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A Guide to her Papers at the Indiana University Archives

Finding aid prepared by Amanda Ferrara

Summary Information

Repository
Indiana University Archives
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library E460
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-1127
Email: archives@indiana.edu
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives

Creator
Muhse, Effa Funk, 1877-1968.

Title
Effa Funk Muhse papers, 1895-1915, bulk 1904-1915

Collection No.
C593

Extent
1.2 cubic feet (1 small dc and 1 oversized)

Language
Materials are in English

Abstract
Effa Funk Muhse was Indiana University's first woman to earn a Ph.D. at Indiana University, bestowed upon her in 1908 (Zoology). Prominent scientists Carl Eigenmann and Charles Zeleny advised Muhse’s doctoral dissertation, “The Cutaneous Glands of the Common Toad,” which was published in the American Journal of Anatomy in 1909. After obtaining her Ph.D., Muhse entered the lecture circuit speaking on topics from the Mendelian laws of heredity to rural sanitation to eugenics, before settling in Washington, D.C. Muhse’s laboratory notes and drawings are included in this collection, as well as copies of the papers she published and laboratory slides.

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Biographical Note

Effa Funk was born on June 19, 1877 in Blachleyville, Ohio. She moved with her family and parents, Laban and Eliza (Bair) Funk, to Hebron, Indiana where she graduated from Hebron High School in 1894. She attended the Northern Indiana Normal College (now Valparaiso University) until 1896 when she began teaching in the public schools of Indiana. On August 12, 1899, Funk married Albert Charles Muhse, and soon thereafter enrolled at Indiana University in September 1900.

During the summer of 1902 she was named a fellow at the IU Biological Field Station on Winona Lake in Warsaw, IN. There she taught embryology, histology and histogenesis. She went on to receive all of her degrees in zoology from IU, receiving her A.B. in 1903; A.M. in 1906; and Ph.D. in 1908.

Conferral of Muhse's 1908 zoology degree gave her the distinction of being the first woman at IU to receive a Ph.D. The title of her dissertation was The Cutaneous Glands of the Common Toad, published in the May 1909 issue of the American Journal of Anatomy. Muhse’s dissertation refuted others research that said common toads had several different types of glands. She showed that the glands were all of the same type – just in different stages of development. She began her research on this paper at Cornell University where her husband had been given a fellowship. She returned to IU during the 1907-1908 school year to accept a fellowship and to teach while finishing her dissertation under the direction and advisement of Professors Carl Eigenmann and Charles Zeleny.

After obtaining her Ph.D., Muhse was interested in teaching, but found it difficult to find a position that accepted married women. Instead, she worked the lecture circuit, giving her attention “…more especially to questions of public health and to general biological questions.” She decided to settle in Washington, D.C., and gave public lectures at clubs near her home, around the country, and as far as China. Hoping to return to the state of Indiana to teach, Muhse contacted IU President William Lowe Bryan in October 1911 with a list of topics to which she could speak. Lectures offered for 1912 included “Heredity and Problems in Eugenics,” “Insects as Agents in Plant Fertilization,” “Non-contagious Diseases: Deafness, Adenoids and Nervous Troubles,” “The Food of Schoolchildren,” and “The School as a Center of Sanitary and Health Work in the Community.” During these years she became a pioneer lecturer on the Mendelian Laws of Heredity, on rural sanitation, and eugenics.

While in Washington, D.C., Muhse became involved in women’s suffrage, becoming a member of the National Woman’s Party (NWP), founded by Alice Paul. In 1917, Muhse was sent to Idaho, Pennsylvania and Chicago to help organize the NWP. In 1963, she gave an interview to the Indiana Alumni Magazine in which she said she still urged “…women to ‘continue the struggle for equal rights.’ She believed that the greatest change in the role of the woman…came with the right to vote. At the same time, she felt that rearing families is still the most important work of today’s women, putting ‘minor office jobs’ a poor second.”

Between 1921 and 1927, Muhse began teaching at several institutions, two of which were the National Park Seminary and the Colonial School for Girls. In the fall of 1927, she became the head of the Biology Department at Chevy Chase Junior College in Washington, D.C. and continued to teach there for 21 years, substantially increasing the enrollment of young women in biology classes, as well as throughout the field.

During her lifetime she was a member of the Eugenics Education Society of London; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Phi Beta Kappa; Sigma Xi; the National Woman’s Party; and the Twentieth Century Club of Washington, D.C. Her favorite hobbies were drafting house plans and carpentry. Muhse died on February 27, 1968.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into two series, Writings and Slides

Scope and Content Note

The Effa Funk Muhse papers, (1904-1915, undated), consists of two series: Writings (1904-1915, undated) and Slides, (1895-1904, undated). The Writings series includes copies of Muhse's publications, laboratory notes, various drawings as well as a reprint of her dissertation. The Slides series consists numerous laboratory slides. Many of these glass slides were created by Muhse and bear her signature and/or initials; others have labels from places such as Mount Holyoke College (MA), or bear the name of the specimen.

• Indexing Terms

• The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in IUCAT, the IU Libraries' online catalog. Materials about related topics, persons or places can be found by searching the catalog using these terms.

• • Names
  • Muhse, Effa Funk, 1877-1968--Archives.
  • Indiana University--Students--History--20th century--Sources.
• • Topics
  • Zoology--Study and teaching (Higher)--Indiana--Bloomington--History--Sources.
  • Zoologists--Indiana--Bloomington--History--Sources.

Related Material

Related photographs may be available in the University Archives Photographs Database .

Administrative Information

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