Edith Clarke (1883-1959)
MSA SC 3520-14065
Brief Biography:
Born in Howard County, Maryland. Attended Vassar College (math), graduated 1908; University of Wisconsin (electrical engineering); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (electrical engineering), M.S.
Math teacher. Computor, AT&T, New York; General Electric
Company. Patented invention of graphical calculator for use in
the solution of electric power transmission problems. Physics
instructor, Constantinople Women's College in Turkey, one year.
Engineer, Central Station Engineering
Department, General Electric Company. First woman to be accepted
as
a full voting member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers
(AIEE,
which became IEEE in 1963). First Fellow, AIEE, 1948; the first
woman
to be so honored. Author or co-author of nineteen technical
papers
between 1923 and 1951. Author, Circuit Analysis of A. C.
Systems.
Professor, University of Texas at Austin (first woman to teach in the
engineering
department), 1947. Retired, 1956. Member, Phi Beta Kappa
honor
society. Recipient, Society of Women Engineer's Achievement
Award,
1954. Honoree, American National Biography, Notable
American Women of the Modern Period, Women of Achievement in Maryland
History,
published 2002. Inductee, Maryland Women's Hall of Fame, 2003.
Extended Biography:
Born in the nineteenth century when women of a certain social class
were
not expected to work, Edith Clarke broke free of binding
stereotypes
to join the cutting edge of the information revolution of the twentieth
century.
As an electrical engineer for General Electric (GE), Clarke spent
twenty
years improving power systems. Then, as a professor at the University
of Texas at Austin, Clarke wrote a textbook that became the standard of
her
field. Her story is an inspiration for women in a field still
dominated
by men.
On February 10, 1883, Edith Clarke was born on a four-hundred acre
farm about three miles from Ellicott City in Howard County, Maryland.
One of nine children in a prosperous family, Edith enjoyed a
typical, upper middle class upbringing in rural Maryland. While
the Civil War brought disruptions and tragedy to the family, Edith's
childhood was remarkably similar to that of generations before her.
She was expected to grow up to be a charming hostess, gracious
wife, and loving mother. To that end, she was sent to Briarley
Hall, a boarding school for girls in Montgomery County, Maryland.
There, for the most part, she received a typical education.
Upon graduating at the age of sixteen, Edith could play a little
piano, speak a
little French, and knew a smattering of classic English literature,
history and Latin. What was atypical was the strenuous grounding
in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry that she gained in school.
These talents were the foundation of her most unusual career.1
After graduation, Edith returned home. Sadly, she had been
orphaned at an early age and was under the care of relatives. As
she sorted out
what would come next in her life, Edith continued reading and studying;
she
was especially interested in foreign countries and travel, and began to
teach
herself Greek. Against the advice of her family and friends,
Edith
decided to use a small inheritance to attend Vassar College.2 As a member of the first generation
of women in America to attend college in serious numbers, Edith was an
oddity
at home, but found many kindred spirits upon arriving at Vassar.
She
began when she was eighteen, threw herself into the pleasures of co-ed
life,
majored in math and astronomy, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1908.3 After graduation, Edith taught
school,
first at a private institution in San Francisco, then at Marshall
College
in Huntington, West Virginia. However, teaching was not quite the
profession Edith
had in mind, so she began casting about for something else to do.4
In the fall of 1911, Edith Clarke enrolled at the University of
Wisconsin
as a civil engineering student. While she already had a degree,
she
was classified as an undergraduate for her course work. Edith
quickly
re-embraced college life; she joined the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma and
won
a tennis championship in women's doubles.5
The summer after her first year, Edith took a job that changed
her
life. She worked as a "computer assistant" to Dr. George Campbell
at
AT&T in Boston. While she had planned to return to Wisconsin
to
finish her program, Edith found the work so interesting that she stayed
on
for six years, training and directing a group of computors. She
eventually
enrolled in the electrical engineering program at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1919, Edith
Clarke became the first woman to earn a Master of Science degree in
electrical engineering
at MIT.6
Degree in hand, Clarke began to look for permanent work as an
electrical
engineer. Unfortunately, she was unable to find an engineering
position,
so she settled in at General Electric (GE) as a "computor." There
she
worked in a separate women's division within the Turbine Engineering
Department,
training and supervising women who calculated the mechanical stresses
in
turbines.7 While working there,
she
filed for her first patent, for a graphical calculator used to solve
electric
power transmission line computations. Frustrated that she was not
a
salaried engineer at GE, Clarke took time off for a position at
Constantinople
Women's College in Turkey in 1921. There, she combined her love
of
travel with the more practical work of teaching physics to eager young
women.
When her contract ended, she took four months to travel in
Europe,
spending time in Austria, Germany, Holland, and England. In 1922,
Clarke
returned to General Electric and, at the age of thirty-nine, finally
got
a full-time position as an electrical engineer. She found the
work
so compelling that she stayed until retirement in 1945.8 After publishing her first paper in 1923, titled
"Transmission
Line Calculator," she was the first woman to deliver a paper at the
American
Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) in 1926.9
In her work for the Central Station Engineering Department of GE in
Schenectady, New York, Clarke created calculators to monitor and
predict the performance
of electrical transmission lines. She also developed 60-cycle
performance
charts that became the standard for the industry. In her work,
she
received at least two more patents, one for electric power transmission
in
1927 and the other for an electric circuit in 1944. She also
published
the two-volume text, Circuit Analysis of A-C Power Systems, in
1943.
The work quickly became the main textbook for new engineers.10
In 1945, when Edith Clarke retired to her farm in rural Maryland,
she
thought she would retreat from the discipline that had held her
attention
for so long. However, when she was offered a professorship at the
University
of Texas in Austin, she could not refuse and became the first female
professor
of engineering at Texas and perhaps in the country. She happily
taught
for ten years at the university. When she retired for the second
time
in 1956, she was widely recognized as an authority on electric power
systems.
While at the University of Texas, Clarke was also a consultant on
the
design of a number of dams in the West.11
Clarke spent the last few years of her life on her farm in
Maryland
and passed away October of 1959 at the age of 76. When
Clarke
left Texas, she was interviewed about her significant career for the New
York Times. The reporter for the piece commented that "she
believes
that women may help solve today's critical need for technical manpower."12 The woman who had once been
expected
to host teas and play piano had indeed proven that women could answer
the
twentieth century's need for "technical manpower."
Throughout her career, Clarke was honored by men and women alike.
She
was the first woman to earn professional standing in Tau Beta Pi, the
nation's
largest and oldest electrical engineering fraternity. She also
published
numerous papers in the AIEE Transactions and General
Electric Review.
Through these publications she won two important awards from AIEE
(now
IEEE): the Best Regional Paper Prize in 1932 and the Best National
Paper
Prize in 1941. In addition, she was the first woman elected as a
fellow
of the AIEE. At the end of her career, she was given an award
from
the Society of Women Engineers for outstanding contributions to the
field,
and she was listed in Who's Who in Engineering, American Women,
Careers
for Women, Women Can Be Engineers, and Men of Science.13
She was posthumously inducted into the Maryland
Women's Hall of Fame in 2003. Her early fascination with math
and
a daring decision to attend college ended with a true contribution to
the
scientific advancements of the twentieth century.
Endnotes:
1. Goff, Alice C., Women Can Be Engineers.
Edwards Brothers Inc: Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1946. pp. 51-65.
return
to text
2. Hoffman, Mary Ann. "Women's History
Month:
Edith Clarke." IEEE History Center. October 8, 2002.
http://www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/clarke.html.
return to text
3. Yale University. "Past Notable Women of Computing." The Ada Project. http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/past-women-cs.html#Edith%20Clarke. return to text
4. Goff. return to text
5. Ibid. return to text
6. Yale University. "Past Notable Women of Computing." The Ada Project. http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/past-women-cs.html#Edith%20Clarke. return to text
7. Oldenziel, Ruth. Making
Technology
Masculine: Men Women and Machines in America, 1870-1945.
Amsterdam:
Amsterdam University Press, 1999. return to text
8. IEEE. "Edith Clarke." IEEE
Virtual
Museum. http://www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/collection/people.php?taid=&id=1234747&lid=1.
return to text
9. Liu, Yilu. "Edith Clarke: A
Calculating
Woman." Virtual Museum of Virginia Tech. http://www.ee.vt.edu/~museum/women/clarke/index.html.
return to text
10. Stanley, Autumn, Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology. The Scarecrow Press, Inc.: Metuchen, New Jersey, 1993. return to text
11. Faculty Council. "In Memoriam:
Edith
Clarke." The Universtiy of Texas at Austin. http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/2000-2001/memorials/AMR/Clarke/clarke.html.
return to text
12. Yale University. "Past Notable
Women
of Computing." The Ada Project. http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/past-women-cs.html#Edith%20Clarke.
return to text
13. Faculty Council. "In Memoriam:
Edith
Clarke." The Universtiy of Texas at Austin. http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/2000-2001/memorials/AMR/Clarke/clarke.html.
return to text
Extended biography written by 2004 summer intern, Amy Hobbs.
Return to Edith Clarke's Introductory Page
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