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Katharine Blunt (May 28, 1876 – July 29, 1954) was an American chemist, professor, and nutritionist who specialized in the fields of home economics, food chemistry and nutrition.^[1] Most of her research was on nutrition, but she also made improvements to research on calcium and phosphorus metabolism and on the basal metabolism of women and children. She served as the third president of Connecticut College.

Katharine Blunt was born on May 28, 1876, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the eldest of three daughters of Stanhope English Blunt and Fanny (née Smyth) Blunt.^[2] The geologist Charles Henry Smyth, Jr., was a first cousin.^[3]

Blunt attended The Porter School in Springfield, Massachusetts, then later enrolled in Vassar College, where she studied chemistry. In 1898, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After four years at home she enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for post-graduate studies during 1902-1903.^[2] Blunt received her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1907.^[4]

For one year Blunt was an instructor in chemistry at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York,^[5] then returned to Vassar College in 1908 as an instructor in chemistry. In 1913, Blunt left Vassar again, this time for a position as an assistant professor in the department of home economics in the College of Education at the University of Chicago. She was promoted to associate professor in 1918 and full professor in 1925.^[6][7] In 1918, she was named acting chair and in 1925 formal head of the department.^[8] While she was chair, the department grew to seventeen staff members and produced researchers, administrators, and nutritionists.^[5] She developed in the university's graduate school one of the best departments of home economics in any American university.^[9]

Blunt was concerned that home economics would not become an established profession, so she worked to make it an appropriate subject of instruction and to plan a scientific curriculum for training professionals. From 1924 to 1926, she served as president of the American Home Economics Association (AHEA), which had been founded in 1908 and by the mid-1920s had several thousand members. Previously she had served as Illinois Chapter president and as national vice president. Under her leadership, contacts with other organizations increased and came to include the National Education Association, the American Association of University Women, and the American Child Health Association, among others.^[10] In 1928, the AHEA observed that Blunt's administration had enhanced the quality of graduate work in the field, and that her own devotion to research had provided an invaluable example to students.^[11]

In 1929, Blunt was invited to become the president of Connecticut College for Women, a four-year liberal arts college. She was inaugurated as the third president and first woman president of the college on May 16, 1930.^[12] As one commentator noted, "Clear-headed and courageous, with an abundance of initiative and drive, President Blunt set out to build up the college's faculty and its physical equipment". Under her leadership several new buildings were constructed and the size of the student body increased. In 1934, the Connecticut College Arboretum opened and in 1939, Palmer Auditorium was established. She also secured increased appropriations for faculty study and student scholarships, and endowments and fellowships were expanded. It was important to her that the curriculum and extra-curricular activities would help to realize the potential of students in all facets of their lives.

The improvements she made led to the college's accreditation in 1932. During her administration Connecticut College became one of the outstanding colleges in New England, and scholastically was ranked among the top colleges for women in America. In 1943, she retired, aged 67, but was recalled as president in 1945 at the request of the board of trustees. Blunt served in that position for another year.

During her academic career Blunt published many articles on nutrition and food chemistry in technical journals. She served as editor of the University of Chicago's Home Economics Series. She also published articles on the education of women. Blunt believed that "the days of confining college education to the campus are over", and that women "with their belief in the force of education and their fresh political energy, can do much to serve the democracy which has helped them."^[13] The publication of Ultra-Violet Light and Vitamin D in Nutrition, a book summarizing research in the field, written with Ruth Cowan, was published in 1930.

During her career Blunt was a member of many professional and civic societies, including the National Education Association, the American Association of University Women, the Biochemical Society, the American Chemical Society, the League of Women Voters, Sigma Xi, and Omicron Nu. She also belonged the Cosmopolitan Club in New York, was a member of the Connecticut State Board of Education, and in 1944-1945 was chairman of the New London, Connecticut, Red Cross War Fund.

During World War I Blunt served the government as a nutrition expert. From 1917–18, she worked for the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food Administration, preparing emergency pamphlets on nutrition and food conservation. The series of 4-page publications, called the United States Food Leaflets, were co-written by Blunt, Florence Powdermaker and Louise Pritchett. The leaflets included recipes and emphasized food choices and the preparation of an adequate diet; among the first titles were "Do You Know Corn Meal?" and "Food for Your Children". One aim of the series was to "provide a large amount of data fundamental to extension teaching and other popular instruction".^[14]

In 1918, Blunt was called to Washington, D.C. as one of the members of the committee of university instructors appointed to plan the introduction of conservation courses into universities and colleges. She was granted a leave of absence by the University of Chicago for the winter quarter of that year.^[15] The United States Food Administration published these college lessons as a book under the title Food and the War: A Textbook for College Classes.

In 1921, Blunt was elected as a member of the Kappa Mu Sigma, a women’s graduate chemistry fraternity founded in 1920 at the University of Chicago. The aim of the society was “to raise the standards of professional chemistry among women by insisting on the importance of complete training for a professional career”, and to promote social cooperation among women in chemistry-related careers.^[16] The names of the Greek letters Κ, Μ, and Σ were chosen to signify the name of “Curie, Marie Sklowdowska”. Marie Curie was selected as the first honorary member of the society.^[17] In the fall of 1921, Blunt traveled with three others from the society to install a second chapter of Kappa Mu Sigma at Columbia University in New York.^[18]

This society was chosen to canvas the University of Chicago for funds, as part of a nation-wide campaign by women, that went toward the purchase of a gram of radium for Madame Curie for her research back in Paris. The radium was presented to Curie on her arrival in the United States in the spring of 1921. Blunt went to New York City in June 1921 as a delegate to meetings honoring Curie meetings.^[19] Kappa Mu Sigma appears to have been discontinued sometime after 1927.

After Blunt retired from Connecticut College, she traveled extensively and later died of a pulmonary embolism on July 29, 1954, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut, while recovering from a broken hip.^[5] She was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Springfield, Massachusetts.^[9]

• Blunt, Katharine & Feeney, Clara M. (1915). The smoking temperatures of edible fats. J. Home Econ. 7:10, 535-541.
• Blunt, Katharine & Wang, Chi Che (1916). Chinese preserved eggs—pidan. J. Biol. Chem. 28:1, 125-134.
• Recent work on normal adult nutrition (1916). J. Home Econ. 8:12, 623-624.
• Blunt, Katharine; Powdermaker, Florence (1918). Food and the war: a textbook for college classes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 597517316.
• Blunt, Katharine; Swain, Francis L; & Powdermaker, Florence (1918). Food guide for war service at home. Prepared under the direction of the United States Food Administration, with a preface by Herbert Hoover. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdclccn.18016360/?st=gallery.
• Blunt, Katharine (1916). Chemistry as a field for women. The Chicago Chemical Bulletin 3:4, 48-51.
• Blunt, Katharine & Otis, Florence A. (1917) Losses of iron in cooking vegetables. J. Home Econ. 9:5, 213-218.
• Blunt, Katharine (1919). Digestibility of Bacon. J. Biol. Chem. 38:1, 43-48.
• Blunt, Katharine & Wang, Chi Che (1921). The present status of vitamins. J. Home Econ. 13:3, 97-119.
• Blunt, Katharine & Dye, Marie (1921). Basal metabolism of normal women. J. Biol. Chem. 47:1, 69-87.
• Blunt, Katharine; Nelson, Alta; & Oleson, Harriet Curry (1921) The basal metabolism of underweight children. J. Biol. Chem. 49:1, 247-262.
• McLaughlin, Laura & Blunt, Katharine (1923). Some observations on the creatinine excretion of women. J. Biol. Chem. 58:1, 285-290.
• Bauer, Virginia & Blunt, Katharine (1924). Effect of a small breakfast on the energy metabolism of children. J. Biol. Chem. 59:1, 77-82.
• Chaney, Margaret S. & Blunt, Katharine (1925). The effect of orange juice on the calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and nitrogen retention and urinary organic acids in growing children. J. Biol. Chem. 66:2, 829-845.
• Blunt, Katharine (1925). President's address, 18th annual meeting of the American Home Economics Association. J. Home Econ. 8:1, 537-542.
• McLaughlin, Laura & Blunt, Katharine (1926). Urinary excretion of organic acid and its variant with diet. J. Biol. Chem. 58:1, 267-284.
• Blunt, Katharine; Tilt, Jennie; McLaughlin, Laura; & Gunn, Katherine B. (1926) The basal metabolism of girls. J. Biol. Chem. 67:2, 491-503.
• Willard, Alice & Blunt, Katharine (1927). A comparison of evaporated with pasteurized milk as a source of calcium, phosphorus, and nitrogen. J. Biol. Chem. 75:1, 251-262.
• Blunt, Katharine & Sumner, Emma (1928). The calcium of cheese. J. Home Econ. 20:8, 587-590.
• Blunt, Katharine & Cowan, Ruth (1929). Do adults need Vitamin D? JAMA 93:15, 1141-1143.
• Blunt, Katharine & Cowan, Ruth (1929). Distribution of Vitamin D: cod liver oil. JAMA 93:16, 1219-1223.
• Blunt, Katharine & Cowan, Ruth (1929). Irradiated foods and irradiated ergosterol. JAMA 93:17, 1301-1308.
• Coons, Callie Mae & Blunt, Katharine (1930). The retention of nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium by pregnant women. J. Biol. Chem. 86:1, 1-16.
• Blunt, Katharine & Cowan, Ruth (1930). Ultraviolet light and vitamin D in nutrition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. OCLC 701695607.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Blunt, Katharine (1930). What constitutes a good college for women? AAUP Bull. 16:8, 591-594.

• 1905-06 The Mary Richardson and Lydia Pratt Babbott Fellowship, 1905-06
• 1936 Doctor of Laws, Wesleyan University^[20]
• 1937 Doctor of Laws, Mt. Holyoke College^[20]
• 1943 Doctor of Laws, Connecticut College^[20]
• 1941 University of Chicago Alumni Medal^[21]
• 1949 Citizenship Award, Men's Club of Congregation Beth El^[20]
• 1952 Citizenship Award, Connecticut Grand Lodge, Sons of Italy
• 1954 50-Year Member, American Chemical Society^[22]
• 1954 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science

When Blunt died, she left an apartment building at 640 Williams Street to Connecticut College. In 1946, one of the new dormitories at Connecticut College was named in Blunt's honor.^[23] Katharine Blunt House (most often referred to as "KB") is located in the North Campus of dorms at the College and houses students of all genders and class years.^[24]

• Works by Katharine Blunt at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Katharine Blunt at Internet Archive