Elinor Ewbank

Students of Lady Margaret Hall in 1901. Elinor Ewbank is fourth from left in back row

Elinor Katharine Ewbank (1880 – 1958) was an English chemist and archaeologist.

Early life and education

She was born on 19 October 1880 at Ryde, the eldest of three daughters of vicar Henry Ewbank and his wife Louisa, née Wollaston.[1]

Educated at Highfield School, Hendon, she studied chemistry at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford from 1899 to 1903.[2] She was one of the first women admitted to degrees at the University of Oxford when Oxford began granting degrees to women in 1920.

Scientific career and archaeology

Ewbank carried out chemical research with Edward C. C. Baly at the Spectroscopy Laboratory of University College, London, co-authoring two papers with him in 1905.[1]

From 1919 – 20, she worked in the organic chemistry research division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.[1] From 1921, she frequently collaborated with Nevil Sidgwick on salts and metal compounds.

In 1929, she worked as a surveyor at Dorothy Garrod's first season of excavation at Mount Carmel. Garrod, her fellow Oxford alumna, had assembled a team of mostly women including Mary Kitson Clark, Harriet M. Allyn and Martha Hackett.[3][4]

In the 1930s she remained in Israel, researching at the Department of Biochemistry and Colloidal Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[1]

Personal life and death

During World War I, Ewbank volunteered as a nurse with the British Red Cross, treating Russian and Italian troops.[1][5]

She was an amateur needlework artist and executed designs by her relative, the artist Duncan Grant.[6][7]

She died in Oxford on 21 January 1958.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Rayner-canham, Marelene; Rayner-canham, Geoff (2019-12-30). Pioneering British Women Chemists: Their Lives And Contributions. World Scientific. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-78634-770-1.
  2. ^ Fishwick-Ford, Jamie. "Oxford LibGuides: Lady Margaret Hall Library: Early Science". libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  3. ^ Hamilton, Sue; Whitehouse, Ruth D.; Wright, Katherine I. (2016-09-16). Archaeology and Women: Ancient and Modern Issues. Routledge. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-315-43411-7.
  4. ^ Adams, Amanda (2010). Ladies of the Field: Early Women Archaeologists and Their Search for Adventure. Greystone Books Ltd. p. 175. ISBN 978-1-55365-433-9.
  5. ^ "Life story: Elinor K Ewbank | Lives of the First World War". livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
  6. ^ Spalding, Frances (2011-04-30). Duncan Grant. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4090-2938-0.
  7. ^ Council, British (1942). Exhibition of Modern British Crafts. British Council, London. p. 60.