Virginia Frances Babcock was born on September 25, 1909 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her parents were Bertram Babcock, who was a purchasing agent for an electric company, and Emma Denham Babcock, a concert violinist and violin teacher. Virginia graduated from high school in Worcester and attended Mount Holyoke College from 1927-1931. She received her B.A. in 1931 with a major in zoology. From 1931-1933 she was a graduate student and graduate assistant in the Zoology Department at Mount Holyoke and received her M.A. in zoology in 1933. She also did graduate work at Sarah Lawrence College, Teacher's College of Columbia University and Harvard University. From 1933 until her retirement in 1973 she taught science, specializing in biology, at Bronxville Senior School in Bronxville, New York. She was eighty-seven when she died on August 22, 1997 in New York City.
From the guide to the Babcock papers MS 0796., ca. 1890-1997, 1927-1952, (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)
