Grant, Madeleine P. (Madeleine Parker), 1895-1981

A teacher of biology and zoology, Madeleine Parker Grant was born in Boston on March 1, 1895. The daughter of George Babson Grant and Ellen Henry (Parker) Grant, she received her B.S. from Simmons College (1916), and her M.A. (1924) and Ph.D. (1932) in biology from Radcliffe College. She taught at the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers, the Hudson Shore Labor School, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole (Mass.) before joining the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College, where she spent most of her career. In addition to scholarly books and articles in her field, Grant wrote several books for young adults, including Wonder World of Microbes (Whittlesey House, 1956) and a biography of Louis Pasteur.

In 1959 Grant began a study of Dr. Alice Hamilton, pioneer industrial toxicologist. As she explained in a letter of 27 September 1959 to Frances Perkins, Dr. Grant planned "an unpretentious account of this beloved woman for high school and college freshmen"; although "not a student of labor nor the social settlement," she added, she had through Perkins and others come "to know about the labor movement.... Here at Sarah Lawrence College, I have tried to show the social importance of biology. This explains my interest in Dr. Hamilton...." In researching the biography, Grant worked closely with AH and her sister Margaret Hamilton; some of the materials in this collection were given to Grant by them. Alice Hamilton: Pioneer Doctor in Industrial Medicine was published in 1967 by Abelard-Schuman, although earlier negotiations had been with McGraw-Hill.