Two granddaughters of Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of Tiffany & Co., became members of Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Beta Epsilon Chapter at Barnard College in New York City. Louise Comfort Tiffany and Julia de Forest Tiffany were initiated as freshmen on April 21, 1906. The chapter remained active until its closure on June 28, 1917.
The May 1907 issue of The Key reported that “Julia de Forest Tiffany is spending the spring in Italy and France.” Later that year, the October 1907 issue noted that Julia was Barnard’s fall tennis champion.
In April 1909, the sophomore pledge class was initiated at the Tiffany sisters’ home. By then, Barnard had instituted rules delaying sorority recruitment until sophomore year. As a result, this initiation was the first major ceremony in two years, an eagerly anticipated occasion for the chapter.
Julia de Forest Tiffany, later known as Mrs. Julia Tiffany Weld, went on to make significant contributions to medical research despite never holding a formal scientific degree. The widow of Francis Minot Weld, she devoted much of her adult life to research at Presbyterian Hospital and later at Cornell University Medical College, where she held a faculty appointment as a research assistant. She passed away at the age of 86.
Although her father, Louis Comfort Tiffany — the renowned art director of Tiffany Studios — opposed her pursuit of a college education due to family tradition, Julia persisted in cultivating her passion for medicine. After assisting in the laboratory of Dr. Philip H. Hiss, professor of bacteriology at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, she briefly paused her career to marry Gurdon Saltonstall Parker and raise two children. The marriage ended in divorce.
In 1914, she returned to Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons to work with Dr. Hans Zinsser. By 1917, she co-authored the first of more than 50 scientific papers, which she published independently and in collaboration with other investigators. While much of her research centered on the bacterium staphylococcus, her early work demonstrated that ragweed pollen could provoke severe allergic reactions in white rats.
In 1928, Julia joined the department of pathology at Physicians and Surgeons. Two years later, she married Francis Minot Weld. In 1955, she transitioned to Cornell University Medical College, where her studies expanded to bacteriology, immunology, and protozoology. Over subsequent decades, she continued publishing influential research, including work on staphylococcus and ocular diseases.
Beyond her scientific endeavors, Mrs. Weld made generous contributions to Columbia University’s department of medicine and to other medical institutions, leaving a legacy of both scholarship and philanthropy.
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