Elizabeth Kite (1864–6 January 1954) was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

specializing in Franco-American history.

Life and work

Elizabeth Sarah Kite was born to a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

family in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

in 1864. She attended a Quaker

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,671 at the 2020 census. West ...

and then studied abroad for six years, during which time she converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. When she returned to the United States, Kite taught in private schools in three different states. From 1912 to 1918, she participated in

psychological research Psychological research refers to research that psychologists conduct for systematic study and for analysis of the experiences and behaviors of individuals or groups. Their research can have educational, occupational and clinical application ...

at the Vineland Training School for Feeble-Minded Girls and Boys in

Vineland, New Jersey Vineland is a City (New Jersey), city and the most populous municipality in Cumberland County, New Jersey, Cumberland County, within the U.S. state of New Jersey. Bridgeton, New Jersey, Bridgeton and Vineland are the two principal cities of the ...

. She helped to research the psychologist and

eugenicist Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetics, genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human Phenotype, phenotypes by ...

Henry H. Goddard Henry Herbert Goddard (August 14, 1866 – June 18, 1957) was an American psychologist, eugenicist, and segregationist during the early 20th century. He is known especially for his 1912 work '' The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Fe ...

's seminal book '' The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness'' in which Goddard argued that variety of mental traits were hereditary and society should limit reproduction by people possessing these traits. Kite also translated a book by the French psychologists,

Alfred Binet Alfred Binet (; ; 8 July 1857 – 18 October 1911), born Alfredo Binetti, was a French psychologist who together with Théodore Simon invented the first practical intelligence test, the Binet–Simon test. In 1904, Binet took part in a comm ...

and

Théodore Simon Théodore Simon (; 10 July 1873 – 4 September 1961) was a French psychiatrist who worked with Alfred Binet to develop the Binet-Simon Intelligence Test, one of the most widely used scales in the world for measuring intelligence. This scale w ...

, ''The Intelligence of the Feeble-minded'' () in 1916. During this time, she began researching Franco-American topics and published ''Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence'' in 1917. A dozen years later she wrote ''L’Enfant and Washington'', and in 1931, ''Correspondence of General Washington and Compte de Grasse'' was published. Two years later Kite wrote ''Lebegre Duportail, Comdt. of Engineers, 1777–1783''. In 1934, she wrote ''Lafayette and His Companions in the Victorie'', followed by ''The Catholic Part in the Making of America'' two years later. Kite was instrumental in placing photostats of documents from the French Revolution in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

, for which she was awarded the

Légion d’honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in the grade of ''Chevalier''. Kite died in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

on 6 January 1954.Scanlon & Cosner, p. 136

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kite, Elizabeth 1864 births 1954 deaths American women historians Writers from Philadelphia Historians from Pennsylvania 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women writers Knights of the Legion of Honour