| Birth Date: | 1922 3, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Waukesha, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada |
| Alma Mater: | Carroll University
|
| Thesis Title: | A glossarial index to De re coquinaria of Apicius |
| Thesis Year: | 1950 |
| Discipline: | Classics |
| Workplaces: | University of New Brunswick |
Mary Ella Milham (22 March 1922 – 9 December 2010)[1] was an American-Canadian Professor of Latin and Greek at the University of New Brunswick from 1954 until her retirement in 1987.[2] She was the first female president of the Classical Association of Canada.[3]
Milham received her BA in English and Latin from Carroll University and her MA and PhD in Classics and Linguistics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1954 she joined the department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of New Brunswick, where she taught until her retirement in 1987. Milham published numerous articles on Latin cookbooks, particularly Apicius and Platina. In 1998 she published an edition and translation of Platina's De honesta voluptate et valetudine, the first printed cookbook.[4]
Milham was active in the Classical Association of Canada, including as chair of the Committee on the State of Classical Studies, which produced the 'Milham Report' on the state of Classics in Canada in 1976.[5] She was president of the organisation 1984–86, the first woman to hold this position.[6]
Milham was elected to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1986. The University of New Brunswick Milham Lectures, established in 1987, were named in honour of Milham.[7] She received the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Award in 1989. A festschrift in her honour, What's Cooking?: a Festschrift in Celebration of the 75th Birthday of Mary Ella Milham. (ed. J. S. Murray), was published in 1997.[8]