Massachusetts Hall of Fame for Science Educators

Miriam E. Dickey (1998)

Miriam Dickey was born in Medford, Massachusetts in 1907. She attended Girls' Latin School before continuing at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where she graduated with a Zoology major and a Chemistry and Physics double minor in 1932. Soon after graduation, she joined the Education Department of the Boston Children's Museum, where she was elected Head of the Department in 1941. Miriam liked the experience of teaching young minds, so she ran a summer day camp for children, which continued for twenty-seven consecutive summers.

In 1968, Miriam was invited by the Massachusetts Audubon Society to run a funded program for inner-city children. In this program, she taught children in Roxbury and North Dorchester, Massachusetts about the science behind what they observed in everyday life. While working for the Massachusetts Audubon Society, Miriam taught Natural History in the Boston Public School System. She also became part of the teaching staff of the American Nature Study Society in Connecticut and Washington D.C.

Miriam taught classes in Astronomy from 1983 to 1994. She then volunteered at the Visiting Nurses Center in Dedham, Massachusetts, where she introduced nature to preschool children. She ran the same type of program for Senior Citizens at the VNA Drop-in Center.

Miriam retired in 1997 at ninety years old.

Special Honors:

• Inducted into the Massachusetts Hall of Fame for Science Educators in 1998
• Outstanding Alumni Award from Girls' Latin School in 1978
• Outstanding Alumni Award from Wheaton College in 1970
• Invited to work with the Massachusetts Audubon Society in 1968
• Elected Head of the Education Department of the Boston Children's Museum in 1941

She passed away in 2002.

Last Modified: September 29, 2008