science

Mary E. Britton

Mary E. Britton is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mary E. Britton rather than just read about it. In short: Mary Ellen Britton (1855–1925) was an American physician, educator, suffragist, journalist and civil rights activist from Lexington, Kentucky. Britton was an original member of the Kentucky Negro Education Association, which formed in 1877.

Key takeaways

Mary E. Britton belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mary E. Britton to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mary E. Britton from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mary Ellen Britton (1855–1925) was an American physician, educator, suffragist, journalist and civil rights activist from Lexington, Kentucky. Britton was an original member of the Kentucky Negro Education Association, which formed in 1877. She was president of the Lexington Woman's Improvement Club and later served as a charter member of the Ladies Orphan Society which founded the Colored Orphan Industrial Home in Lexington, in 1892. During her lifetime she accomplished many things through the obstacles she faced. After teaching black children in Lexington public schools, she worked as a doctor from her home in Lexington. She specialized in hydrotherapy, electrotherapy and massage; and, she was officially granted her license to practice medicine in Lexington, Kentucky in 1902, making her the first woman doctor to be licensed in Lexington.

Background and early life

Mary Ellen Britton was born as a free person of color on April 5, 1855, the only one of her siblings for whom a record of birth can be located. She was one of seven children of Laura and Henry Britton who lived on Mill Street, somewhere between Second and Third Streets which is now in the Gratz Park Historical District of Lexington, Kentucky. Contrary to the limited opportunities many other African-Americans of the time were allowed, she and her siblings—Susan J. (born 1850), Julia (born 1852), Joseph (also known as Josiah, born 1856), Robert H. (born 1857), Martha (born 1860), William (born 1867) and Hattie (born 1868), Lucy (born ca. 1872), and Thomas Marshall (born 1873) — all acquired a classical education. Her father Henry was a freeborn carpenter (born around 1824) of Spanish/Indian heritage who later became a barber in Lexington and Berea. Her mother, Laura Trigg, was a gifted singer and musician who had been well-educated under the protection of her mother who was an enslaved mistress to Kentucky statesman Thomas F. Marshall. Laura had been emancipated at the age of sixteen. At a young age Britton was offered the best education possible for African American children in that time - attending private schools created out of subscriptions from Lexington's African-American professional class. In 1859, along with older sister Julia Britton Hooks (later known as a gifted musician and educator, as well as Berea's first African American teacher), Britton attended a branch school in Lexington started by Mr. William H. Gibson of Louisville, Kentucky. The family later moved to Berea, Kentucky where Laura Britton was hired as a matron at Berea College. From 1871 to 1874, Mary E. Britton attended Berea College, the first institution of higher learning to admit blacks in the state of Kentucky. At the time the only profession offered to an educated woman of any race was teaching. While she was there as a student, she was also a part of the faculty teaching instrumental music - making her the first African-American to teach white students at Berea. After the death of both her parents (within four months of each other in 1874), Britton left Berea in order to seek employment. She taught in the Lexington School System beginning around 1876 and ending in August 1897.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mary E. Britton

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mary E. Britton claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mary E. Britton before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mary E. Britton ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mary E. Britton

In research: Mary E. Britton appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mary E. Britton in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mary E. Britton is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1855 births, 1925 deaths, 19th-century African-American educators, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mary E. Britton outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mary E. Britton in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mary E. Britton means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mary E. Britton out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mary E. Britton in simple terms?

Why does Mary E. Britton matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mary E. Britton?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mary E. Britton.