88 
HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
Egypt, Brugsch Bey presented her with a graceful little bronze 
cat that had been dug up from a recently excavated tomb. 
On their return to America, Professor Michael accepted 
the position of Director of the Chemical Laboratory of the 
newly established Clark University at Worcester. He re¬ 
signed shortly afterwards, and the following year (1891) he 
and Mrs. Michael took up their residence at Bonchurch, Isle 
of Wight, England, where they equipped a private labora¬ 
tory and continued their research work. After a residence of 
four years, they returned to Boston, Professor Michael re¬ 
suming his connection with Tufts College. 
For a time, while living in a charming home on Beacon Hill 
in Boston, Mrs. Michael resumed her chemical researches at 
the Tufts College Laboratory, but her interests were becom¬ 
ing enlisted in wider fields. 
She was identified with many public organizations in Bos¬ 
ton. She was an associate member of the American Branch 
of the Society for Psychical Research, the New England Wo¬ 
man’s Club, the Walt Whitman Fellowship, of which she was 
at one time secretary, and the Boston Browning Society. She 
was one of the original members of the New Century Club of 
Philadelphia on its foundation in 1887; she was also an early 
member of the Twentieth Century Club of Boston. She was 
one of the original members of the Boston Authors’ Club. 
In November, 1895, she read before the Browning Society 
a paper on The Conception of Truth among the Greeks and 
in Browning. That same year she read before the Franklin 
Institute of Philadelphia, of which she had been elected a mem¬ 
ber, a “Review of Recent Synthetic Work in the Class of Car¬ 
bohydrates.” She also contributed several articles to “ Poet- 
Lore,” a valuable magazine edited by personal friends of hers. 
In 1896, she went abroad again, and there are one or two 
passages from scattered notes which merit reproduction as 
showing how quick she was to respond to the beckonings of 
humanity. Thus in June she was at Linthal in Switzerland. 
She says: ■— 
“ On Sunday, June 28, at the Linthal church, all the sing¬ 
ing societies from the upper Linthal villages assembled in a 
