Cornelia Maria Clapp was born on March 17, 1849, in Montague, Massachusetts, to Richard and Erica Slate Clapp. She graduated from Mount Holyoke Seminary in 1871 and went on to study at Syracuse University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and finally the University of Chicago where she received a Ph.D. in 1896. She was a professor of zoology at Mount Holyoke College from 1904 through 1916. When she retired, she continued doing research at the Marine Biological Laboratories in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and published numerous research papers in biology journals. In 1924, the new science building at Mount Holyoke College was named after her. Cornelia M. Clapp died on December 31, 1934, in Mount Dora, Florida.
From the guide to the Clapp papers MS 0520., 1868-1986., (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)
