Drawing of Eunice Newton Foote by Carlyn Iverson, NOAA Climate.gov. 

   Eunice Newton Foote, born on July 17, 1819, in Goshen, was educated at the Troy Female Seminary (later known ans the Emma Willard School) from 1836 to 1838 and at a nearby college of science where the principal, Amos Eaton, allowed women to attend. She became interested in the effect of the sun’s rays on different gases and did many experiments in this area, using an air pump, four thermometers and two glass cylinders.

Eunice actually identified the root cause of the greenhouse effect by her theory that the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, when changed, would affect the average atmospheric temperature. Her paper on the subject, entitled “Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun’s Rays,” was read by Professor Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institution in 1856 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Conference. While the paper was read by Professor Henry, Eunice was given full credit as the author.

That should have assured her a place in the sun (no pun intended) but, alas, she was relegated to the dust pile of science and was forgotten for over a century. Recently, there have been efforts to bring her work to light in scientific circles, so perhaps this brilliant woman will finally receive the attention denied her over a century ago.

Eunice Newton Foote, featured prominently as a signatory to the "Declaration of Sentiments" at the First Woman's Rights Convention, July, 1848

   Eunice Newton married Elisha Foote, a judge and inventor on August 12, 1841, lived a quiet life probably wondering if she would ever be recognized for her ground-breaking work, and died on September 30, 1888, at Lenox, Massachusetts.

   The US National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Climate.gov honored Eunice Newton Foote on her 200th birthday, July 17, 2019, posting an informative article regarding Ms. Foote's remarkable insights about past climate that were overlooked for more than a century.