Katharine Cook Briggs  Katharine Cook Briggs (1875–1968) was co-creator, with her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, of an inventory of personality type known as the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Katharine Cook Briggs was born on January 3, 1875 in Ingham County, MI, to a family who promoted education for women as well as men. Her father Albert John Cook was on the faculty of Michigan State, previously known as Michigan Agricultural College. Her mother, nee Mary Harris Baldwin, attended Oberlin College. 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. Through raising Isabel, Briggs developed many theories about the proper ways to raise a child. She took her daughter out of traditional schooling, brought her home, and encouraged her to read and write on any topic of interest. Briggs' interest in personality types grew as her daughter met the man she would marry, Clarence “Chief” Myers. Briggs felt that Chief was different than the rest of the family. To maintain her relationship with her daughter, Briggs sought to better understand Myers and his differences using what she knew of personality types. Briggs was home schooled by her father. Briggs claimed that she did not recall who taught her to write, but that he or she did so poorly. 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 a well-known academic during a time when it was falsely believed that too much education for women harmed their reproductive abilities. She worked as a teacher after college. She was a devoted reader and writer throughout her life. Briggs looked at data from studies of contemporary children's educational and social developmental theories. She created a vocation test for children. She saw this as a key to a child's future happiness and well being. Her earliest research led her to identify 4 main personality types in 1917: meditative types, spontaneous types, executive types, and sociable types, which later developed into the MBTI terms Ixxx, ExxP, ExTJ, and ExFJ. However, while investigating the works of various philosophers, scientists and psychologists, she was unable to identify one definitive theory of type that encompassed all aspects.