Millicent Todd Bingham (1880–1968), was an American geographer and the first woman to receive a doctorate in geology and geography from Harvard. She was also a leading expert on the poet
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry.
Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...
.
Biography
Born Millicent Todd on February 5, 1880, in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, she was the only child of highly accomplished parents, astronomer
David Peck Todd
David Peck Todd (March 19, 1855 — June 1, 1939) was an American astronomer. He produced a complete set of photographs of the 1882 transit of Venus.
Biography
Todd was born in Lake Ridge, New York, the son of Sereno Edwards Todd and Rhoda (Pec ...
and writer and editor
Mabel Loomis Todd.
Millicent attended Mrs. Stearns' School in
Amherst, Massachusetts, and Miss Hersey's School for Girls in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, founded by
Heloise Hersey Heloise Edwina Hersey (1855-1933) was an American scholar of Anglo-Saxon language and literature. A graduate of Vassar College and the first female professor of Anglo-Saxon studies in the United States, she was appointed at Smith College in 1878.
...
, before beginning her university studies at
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...
,
Poughkeepsie, New York
Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsi ...
, where she was awarded a B.A. in liberal arts in 1902. For a short time, she became an instructor of French, first at Vassar (1902-1904) and then at
Wellesley College (1906-1907). During her years of travels with her family, she studied at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
,
University of Paris
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
(1905-1906), and at the
University of Berlin
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...
(1909-1910).
After returning to Massachusetts she earned her M.A. in geography at
Radcliffe College,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...
in 1917 and then left for Europe that same year to join the war-relief efforts there and worked at a hospital as part of the women’s auxiliary of the YMCA, and lectured to American soldiers at the
University of Grenoble
The Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA, French: meaning "''Grenoble Alps University''") is a public research university in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 resea ...
, about the geography of France as part of the U.S. Army Education Corps.
She married psychologist
Walter Van Dyke Bingham
Walter Van Dyke Bingham (1880–1952) was an applied and industrial psychologist who made significant contributions to intelligence testing. A pioneer in applied psychology, Bingham got his start in experimental psychology, receiving his Ph.D. at ...
(1880–1952) on December 4, 1920,
and she earned her Ph.D. at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1923. By doing so, she became the first woman at Harvard to earn a doctorate in geology and geography.
Geographer
Millicent Bingham's early interest in geography was encouraged by her father, an astronomy professor at
Amherst College known as an "
eclipse chaser," a passion that took him around the world. As a young woman, she accompanied him on international astronomical expeditions, traveling to the
Dutch East Indies (1901),
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
(1905),
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
and
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
(1907), and
Kiev, Ukraine (1914).
Later, her doctoral dissertation was based on her research about of Peru's rugged and varied geography. Millicent worked with French geographer Raoul Blanchard on his theories of regional geography, and helped to translate his seminar The Geography of France. In the late 1940s, she was nominated for membership in the Association of American Geographers.
Dickinson scholar
![Black-white photograph of Emily Dickinson2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Black-white_photograph_of_Emily_Dickinson2.png)
In 1931, after Millicent returned from an international geographical congress in Paris, her mother revealed that she was in possession of a Chinese camphorwood chest containing more than 600 unpublished poems and letters written by the recluse,
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry.
Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...
.
By that time her mother, Mabel Loomis Todd had collaborated with
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson (December 22, 1823May 9, 1911) was an American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, politician, and soldier. He was active in the American Abolitionism movement during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with ...
to edit and publish many Dickinson works after the poet's death in 1886. (During Dickinson's lifetime, only a dozen poems and letters were published.
) However, for more than 30 years, because of her complex relationships with members of the Dickinson family, Mabel declined to publish an of the poems or letters in her possession.
In 1931, Mabel asked Millicent to help her publish the remaining poems and letters, but Mabel died soon thereafter, in 1932. According to archives at Yale, after her mother's death, Bingham very reluctantly
"abandoned her career in geography to begin what became a personal crusade to publish Emily Dickinson's manuscripts and to bolster Mabel Loomis Todd's reputation as the person most responsible for bringing Emily Dickinson's poetry to public attention."
As a result of Bingham's research, editorial work and publishing efforts, she authored three books about the life and work of Emily Dickinson, and one further book of her poetry.
A voluminous collection of Bingham's papers is housed at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
.
Conservationist
From her mother, Bingham inherited two properties, which she donated for public use. She bequeathed an 87-acre wooded area, located on
Mount Orient
Mount Orient, , is a south-facing high point on an upland plateau overlooking the Connecticut River Valley in Pelham, Massachusetts (near Amherst, Massachusetts). Although the summit is wooded, a lower, south-facing ledge of exfoliating metamorph ...
in
Pelham, Massachusetts
Pelham is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,280 at the 2020 census. Its ZIP Code is shared with Amherst.
Pelham is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
P ...
, to Amherst College in 1960 as the Mabel Loomis Todd Forest. Her mother had purchased the tract in 1909 hoping to "preserve it from commercial exploitation."
The larger gift surrounded the Todd family retreat on
Hog Island in
Muscongus Bay
Muscongus Bay is a bay on the coast of Maine, United States, between Penobscot Bay and John's Bay. Muscongus was the name of an Abenaki village meaning "fishing place" or "many r largerock ledges." John Smith recorded the river in 1616 as Nusc ...
, Maine. Bingham presented the property to the
National Audubon Society, to be called the Todd Wildlife Sanctuary, as a perpetual preserve in 1960.
According to Morgan, Bingham's donations have cemented her role as a lifelong conservationist.
Later years
Bingham received honorary degrees from
Dickinson College in 1952, and from Amherst College in 1957.
In 1959, reflecting on the diverse directions her career had taken, Bingham wrote the following in the ''Radcliffe Quarterly.''
During the work of a quarter of a century and more I have discovered one supreme fact, namely that in renouncing my study of the wonder and mystery of creation, the mystery has not departed. Emily Dickinson remains. The wonder as revealed in earth and sea and sky is not as remote from the life of one woman in a New England village as it might seem.
Bingham died in Washington, D.C., on December 1, 1968, at age 88 and is buried at
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
in Virginia next to her husband, a
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
veteran.
Selected works
Bingham published works on subjects that included geography, Emily Dickinson, psychology, friends and family.
* Bingham, Millicent Todd. ''Peru: A Land of Contrasts''. Little, Brown, and Company, 1914.
*
Blanchard, Raoul, and Millicent Todd Bingham (translator). ''Geography of France''. Rand McNally, 1919.
*Bingham, Millicent Todd. "Solar eclipse photography." ''Popular Astronomy'' 31 (1923): 631.
* Vidal de La Blache, Paul, Emmanuel de Martonne, and Millicent Todd Bingham (translator). "Principles of human geography." (1926).
* Bingham, Millicent Todd. ''Mabel Loomis Todd, Her Contributions to the Town of Amherst''. Priv. print.
eorge Grady Press 1935.
* Todd, Mabel Loomis, and Millicent Todd Bingham. ''Bolts of Melody: New Poems of Emily Dickinson''. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945.
* Bingham, Millicent Todd, and Emily Dickinson. "Poems of Emily Dickinson: Hitherto Published Only in Part." ''New England Quarterly'' (1947): 3-50.
* Bingham, Millicent Todd. "Miami: A Study in Urban Geography." ''Tequesta'' 9 (1948): 73–107.
* Bingham, Millicent Todd. "Emily Dickinson's Handwriting—A Master Key." ''New England Quarterly'' (1949): 229–234.
* Bingham, Millicent Todd. "Beyond psychology." ''Homo sapiens auduboniensis: A tribute to Walter Van Dyke Bingham'' (1953): 5-29.
* Bingham, Millicent Todd. "Prose Fragments of Emily Dickinson." ''New England Quarterly'' (1955): 291–318.
* Bingham, Millicent Todd. ''Emily Dickinson's Home: The Early Years as Revealed in Family Correspondence and Reminiscences''. New York, Dover, 1955.
* Todd, Mabel Loomis, and Millicent Todd Bingham. ''The Thoreau Family Two Generations Ago.(Foreword and Footnotes by Millicent Todd Bingham.)
ith a Portrait.'. Berkeley Heights, NJ, 1958.
* Bingham, Millicent Todd. "Key West in the Summer of 1864." ''The Florida Historical Quarterly'' 43.3 (1965): 262–265.
* Bingham, Millicent Todd. ''Ancestors' Brocades: The Literary Discovery of Emily Dickinson, the Editing and Publication of Her Letters and Poems''. Vol. 1773. New York: Dover Publications, 1967.
References
External links
Bingham Archives at Yale University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bingham, Millicent Todd
1880 births
1968 deaths
Emily Dickinson
American geographers
20th-century geographers
Women geographers
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American scientists
Scientists from Washington, D.C.
Vassar College alumni
Radcliffe College alumni