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A short video by Caroline Cook about the life of Hannah Croasdale, which is featured on the Dartmouth Women in Science Project website.
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Celia Chen '78 writes into the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine to honor the late Hannah T. Croasdale after her death in 1999. She describes Croasdale as a woman “ahead of her time” and “one of the few female faculty members on campus not yet hospitable to women” when they first met in 1976.
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In this short article by Suzanne Spencer, Hannah Croasdale reflects on her early life and Dartmouth career, as well as offering her not-so-flattering opinions on “whiny women's libbers.”
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Graduate student Elmire L. Conklin writes to President Kemeny to praise Prof. Croasdale, whose course she had just taken in the summer of 1973. Conklin alludes to Croasdale's international renown and domestic fame as an exceptional instructor, and goes on to write: “Never have I experienced such a hard-working, well-organized, knowledgeable teacher... I have had an seen so many poor and lazy teachers that Hannah Croasdale was a revelation and a joy.” She concludes her letter with remarks about Croasdale's poor compensation and “degrading treatment” while at Dartmouth.
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Press release announcing that Croasdale had received a National Science Foundation grant to identify hundreds of species of Alaskan algae for the first time. At the time only a Research Assistant with rank of Assistant Professor, Croasdale was promised leave without pay by Leonard Rieser if she was able to procure this grant. Seven years later, Croasdale would remark that “everything has gone pretty well since [getting the grant].”
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Prof. Croasdale writes Rieser about her reappointment to teach a course for the Summer 1974 term. As opposed to her correspondence years earlier, this letter shows Croasdale enjoying the hard-won fruits of her labor: record enrollment in her course and “the best of all possible assistants.”
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Prof. Croasdale writes Rieser to thank him for her recent promotion from Assistant Professor with tenure to the rank of full Professor. She takes the time to acknowledge Rieser's role in her rise through the ranks throughout her Dartmouth career: “It was you who gave me my first boost, long ago, when I felt trapped as a mere technician...” The letter still contains her trademark biting and ironic humor, towards both the institution and herself: “I'm very glad that I made this grade [full Professor] before my retirement. It was close... It's not what I'd call a brilliant career, but it's been fun most of the time, and I'm still going strong--I hope.”
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Prof. Croasdale writes Rieser to thank him for her recent promotion from “Research Assistant with the rank of Assistant Professor” to Assistant Professor with tenure. She does not hide the fact that she thinks the promotion is long overdue and her last promotion a bit of a farce when she says “It is very gratifying to be a Faculty member at last, with no strings attached, and to have a salary I can live on. I do like to get letters from you!”
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In this letter, likely from 1961, Prof. Croasdale writes Rieser to thank him for her recent promotion. Her claims that the promotion came as a complete surprise seems to suggest that she was largely unaware of the Croasdale Memos. She is brutally honest about her situation when she tells Rieser: “I thought I was in a dead-end, except for my research... life is far sweeter than it was four years ago!”
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Prof. Croasdale writes again to Arthur Jensen with thanks for her promotion to Research Assistant with the rank of Assistant Professor. She expresses happiness for finally rising above the rank of instructor and is not shy about the fact that she needed the corresponding raise: “It gives me a financial security that I have not had for years.” Her promotion to “Research Assistant with the rank of Assistant Professor,” was a miscommunication according to her colleague J.H. Copenhaver in a letter to Leonard Rieser a year later. Apparently, the Zoology Department had voted to recommend Croasdale for the official position of Assistant Professor, but when Jensen “informed [him] of the action of the C[ommittee] A[dvisory to the] P[resident] it was 'with the rank of' and there was nothing [he] could do about it.”
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Prof. Croasdale writes Arthur Jensen, Dean of the Faculty, to thank him for explaining the “situation surrounding promotion” and granting her a “real raise.” This letter was likely written in 1959 and refers to a conversation regarding her ability to be promoted to a full Assistant Professorship from her position as Research Assistant.
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President Kemeny writes to Prof. Croasdale informing her of the Trustee's decision to elect her Professor of Biology, Emeritus. He adds that “for myself personally and for all members of the Dartmouth family whom you have served, I want to record our great and genuine appreciation.”
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J.H. Copenhaver writes to Provost Leonard Rieser in his capacity as Chairman of the Biological Sciences Department to recommend Hannah Croasdale for a promotion from “Research Associate with the Rank of Associate Professor” to Associate Professor with tenure. While Copenhaver feels the need to mention that the department would not hire another phycologist or seek to replace Croasdale upon her retirement, he remarks that her promotion is an extension of his opinion that “she should get the recognition which she deserves “at home” and which she has already gained “abroad”.”
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Replies to Rieser's inquiries about Prof. Croasdale's situation in the Zoology Department ranged from sympathetic to dismissive, but this letter by Prof. J.H. Copenhaver is a strangely mixed bag. He writes that “the members of the Department probably have taken advantage of her,” but that because he was “fairly well convinced that Hannah could have moved to the faculty of any number of schools between 1940 and 1950 but she chose to stay in Hanover knowing what the situation was,” he was “not too sympathetic with her feelings, as this letter implies.” Despite Copenhaver’s more incendiary remarks about Croasdale's alleged “fleeting mercurial vanity,” he clearly finds her a brilliant scientist and later became one of Hannah’s more vocal allies in the department.
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Arthur Jensen, Dean of the Faculty, responds to the “Conversation with Dr. Hannah Croasdale” memo, in which Rieser asked him to provide more information regarding Prof. Croasdale's history in the Zoology Department. Jensen corroborates Croasdale's claims, writing that “Dr. Croasdale had the misfortune of being a woman… in the Depression, she accepted a position as a technician in the Zoology Department even though her Ph.D. and obvious scientific competence warranted a much better job… There is no question of her scientific competence. Copenhaver told me that she is one of the half dozen best algologists in the country.”
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A memo by Leonard Rieser following a conversation with Hannah Croasdale. Their meeting began an investigation by Rieser and his colleagues to prove Croasdale deserved a promotion, which generated a series of memos referred to in short as the “Croasdale Memos.” In their initial conversation, Croasdale discussed feeling “pushed around by senior members of the department [Zoology]” and expressed frustration with the lack of time available to her to pursue her own research. Rieser remarks that she specifically asked him if she had tenure, suggesting that her role in the department was unclear. He concludes the memo by opining that “she seeks no special favors but rather equality commensurate with her scientific ability and reputation.”
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Donald Morrison, Dean of the Faculty, writes Charles J. Lyons, Professor of Biological Sciences, regarding clarification of Hannah Croasdale's position in the Zoology Department, which he believes to be inconsistent with “her professional training and reputation and her contributions to the College.” His suggestion that Croasdale be promoted “with the rank of Assistant Professor” likely caused the miscommunication in 1959 when her department reportedly recommended to promote her to full Assistant Professor status, but she was instead promoted to “Research Assistant with the rank of Assistant Professor.”
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Roy Forster, Professor of Biological Sciences, writes to Donald Morrison, Dean of the Faculty regarding Hannah Croasdale's rank and compensation in the Zoology Department, which he considered inadequate. He notes that, “I am convinced that if she were a man the college would go to any end to ensure her position as a permanent member of the teaching staff.”
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Biological sample of algae, Sargassum filipendula, identified and mounted by Croasdale in 1929 during a summer the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole.
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Biological sample of algae, Bryopsis plumosa, identified and mounted by Croasdale in 1929 during a summer the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole.
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Biological sample of algae, Dasya elegans, identified and mounted by Croasdale in 1929 during a summer the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole.
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R.T. Wilce pays tribute to Croasdale in this 1985 speech at the 24th Annual Northeast Algal Symposium at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole.
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Grazyna Tomaszewicz attaches a note to a copy of her 1993 academic article, which cites Croasdale and a few of her Scandinavian colleagues, including Grönblad. Tomaszewicz frequently sent copies of her work and various postcards to Croasdale throughout the 1990s.
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A photograph of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's boat “Atlantis” in the summer of 1934.
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A photograph of Croasdale and her friends at Woods Hole in the summer 1934. They appear to be preparing to go sailing or camping.
