Marcia Keith
Marcia Anna Keith was an American physicist, teacher of physics to women, and a charter member of the American Physical Society since its founding in 1899.
Early life and education
Marcia Keith was born in Brockton, Massachusetts on 10 September 1859 to parents Mary Ann and Arza Keith. She attended Mount Holyoke College, earning her bachelor's degree in 1892. She was a “special student” at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1887 and 1889, and went to the University of Berlin from 1897 to 1898. In the summer of 1901, Keith attended the University of Chicago.Teaching career
From 1876 until 1879 Keith taught in the Public schools in [the United States|public school system] of Massachusetts. Four years later, in 1883, she began to work as a science instructor at the Michigan Seminary, in Kalamazoo until 1885. Beginning in 1885, Keith taught mathematics at Mount Holyoke, and then became the school's first full-time teacher in the physics department there. From 1889 until 1903, Keith was the head of the department. In 1904, Keith taught at Norton. She taught at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, from 1905 until 1906.Keith was a pioneer in the education of women in the science of physics. It is believed that she is the first to introduce individual laboratory work to students. She also launched the physics colloquium at Mt. Holyoke in order to increase awareness among students of the growing field of physics.