Fanny Farmer and Fractions

The Amazing Story Of Fannie Farmer

By : Katherine Kelley from the Fundamentals of Math Book

Fannie Farmer was born in Boston on March 23 , 1857. She was paralyzed at the age of 17, preventing her from going to college. She cooked a lot to prevent herself from being bored. She became a really talented cook and 11 years later when her health improved, her parents insisted that she went to the Boston Cooking School. She graduated in 1889 and became the assisting director, then two years later, became the director.

Fannie introduced standardized measurements at the Boston Cooking School . She taught her students to use fractions and mixed numbers. In 1896, the school untroduced those measurements into The Boston Cooking School Cook Book.

Fannie became paralyzed again in 1908, but she still cooked. She had published six cook books by the time she died on January 15, 1915 in Boston.