author

Mabel Elizabeth Smallwood

A science teacher and natural history writer, this early 20th-century educator helped turn biology into something students could observe for themselves. Her books on plants and animals suggest a practical, hands-on approach to learning that still feels fresh.

1 Audiobook

A Guide for the Study of Animals

A Guide for the Study of Animals

by Worrallo Whitney, Frederic Colby Lucas, Harold Brough Shinn, Mabel Elizabeth Smallwood

About the author

Mabel Elizabeth Smallwood was an American educator and writer associated with biology teaching in Chicago. A contemporaneous edition of A Guide for the Study of Animals lists her as a member of the Biology Round Table of the Chicago High Schools and identifies her with Lane Technical High School.

She is best known for school-oriented science books, including A Guide for the Study of Plants and, with Worrallo Whitney, Frederic C. Lucas, and Harold B. Shinn, A Guide for the Study of Animals. These works point to a career focused on helping students learn science through direct observation rather than memorization alone.

Available catalog and authority records also connect her with zoology and entomology, and place her life from 1867 to 1939. While detailed biographical information appears to be limited online, the surviving record of her teaching texts shows her as part of a generation of educators who worked to make nature study and biology more accessible in American schools.