Mary Engle Pennington Papers

Mary Engle Pennington (1872-1952) was an American bacteriological chemist and refrigeration engineer. A specialist in bacteriology and food science, she established the Philadelphia Clinical Laboratory in 1898, where she performed bacteriological analyses for some 400 subscribing doctors. In 1905, she became a bacteriological chemist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). After passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, Pennington was named chief of the USDA's new Food Research Laboratory, which was created to help implement the Act. During World War I, she took an active part in the War Food Administration under President Herbert Hoover. In 1919, she left USDA to head the research department of the American Balsa Company. From 1923 to 1931, she served as director of the Household Refrigeration Bureau of the National Association of Ice Industries.