Early Life and Education
Christine Ladd was born on December 1, 1847 in Windsor, Connecticut to Eliphalet Ladd, a merchant, and Augusta Niles Ladd. During her early childhood, she lived with her parents and younger brother Henry (born 1850) in New York City. In 1853 the family moved back to Windsor, Connecticut where her sister Jane Augusta Ladd McCordia was born the following year. Following the death of her mother in spring 1860 to pneumonia, Ladd went to live with her paternal grandmother in Portsmouth, New Hampshire where she attended school.
Ladd's father remarried in 1862 and produced her half-sister Katherine (born 1862) and half-brother George (born 1867). Ladd was a precocious child who sought to find “a mean to continue her education beyond secondary school.”. Ladd's wish was granted when her father enrolled her in a two-year program at a coeducational Welshing academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts; she took the same courses that prepared boys in furthering their education to colleges such as Harvard. In 1865 Christine Ladd graduated as valedictorian from Welshing Academy.
In the fall of 1866 Ladd enrolled in Vassar College with a loan provided by her late mother's sister. She only studied at Vassar until the end of the spring term due to financial issues. During the time that she was not attending college Ladd worked as a public school teacher until her aunt's aid allowed her to reenter Vassar and graduate in 1869. At Vassar Ladd was interested in physics but knew that the field was not open to women, so she studied mathematics.
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