Inez Whipple Wilder
American zoologist (1871-1929)
Inez Whipple Wilder (May 19, 1871 – April 29, 1929), born Inez Luanne Whipple, was an American herpetologist and anatomist, affiliated with Smith College from 1902 until her death. She made notable contributions to the study of fingerprints and the biology of salamanders.
Early life and education
Wilder was born on May 19, 1871, at Diamond Hill, Cumberland, Rhode Island, the third and youngest child of parents Eliab Daniel and Sarah Whipple (née Wheaton). She graduated from Rhode Island Normal School (now Rhode Island College) in 1890, and earned a Ph.B. at Brown University in 1900. She then taught at Rhode Island Normal School and Northampton High School until joining the faculty of Smith College in 1902 as instructor of zoology. She earned her M.A. from Smith College in 1904, and became associate professor in 1914 and full professor in 1922.
Career
In 1904 Inez published an influential study on the skin of mammalian palms and feet, describing how embryonic pads influence later ridges and patterns, now known as an important early contribution to dermatoglyphics, the study of fingerprints. Her paper, entitled "The Ventral Surface of the Mammalian Chiridium: With Special Reference to the Conditions Found in Man", summarized all prior knowledge of the field of genetics and dermatoglyphics, and was the most significant study of ridges in non-human animals of its time. At the time she was a research assistant of Harris Hawthorne Wilder, and on July 26, 1906, the two were married in Boston. Harris Wilder published widely on anatomy, genetics, and anthropology, and the two were known as the most prominent American researchers of fingerprint morphology of the early 20th century.
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This entry incorporates text from “Inez Whipple Wilder” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.