M. Elsa Gardner facts for kids

Quick facts for kids M. Elsa Gardner
Born	9 January 1894 Brooklyn
Died	8 February 1963 Ohio
Nationality	American
Occupation	Engineer

M. Elsa Gardner (born January 9, 1894 – died February 8, 1963) was an amazing American engineer who worked with airplanes. She made history as the first woman to become a full member of the Engineers Club of Dayton.

A Young Life

Maude Elsa Gardner was known to everyone as Elsa Gardner. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 9, 1894. Her father, Herbert, was an Irish-American merchant who sold fabrics for curtains and drapes. Her mother, Emily Maude Garner, was from Canada.

When Elsa was six years old, she had an illness. This illness caused one of her legs to be shorter than the other. Because of this, she had a slight limp for the rest of her life.

Education and a Bold Career Choice

Elsa's family had enough money, so she went to St. Lawrence University. There, she studied mechanical engineering and math. She also learned Greek, Latin, French, German, and English literature. She felt her father wanted her to become a teacher.

After finishing college in 1916, Elsa worked as a statistician. This means she collected and analyzed numbers and data. When World War I started, she began working for the British Ministry of Munitions of War in New York City. She checked gauges, which are tools that measure things very precisely.

From there, she worked for Bliss Company Torpedo Works. She helped the United States Navy improve how they made torpedo gauges. She also set up a testing area at Sag Harbor, New York. Elsa later said the noise and dirt were bad, but the interesting work made up for it.

Elsa decided she wanted to be an engineer. She studied more engineering at New York University and Pratt Institute. She worked during the day and studied at night. Her father didn't approve, saying "the more you learn, the less you earn." He refused to help her pay for more schooling.

Elsa then won a special scholarship to study aeronautical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This is a very famous science and engineering school. To earn extra money, she wrote and edited for Aero Digest magazine. She was at MIT at the same time as Elsie MacGill, another famous aeronautical engineer.

At MIT, Elsa faced another challenge. She needed to do shop work at a naval yard in Hartford, Connecticut. The commander there worried she would distract the men. Elsa wrote him a strong letter. She explained that as a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, she was a professional. She said she would "hardly be likely to flirt with mechanics." She was allowed to work there, and she later said they were "very meek about it."

Working Through Tough Times

After World War I and during the Great Depression, Elsa worked for several companies. She worked for Wright Aeronautical Corp. in Paterson, New Jersey. She also worked as a bibliographer, which means she organized books and articles. She was also a statistician and a civil engineering Project Examiner.

Elsa also worked in New York City for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). She wrote summaries of articles and reviewed scientific papers. She created a special card system to organize information about airplanes, machines, and cars. She also edited and wrote for Aero Digest Magazine.

Elsa wrote the Technical Data Digest, which came out twice a month. Each issue had about 300 summaries of articles from technical magazines in different countries. This digest was also published in the Journal of Aeronautical Sciences. She worked on this from Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Her work was super important. It helped the U.S. military and businesses stay updated with the latest engineering ideas.

Elsa continued her military work through World War II. From 1941 to 1960, she was an aeronautical engineer for the US Bureau of Aeronautics. Then, she worked in the US Navy’s Bureau of Naval Weapons Technical Library. She retired in the fall of 1962.

Important Memberships

Because of her amazing work, Elsa Gardner was the first woman invited to join two important groups: the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences (IAS) and the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences. This group later became the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

In 1936, she became the first woman to join the Engineers Club of Dayton.

Elsa also joined the British Women's Engineering Society in 1929. She even served on their governing Council as the American representative. She kept in touch with them across the Atlantic until World War II. In 1937, she gave a speech about women engineers to the Altrusa Club. This club was for business and professional women. Her speech was published in their magazine and by the Women's Engineering Society. In her speech, she explained that it was hard for women to find engineering jobs when she was young. So, she made sure to join and attend as many engineering groups as possible. This way, people got to know her, and it was harder to ignore her talent.

She lived in Washington for a long time and was a member of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Later Life

Elsa was diagnosed with cancer in 1962. She passed away at Doctor's Hospital in Washington on February 8, 1963.