Episode 04: Elizabeth Bragg Cumming

 Elizabeth Bragg Cumming arguably was the first woman to receive a degree in engineering from an American university. She was born to a wealthy family in San Francisco, California in 1858. Elizabeth was extremely good at math. She went to the preparatory high school that was attached to the University of California at Berkeley.  And once she finished high school there, she went straight into civil engineering. She paid no mind to people that thought she didn’t belong there because she was a woman, and she graduated in 1876 from the College of Civil Engineering with her Senior Thesis “A Solution of a Peculiar Problem of Surveying.” After graduating she became a teacher until her marriage, at which point she retired from teaching and became a full-time mother and homemaker until 1929 when she passed away at 71 years of age.

Caryatid: Eleanor K. Baum

Eleanor K. Baum, is the first woman to become the Dean of an engineering school in the United States! In 1984, Eleanor was named Dean of Pratt Institute's School of Engineering in New York.  Three years after that, she became Dean of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering at Cooper Union and is now Dean Emeritus. She is also the first woman president of the American Society for Engineering Education, ASEE. In 1990, the Society of Women Engineers awarded her the Upward Mobility Award. In 2007, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

History of UC Berkeley Engineering

“Milestones.” Berkeley Engineering, 2020 UC Regents, 26 Feb. 2020, https://engineering.berkeley.edu/about/milestones/

References

“10 Female Engineers Who Helped Pave the Way.” BachelorsDegreeOnline.Com, www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2012/10-female-engineers-who-helped-pave-the-way. Accessed 4 Dec. 2019.

American Association of University Women. “Journal of the American Association of University Women.” Google Books, Sept. 1916, books.google.nl/books?id=aHlUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA89&dq=elizabeth+bragg+cummings&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=elizabeth%20bragg%20cummings&f=false.

“Baum, Eleanor K.” National Women’s Hall of Fame, www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/eleanor-k-baum. Accessed 22 July 2020.

Coltrane, Jenn Wilson. “Index of the Rolls of Honor (Ancestor’s Index) in the Lineage Books of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Volumes 1 to 160.” Google Books, The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1920, books.google.nl/books?id=7NJKAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA27&lpg=RA1-PA27&dq=Mary+Philbrook+bragg+san+francisco&source=bl&ots=RqazlEHIDn&sig=ACfU3U15Sb18yBbqvYpah-pByXey-CtRvQ&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Mary%20Philbrook%20bragg%20san%20francisco&f=false.

d’Wylde, Marge . “150 Years and Counting: Co-Education and the College of Chemistry.” Catalyst Magazine, 16 June 2020, catalyst.berkeley.edu/2020/05/27/150-years-and-counting.

H. Dutton, Arthur. “San Francisco Call 8 December 1912 — California Digital Newspaper Collection.” CDN UCR, 8 Dec. 1912, cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19121208.1.6&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1.

Hoag, Charles C. “San Francisco Blue Book; the Fashionable Private Address Directory, San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley-Alameda.” Google Books, Charles C Hoag, Editor and Publisher 225 Post Street, 1902, books.google.nl/books?id=Org1AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA153&lpg=PA153&dq=robert+bragg+san+francisco+blue+book&source=bl&ots=dNpC7AyGcT&sig=ACfU3U2Vxol-7eQwG6ANEiw2TX_lK1VN-g&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=robert%20bragg%20san%20francisco%20blue%20book&f=false.

Humphreys, Sheila. “A Salute to Early Women in STEM at UC Berkeley.” Department Newsletter, Berkeley EECS, 2 Mar. 2020, newsletter.eecs.berkeley.edu/2019/03/a-salute-to-early-women-in-stem-at-uc-berkeley.

Lorentson, Callie. “Spotlight on Women in Electrical Engineering: Eleanor K. Baum | Powerstudies.Com.” Power Studies Inc, 27 Sept. 2017, www.powerstudies.com/blog/spotlight-women-electrical-engineering-eleanor-k-baum.

“Milestones.” Berkeley Engineering, 2020 UC Regents, 26 Feb. 2020, engineering.berkeley.edu/about/milestones.

San Francisco Chronicle. “George Marion Cummings.” Newspapers.Com, 24 Dec. 1916, www.newspapers.com/clip/14242107/george-marion-cummings.

Weingardt, Richard. “Engineering Legends.” Engineering Legends, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2005, pp. 192–93. ascelibrary, ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/%28ASCE%29LM.1943-5630.0000082.

Wikipedia contributors. “Eleanor K. Baum.” Wikipedia, 18 June 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_K._Baum.

Image:

d’Wylde, Marge . Portrait of Elizabeth Bragg Cumming. Catalyst Magazine, 16 June 2020, catalyst.berkeley.edu/2020/05/27/150-years-and-counting. www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/mla-8/cite-digital-image-mla-8/