Smith, Erminnie A. Platt (1836–1886)

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Smith, Erminnie A. Platt (1836–1886)

American ethnologist . Born Ermina Adele Platt on April 26, 1836, in Marcellus, New York; died of heart disease and a cerebral embolism on June 9, 1886; daughter of Joseph Platt (a farmer and Presbyterian deacon) and Ermina (Dodge) Platt; graduated from Troy Female Seminary in New York, 1853; studied at universities in Strassburg and Heidelberg, Germany, and attended the School of Mines in Freiburg, Germany; married Simeon H. Smith (a lumber dealer), in 1855; children: Simeon, Willard, Carlton, and Eugene.

Was the first woman to practice in the field of ethnology; was the first woman elected a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences (1885); was the first woman to hold an office (secretary of the anthropology section) in the American Association for the Advancement of Science; became a member of the London Scientific Society.

Erminnie (originally Ermina) A. Platt Smith was the ninth of ten children born to Ermina Dodge Platt and Joseph Platt, a successful farmer and Presbyterian deacon. Her mother died when Erminnie was only two years old, and her father became a tremendous influence upon her life. His rock-collecting hobby stimulated her interest in geology and other sciences. In 1853, she graduated from Emma Willard 's Troy Female Seminary in New York, where she excelled in the study of languages. Two years later, she married wealthy Chicago lumber dealer Simeon H. Smith. During this time, Erminnie Smith's interest in geology led her to museum work as she classified and labeled mineral specimens destined for European institutions.

In 1866, the Smiths moved from Chicago to Jersey City, New Jersey, where Simeon later served as the city's finance commissioner. The mother of four sons, Erminnie spent their early years at home, but when the family moved temporarily to Germany for the boys' schooling, she took the opportunity to continue her own education as well. She studied crystallography and German literature at Strassburg and Heidelberg, and in Freiburg took a two-year course in mineralogy at the School of Mines.

Upon her return to the United States in the mid-1870s, Smith created a small mineralogical museum in her home and visited other homes to conduct a series of lectures on geological and cultural subjects. In 1876, this project blossomed into the Aesthetic Society, a group of women who met regularly to discuss science, literature, and the arts. The society often attracted as many as 500 people to witness demonstrations of new inventions, such as the phonograph, or to hear such prominent figures as Matthew Arnold speak. She further popularized science by directing programs for Sorosis, the women's club in New York City. In recognition of her work to promote scientific endeavors, she was elected into the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Through her widespread promotion of science, Smith learned of the emerging field of anthropology and took special interest in Native American ethnology. Raised near the Onondaga reservation in New York, Smith focused her studies on the Iroquois Nation, and spent most of her time among the Tuscarora tribe, which bestowed upon her the name of "Beautiful Flower." From 1880 to 1885, she devoted her summers to traveling to reservations in New York and Canada under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology, which partially funded her work. Smith also received the expert advice of longtime Iroquois researcher Lewis Henry Morgan. She compiled an Iroquois dictionary of more than 15,000 words and recorded a collection of legends, which was published in 1883 by the Bureau of American Ethnology as Myths of the Iroquois.

The first woman to engage in ethnographic field research, Smith dedicated the rest of her life to its study. Through her pioneering efforts, the training of native informants became a standard technique in field research as a method of collecting information of greater accuracy. Each year she read papers on her Iroquois research at the annual meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 1885 she was elected secretary of the association's anthropology division, the first woman to hold an officer position. She was also the first woman to become a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, and held a similar position in the London Scientific Society. In 1886, at age 50, Erminnie A. Platt Smith died of heart disease and a cerebral embolism.