{{short description|American zoologist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Mary Alice Willcox | image = MaryAliceWillcox1915.png | image_size = | alt = An older white woman wearing pince-nez glasses and a dark, high-collared blouse or dress with white lace trim and smocking detail on the shoulders | caption = Mary Alice Willcox, from a 1915 yearbook | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1856|4|24}} | birth_place = Kennebunk, Maine | death_date = {{death date and age|1953|6|4|1856|4|24}} | death_place = Pocasset, Massachusetts | residence = | education = {{ubl|Newnham College, Cambridge|University of Zurich}} | fields = {{hlist|Ornithology|Malacology}} | workplaces = Wellesley College }} '''Mary Alice Willcox''' (April 24, 1856 – June 4, 1953) was an American zoologist and professor at Wellesley College.<ref name=Creese2000/>
== Early life and education == In 1856, Mary was born in Kennebunk, Maine, the eldest of three children of the congregational minister William H. Willcox and his wife Annie Holmes née Goodenow. Theirs was a distinguished family in Maine; her great grandfather, John Holmes, was one of the state's first senators, while her grandfather, Daniel Goodenow, was a justice of the Supreme Court of Maine. Her brother, Walter Francis Willcox, became a professor of economics and statistics at Cornell University.<ref name=Lindberg1977/><ref name=Bromwell/>
Soon after her birth, the family moved to Reading, Massachusetts,<ref name=Creese2000/> where Mary studied at Salem State Normal School in 1875. She taught at the Frederick Female Seminary in Maryland, 1875–1876, and Charlestown High School in Boston, 1876–1878.<ref name=Ogilvie2000/> During the summers of 1877 and 1878, she attended the marine laboratory of Alexander Agassiz.<ref name=Creese2000/> She studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Boston Society of Natural History from 1878 to 1880.<ref name=Leonard1914/>
For her undergraduate education, in 1880 Willcox traveled to England and studied at Newnham College. She completed her studies in 1883, but, at the time, Cambridge University did not grant degrees to women.<ref name=Ogilvie2000/>
== Career == thumb|left|Teaching in 1883 With the help of her father, Willcox gained a position in the zoology department at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Her mother, however, regretted the decision since it meant "giving up all possibilities of marriage".<ref name="Palmieri1997" /> Very little in the way of zoological course work had been developed at Wellesley to that point, and Willcox had the task of essentially building a zoology department from scratch. She introduced a number of innovative teaching methods.<ref name="Lindberg1977" /> For a time, her department became one of the foremost in the country, attracting a number of women who would become productive zoologists.<ref name="Creese2000" /> Her interest during this period was in ornithology, and in 1895 she published ''Pocket Guide to the Common Land Birds of New England''.<ref name="Lindberg1977" />
To improve her job security at Wellesley, in 1896 Willcox took a leave of absence to study for a Ph.D. at the University of Zurich.<ref name="Singer2003" /> In 1898 she was at the Naples Zoological Station.<ref name="Ogilvie2000" /> She completed her degree program in 1898 with a dissertation ''On the Anatomy of Acmaea fragilis (Chemnitz)'',<ref name="Singer2003" /> and was allowed to return to her position at Wellesley as head of the department.<ref name="Creese2000" /> Much of her research at the college was on comparative anatomy of molluscs, a phylum of invertebrate animals, and of Acmaeidae, a family of sea snails.<ref name="Ogilvie2000" /> She authored a number of scientific papers in zoological publications.<ref name="Leonard1914" /> Her last paper, published in 1906, was on the anatomy of ''Acmaea'' ''testudinalis''.<ref name="Lindberg1977" />
Willcox retired in 1910 as professor emeritus, supposedly as a result of poor health.<ref name=Creese2000/> The exact cause is unclear, but a 1928 letter mentioned rheumatism.<ref name=Lindberg1977/> Following retirement she became active in the League of Women Voters, Federation of Women's Clubs, National Audubon Society, and the Boston Society of Natural History. She died at her home in Pocasset, Massachusetts, some 43 years after her retirement.<ref name=Ogilvie2000/>
==Bibliography== {{Div col|small=yes|colwidth=20em}} * ''Pocket Guide to the Common Land Birds of New England'' (1895) * ''Anatomy of the Grasshopper'' (1896) * ''Anatomy of the May Beetle'' (1896) * ''Directions for the Practical Study of the Grasshopper'' (1896) * ''Zur Anatomie von Acmaea Fragilis Chemnitz'' (On the Anatomy of Acmaea Fragilis Chemnitz) (1898) * ''Notes on the Occipital Region of the Trout, Trutta Fario'' (1899) * ''On the Making of Solutions'' (1899) * ''Hermaphroditism among the Docoglossa'' (1900) * ''A parasitic or commensal oligochaete in New England'' (1901) * ''Some disputed points about the anatomy of limpets'' (1901) * ''Biology of Acmaea testudinalis Muller'' (1905) * ''Homing of Fissurella and Siphonaria'' (1905) * ''Anatomy of Acmaea testudinalis Muller. Part I. Introductory Material-External Anatomy'' (1906) * ''The American Baedeker'' (1913) * ''The Immigrant's Guide to the United States: The Little Green Book and how it is Used in the Schools'' (1913) {{Div col end}}
==References== <references>
<ref name=Leonard1914>{{citation | postscript=. | title=Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada | series=Gerritsen collection of women's history | editor1-first=John William | editor1-last=Leonard | publisher=American Commonwealth Company | volume=1 | year=1914 | page=886 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COsLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA886 }}</ref>
<ref name=Singer2003>{{citation | title=Adventures Abroad: North American Women at German-speaking Universities, 1868-1915 | issue=201 | journal=Contributions in Women's Studies | first1=Sandra L. | last1=Singer | postscript=. | publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group | year=2003 | isbn=9780313323713 | page=111 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Llyixb94lcC&pg=PA111 }}</ref>
<ref name=Ogilvie2000>{{citation | title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z | first1=Marilyn Bailey | last1=Ogilvie | first2=Joy Dorothy | last2=Harvey | author-link=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie | author2-link=Joy Harvey| postscript=. | publisher=Taylor & Francis | volume=2 | year=2000 | page=1380 | isbn=9780415920407 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTSYePZvSXYC&pg=PA1380 }}</ref>
<ref name=Palmieri1997>{{citation | title=In Adamless Eden: The Community of Women Faculty at Wellesley | first1=Patricia Ann | last1=Palmieri | publisher=Yale University Press | postscript=. | isbn=9780300063882 | year=1997 | page=65 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nGgWlK9Pk1MC&pg=PA65 }}</ref>
<ref name=Creese2000>{{citation | postscript=. | title=Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research | first1=Mary R.S. | last1=Creese | publisher=Scarecrow Press | year=2000 | isbn=9780585276847 | pages=89−91 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=amtGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 }}</ref>
<ref name=Bromwell>{{citation | title=The Bromwell Genealogy | postscript=. | first1=Henrietta Elizabeth | last1=Bromwell | author-link1=Henrietta Bromwell | year=1910 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4wE3AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA125 }}</ref>
<ref name=Lindberg1977>{{citation | first=David R. | last=Lindberg | author-link=David R. Lindberg | title=Mary Alice Willcox, 1856-1953 | work=Annual Report | volume=10 | date= 1977 | publisher=The Western Society of Malacologists | pages=16–17 | url=https://archive.org/details/annualreport710197477west/page/16 | postscript=. }}</ref>
</references>
==External links== * [https://archive.org/details/pocketguidetocom00will Pocket guide to the common land birds of New England] (1895) * [https://archive.org/details/zuranatomievonac00will Zur Anatomie von Acmaea fragilis Chemnitz] (1898) *{{Internet Archive author|sname=Mary Alice Willcox|sopt=t}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willcox, Mary Alice}} Category:1856 births Category:1953 deaths Category:People from Kennebunk, Maine Category:Wellesley College faculty Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:University of Zurich alumni Category:American malacologists Category:19th-century American zoologists Category:19th-century American women biologists Category:20th-century American zoologists Category:American women academics Category:19th-century American women Category:Biologists from Maine Category:20th-century American women biologists