Stimson was born in
St. Louis, Missouri on October 10, 1890, to Henry Albert Stimson and Alice Wheaton. She was the granddaughter of a former president of
Dartmouth College, and a cousin of former
United States Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. Stimson graduated from
Vassar College in 1912 with a
bachelor's degree. She later studied at
Columbia University, from which she earned a
master's degree in 1913 and doctorate in 1917. Her dissertation was titled
The Gradual Acceptance of the Copernican Theory of the Universe. It was at the suggestion of
James Harvey Robinson that Stimson pursued this subject. == Career ==