The newly graduated young chemist was handpicked by the company due to her hands-on experience in the laboratory. As a young woman of 22, she was accompanied by a chaperone who ensured she traveled safely to Buffalo, found acceptable lodging and made proper introductions to some of the well-to-do Buffalo families. Accepting the position in Buffalo, Anne became the first “fully equipped” female chemist in the U.S., meaning that as a female, she was as well prepared academically and experientially as her male counterparts, to perform professional scientific duties. She had a well-equipped laboratory at her disposal and became the first female M.I.T. graduate to secure gainful employment in one of Buffalo’s rapidly growing industries. The company, located on Abbott’s Corners Road (now South Park) on the northwest shore of the Buffalo River, specialized in producing analine dyes and organic chemicals. Anne was given complete control of the lab and had assistants working under her for an entire year. Despite this relative autonomy, however, she still served under a male department head.

By 1892, Anne had moved to the New York Car Wheel Works and was given the opportunity to set up a very different type of chemistry laboratory. Two years later, in May 1894, the Buffalo Courier highlighted her efforts in an article titled, “Women’s Work,” which noted her extensive knowledge of multiple chemistry disciplines. At Schoellkopf Analine, “her work with the dyes lay along the line of organic chemistry,” the article explained, “while in the second [at New York Car Wheel Works] it comes under inorganic chemistry, which is diametrically opposite to the other.” Building on the company’s well-established reputation, she ensured that every car wheel continued to be manufactured to the highest quality standards. 

Unlike her male peers, Anne would have been required to wear a floor-length dress to work, despite the hot, dirty and hazardous conditions of the facility. In light of this, she sought a way to bypass the traditional procedures used for testing the quality of the wheels, which would have required visits to the foundry floor and thus have put her in danger. Soon Anne developed her own methods of examination, combining several physical tests into one she could perform alone in the laboratory. This ensured her safety while saving the company money at the same time. Her chemical training brought the awareness that a metal’s microscopic makeup directly correlated to various properties, such as its chilling qualities, traverse strength, tensile strength and so on. Her innovation was described as follows:

Several months ago, Miss White began some original work in the way of photographing polished pieces of the metal brought to her for inspection. These photographs magnify the original many times, and the result is that many things in the composition of the metal may be detected from the picture without further tests.

Despite her atypical, gender-defying education that was quickly followed by noteworthy success in a predominately male-oriented profession, Anne, like most of her female contemporaries of a certain status, would have been subjected to societal pressure to marry and bear children. Anne met Thomas Bernard Carpenter, a fellow Bostonian who had attended Harvard medical school and then moved to Buffalo. He was on his way to becoming a well-respected and successful bacteriologist and urologist who worked for the department of health and was called to testify as an expert witness in a murder trial. In Thomas she found a fellow ex-Bay Stater and scientist who could understand and embrace her rather unusual pursuit.

While her marriage license lists her profession as a chemist, Anne’s marriage to Thomas in 1896 seems to have ended her professional career, as her name and profession disappear from the Buffalo City Directory about this time. In an interview in The Buffalo Truth, she was bestowed the title of “The Home-Maker,” and stated her belief that “a woman cannot successfully manage two A No. 1 jobs. She may have a major and a minor job, but not two majors.” In true scientific fashion, “with the assumption of the duties of her new estate, she weighed and compared values and rendered a final decision in favor of the line she [had] so successfully pursued” – marriage and motherhood. The union failed to slow her down, however, and she quickly embraced various causes and joined numerous clubs where she could put her education, leadership skills and adapt the scientific methods that had been so carefully honed and engrained to excellent use. Most of the clubs were devoted to bettering and advancing women’s standing in the community and Anne would spend decades using her connections to encourage and promote equitable standing for women of all ages.

When motherhood followed a few years after her marriage with the first of two daughters, one of the first organizations to which she devoted herself was the Mothers’ Club of Buffalo. Considering themselves “formers” as opposed to “reformers,” this group of like-minded women formed a club in 1900 to improve the physical, moral and spiritual living conditions of children and families. Based on the latest scientific teachings and modern theories of childhood education, they held meetings to discuss relevant topics such as adolescent education and best hygiene practices in the school setting. They also attended lectures on “The Home and School,” “Religious Training for the Young” and “Training in Temperance.” Even before the birth of her second daughter, Anne was elected club president in 1902. The club was affiliated with the Mothers’ Assembly of the State of New York, which would later reincorporate as the New York State Congress of Mothers’ and Parent-Teacher Associations, otherwise known as the PTA. Anne’s involvement with the Mothers’ Club lasted for decades, well after her own children were grown, perhaps spurred by the arrival of her three grandsons in the 1930s.

While in some sense relegated to the role of wife, mother and then grandmother, Anne often proved she could hold her own with “the boys.” When a debate was called in 1915 to discuss “Religion’s Effect in Schools,” specifically the addition of religious education to the curriculum at the Technical High School of Buffalo (now Hutchinson Central Technical High), she “pleaded that children be taught what is right and wrong.” In the debate, she partnered with three respected clergymen: a Lutheran pastor, a Jewish rabbi and an Episcopal priest, in front of an audience of 200. While the outcome of the debate isn’t clear, Anne’s passion for molding children into upstanding citizens was clearly part of her core values.

As a product of the Progressive Era (1890s-1920s), Anne clearly embraced social activism as demonstrated by her long-standing affiliations with organizations focused on family, education and women’s suffrage. One such group was the Girl Scouts of Buffalo. Founded in 1912, the Buffalo group was established a mere six years later. A 1924 Buffalo Truth article related “the purpose of the organization [was] to help girls to realize the ideals of womanhood and to prepare for their responsibilities in the home and service to the community.” Anne served in several positions on the council throughout the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, including as chairman of the executive committee of the Buffalo organization in 1920 and again in 1922. She appeared to have used her vast network to her advantage. The fact that Anne was president of the Girl Scout executive committee in 1921, the same year she was on the Allegany State Park Commission, and around the same time the Girl Scout Allegany Park camp was established is most likely not a coincidence.

Although Anne was no longer a career woman, her memberships in various clubs often overlapped the public, academic and domestic spheres. As a long-standing member of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae (A.C.A., now the American Association of University Women), Anne likely found fellowship in a group of women in similar circumstances, faced with choosing between education and career or marriage and motherhood. Higher education, especially in the sciences, did not always set the stage for easy conversation with peers in the Mothers’ Club, nor was she welcomed into the “old boys’ club” in her chosen profession. In a 1915 article entitled “In Behalf of the College Girl,”Anne stressed the importance and demand for women in scientific careers. Her opinions were based, in part, on her experience as acting chair of the A.C.A.’s vocational committee, in which capacity she received all of the letters from prospective women graduates looking for job opportunities. Published in the National Association of Corporation Schools’ bulletin of the same year, the former chemist observed:

Of course these positions require special training, after the liberal arts degree is obtained. If girls would only decide sooner what works they wanted they could shorten the time for preparation. There is a big demand for scientifically trained women, but they do not seem to want to take the training.

Ten years later, the Buffalo Sunday Express highlighted Anne’s appointment to the scholarship committee of the Boston Tech Association in Buffalo. In this role, she oversaw the management of the endowment funds raised for annual scholarships awarded to Buffalo students entering M.I.T. Once again, Anne was the only female member among some of the foremost business and professional men in Western New York.

Yet again crossing her professional and academic training with her role in the domestic realm, Anne, in affiliation with the A.C.A., addressed the issue of controlling food waste. When food shortages loomed during World War I, Erie County’s Home Defense Committee formed a Food Preservation and Conservation subcommittee focused on this very issue. Beginning as one of the subcommittee’s women members, Anne rose to the position of vice chairman under George Urban Jr. when he assumed the chairmanship upon the resignation of Norman Clement.

The most notable achievement of this group was the creation of the Buffalo Thrift Kitchen. The first thrift kitchen was established at 37 East Chippewa Street and would eventually move to larger quarters and establish additional outlets. The program also utilized the facilities of various public schools, local businesses and the Buffalo Normal School. Lectures and demonstrations were conducted to educate the community in methods of food preservation (canning, drying, etc.) and in the use of substitutes for foods in short supply, such as meat, wheat and sugar. Drying services were offered at the thrift kitchen itself, where women could bring their fruits and vegetables for drying at cost.

Having a sharp wit and keen interest in writing, Anne’s affiliation with the National League of American Pen Women in Western New York spanned several decades. The club that became the National League of American Pen Women in 1921 was formed in Washington, DC, 24 years earlier by a group of “pen women” angered by the problems plaguing professional women writers, including plagiarism by and wage inequality with their male counterparts. Professional credentials were required for membership, and Anne, having been published in several well-read magazines in the early years of her marriage, was undeniable qualified for membership.

As the Pen Women’s chairman of the reception committee at a joint costumed party for the Pen Women, Scribblers, Zonta, Ad League and Stitchery clubs, it was noted that, “Mrs. Thomas B. Carpenter in the dignity of cap and gown combined wit and truth in her pertinent remarks.” Later, a toast she gave at a similar event that was titled, “My Husband’s Second Wife” was delivered in rhyme and was considered to be exceptionally clever. She would later serve as the vice president of the Western New York branch of Pen Women in 1932.

Later, when the family made their home on Buffalo’s west side, the close proximity to D’Youville College provided ample opportunity for Anne to give her own lectures. One topic focused on “Thoughtful Purveying for the Household,” under the home economics series of talks. She was also published in several popular magazines, including Good Housekeeping, penning an article in 1903 entitled “Baby Victims of Etiquette” in which she reflected on setting a good example for children. “If we want our children to appear well bred, they must be surrounded by well bred people. If we want our children to obtain self-control, let us be self-controlled before them. Example is better than precept the world over.” 

Somehow finding time in her already busy schedule, Anne served as a hostess for the women’s suffrage movement. She acted as the historian for the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, spearheading a project for tabulating the names of chapter members and recording their ancestry. Familiar names in the local D.A.R. included other well-to-do matrons of the city, such as Mrs. John Miller Horton (for whom the chapter would eventually be named), Mrs. Charles Rohlfs, Mrs. Carl A. Lautz and Mrs. George A. Wallace. She was a member of the 20th Century Club, the Quillians, the Children’s Museum League at the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, and a Zontian, all while helping Marian de Forest raise money for the Buffalo Musical Foundation and participating as an election inspector for the Women’s Union of Buffalo.

Possibly due to the awkward way in which she perceived her status at M.I.T. – she once stated, “I have often wanted to go back to a reunion but have been dreadfully afraid of it; I am neither one of the boys nor a wife of one of the boys, I don’t seem to fit.” – as well as to the aspirations she held for her own daughters, Anne’s penchant for elevating the status of girls and women throughout their childhood, education and careers would remain a constant throughout her lifetime. Most of her associations with various local, regional and national women’s organizations spanned decades.

Anne lived through first-wave feminism, two world wars, a pandemic, the Great Depression, the beginning of the 1960s women’s movement and so much more, and never stopped fighting for women to be given the opportunity to find their own place in the world. She died on March 24, 1964, at the age of 96 and was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery next to her husband, daughter Charlotte and mother. Her obituary in the Technology Review edited by M.I.T claimed she was the last surviving member of her class. The obituary went on to applaud the difference she made in the field of tech education.

Challenging the social norms of her day through innovation while devoting much of her life to providing improved opportunities for future generations of women, Anne’s story is an empowering example of what can be accomplished with the right vision and determination. Another passage from the 1894 “Women’s Work” article specifically addresses the discipline of chemistry, but could easily serve to reflect on Anne White Carpenter’s life as a whole:

It seems strange that there are not more women chemists, for people who know whereof they speak say that a woman is much better fitted to do many branches of chemical work than are men. A woman has infinitely more patience with delicate experiments, and she is also better able to take care of several experiments at once.

Sasha Naples is currently finishing her master's degree in Museum Studies at Buffalo State College. With an undergrad degree in Animal Behavior, Ecology and Conservation and a passion for history, she has a diverse background that will benefit the museum community. She was one of three graduate students who researched and developed the first Virtual Exhibit for Western New York Heritage titled "Art & Iron" partially based on the New York Car Wheel Works.