Gage, Susanna Phelps (1857–1915)
Gage, Susanna Phelps (1857–1915)
American embryologist and comparative anatomist. Name variations: Susanna Stewart Phelps Gage; Susanna Stewart Phelps; Mrs. S.H. Gage. Born Susanna Stewart Phelps, Dec 26, 1857, in Morrisville, NY; died Oct 15, 1915; dau. of Mary Austin Phelps (schoolteacher) and Henry S. Phelps (businessman); Cornell University, PhB, 1880; m. Simon Henry Gage (Cornell University professor), Dec 15, 1881; children: Henry Phelps Gage (physicist, inventor, and head of the Optical Laboratory at Corning Glass, 1911–47).
The 1st woman at Cornell University to engage in laboratory work in physics, conducted independent research in embryology and comparative anatomy; engaged in neurological studies at Johns Hopkins University's medical school and at Harvard University's medical school; published work on comparative morphology (of muscle fibers and the brain); illustrated scientific papers for Dr. Burt G. Wilder and for Simon Henry Gage (husband); elected an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow (1910); was a member of the Association of American Anatomists. Honors include stars in the American Men of Science (2nd edition) and the establishment after her death of Cornell University's Susanna Phelps Gage Fund for Research in Physics by husband and son.