard.edu/files/mcz/files/mcz_ar_2017-2018_final_web.pdf


Learning on the job

Miss Clark's career began when, at age eighteen and without any previous scientific credentials, she was offered and accepted a job at the MCZ sorting marine specimens under the supervision of naturalist
Theodore Lyman Theodore Lyman may refer to: * Theodore B. Lyman (1815–1893), American bishop * Theodore Lyman II (1792–1849), American philanthropist, politician, and author * Theodore Lyman III (1833–1897), American natural scientist, military staff off ...
. "Clark’s great-niece Elizabeth Hodges Clark Beeuwkes would later recall her great aunt’s descriptions of the ''“long counters on which the slimy specimens lay”'' in the museum" and that a senior museum assistant named Elizabeth Lyell Anthony, a fifty-year MCZ veteran, would stand over the younger Elizabeth saying, ''“Do not take off your apron before the bell rings”'' and ''“Do not let Mr. Lyman see you sitting down.”'' At this time museum hierarchy related to gender as well as skill, hence Lyman, a man, set the agenda for his female subordinates. Yet this did not mean that the women never touched anything objects of great significance, for it is believed that Clark very likely helped unpack and inspect the Blaschka glass invertebrates and, possibly, later their younger botanical cousins, the more famous
Glass Flowers The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants (or simply the ''Glass Flowers'') is a collection of highly realistic glass botanical models at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Created by Leopold and Rud ...
.


Alexander Agassiz's right hand

After almost a decade on the job, in 1880, and in testament to her skill, Elizabeth Hodges Clark accepted a promotion as MCZ director Alexander Agassiz's personal secretary. How the relationship between her and Mr. Agassiz began is unknown, but "over time Agassiz would delegate to her more and more of his professional responsibilities. She managed his correspondence, made administrative decisions during his long absences and proofread his scientific publications." For example, in 1891 when Agassiz was abroad, the MCZ ornithologist William Brewster wrote to secretary Clark asking whether valuable museum specimens should be lent, saying "I should hardly venture without your emphatic approval to lend a type and other valuable specimens on such a long journey." Thus, despite the traditionally limited roles women were permitted to play in museums at large at the time, Elizabeth Hodges Clark thoroughly broke that mold in the MCZ to the point that she was Alexander Agassiz's right hand in all professional respects, her close working relationship with him, as detailed by their extensive and since archived correspondences, based upon long friendship and mutual respect. Nor was the exchange of letters limited to Agassiz for, being de facto head of the MCZ in his absence, Miss Clark wrote regularly to the aforementioned William Brewster, who in 1885 was made museum's curator of mammals and birds. Evidence of this respect was made clear beyond the written word when, in the late 1890s, Agassiz offered to furnish a home for her in
Newport, Rhode Island Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and nort ...
where he lived so that she would be on hand during the summer months. She had already "in a somewhat unusual arrangement ... spent her summers installed in the tower room of Agassiz’s summer home in Newport, Rhode Island correcting proofs of his publications", though it is unknown if she ever accepted decided to accept his offer. What is known, however, is that Elizabeth Hodges Clark's employment at the MCZ ended when her friend and boss's life did in 1910. Dying aboard the RMS ''Adriatic'' en route to New York from
Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...
, Alexander Agassiz designated in his will a sizable amount to his right-hand woman; as noted by the ''New York Times'', "Miss Elizabeth H. Clarke of Cambridge, Mass., secretary of Prof. Agassiz receives $25,000 outright, and $5,000 a year for life." This sum was more than twice that bequeathed to Agassiz's two long-term male servants, yet said sum was misreported by half. In reality and as later revealed, Clark's additional annuity was $10,000, more than five times the amount Agassiz bequeathed to his daughter-in-law.“Trusted Aid of Agassiz,” Boston Transcript, ndated quoted in Beeuwkes, A Victorian Secretary.


Personal life

Elizabeth Hodges Clark's private affairs are largely unknown, yet, per census records and despite ignorance regarding her exact salary, it is known that her key position at Harvard allowed her to become her family's breadwinner, supporting her widowed mother and the four children of her siblings, with enough extra to hire a pair of servants in her Garden Street home in
Cambridge, MA Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 U.S. census was 118, ...
. Furthermore, as a person she is described as one of unfailing intelligence and unswerving ability, with the American scientist
Herbert Spencer Jennings Herbert Spencer Jennings (April 8, 1868 – April 14, 1947) was an American zoologist, geneticist, and eugenicist. His research helped demonstrate the link between physical and chemical stimulation and automatic responses in lower orders of ani ...
(then a graduate student in zoology) writing home that, "Miss Clark is very bright and interesting...And as Mr. Agassiz’s secretary she has come in contact with many famous and interesting people, and is a most interesting talker."Herbert Spencer Jennings to Mary Louise Burridge, July 12, 1895, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA. The money Agassiz left her in her will permitted the also described ''"very quiet and unassuming"'' Elizabeth Hodges Clark to "retire comfortably and, for the first time, to have her activities noted in the gossip pages of regional papers like the Boston Daily Globe."


Legacy

Despite her key role in the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology during one of its most important periods, Elizabeth Hodges Clark is largely absent from published records, a fact that can be partly owed to sexism, given that Agassiz's successor Samuel Henshaw barred her from returning to the museum. Only the archived records and letters reveal how crucial she was to the MCZ in its early days.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Elizabeth Hodges Harvard University staff Artists from Cambridge, Massachusetts Museum people 1855 births 1932 deaths