Origins & Early Life

Katharine Cook Briggs (January 3, 1875 – July 10, 1968) was an American writer who was the co-creator, with her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, of an inventory of the popular yet pseudoscientific personality type system known as the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Katharine Cook Briggs was born on January 3, 1875, in Ingham County, Michigan. Her father Albert John Cook was on the faculty of Michigan State University, previously known as Michigan Agricultural College. Her mother, née Mary Harris Baldwin, attended Oberlin College.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

After Katharine graduated from college she married Lyman James Briggs, a physicist and Director of the Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. On October 18, 1897, Katharine gave birth to Isabel Briggs Myers, the couple's only child who would survive infancy. Briggs was home schooled by her father. She never attended a formal school until she left for college at the age of fourteen. Briggs earned a college degree in agriculture and became an academic.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

She worked as a teacher after college. Briggs looked at data from studies of contemporary children's educational and social developmental...

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