Preston William SLOSSON

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1900, Living with parents in laramie, Albany Co., Wyoming
• Census: 1910, Living with parents in Manhattan, New York Co., New York
• Census: 1920, Living with parents in Manhattan, New York Co., New York
• Census: 1930, Living in Ann Harbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan
• Occupation: 1930; Teacher - University

Notes:

Democratic candidate for U.S. Representative from Michigan 2nd District, 1948. Professor of History at the University of Michigan, author of history textbooks. body donated to the University of Michigan.

From "Who's Who in America":
SLOSSON, Preston William, authro; b. Loramie, Wyo., Sept. 2, 1892; s. Edwin Emery and May (Preston) S.; B.S., Columbia, 1912, M.A., 1913, Ph.D., 1916; unmarried. Asst. in history, Columbia, 1913-17; editorial staff New York Independent, 1917; with Dept. of State, 1917-18;asst. librarian Am. Commn. to Negotiate Peace, 1918-19; lit. editor New York Independent, 1920-21; Instr. history, 1921-23; asst. prof., 1923- U. of Mich., Mem. Phi Beta Kappa. "Wilson Democrat". Unitarian, Club; Aughros (New York). Author: Fated or Free, 1914; The Decline of the Chartit Movement, 1916. Home: Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Preston married Lucy Chase DENNY on 21 Jun 1927 in Richmind, Virginia. Lucy (daughter of Bishop Collins DENNY and Lucy Chase CHAPMAN) was born on 21 Jan 1893; died in Aug 1974 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Flora May SLOSSON
2. Edith Denny SLOSSON

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1880, Living with parents in Silver Cliff, Custer Co., Colorado
• Census: 1900, Living in Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming
• Occupation: 1900; Professor - University
• Census: 1910, Living in Manhatten, New York Co., New York
• Census: 1920, Living in Manhatten, New York Co., New York
• Occupation: 1920; Editor - Magazine plant

Notes:

Post-em note received by Diana Lineman

Note:
Non-relative, but have this marriage info from The Sabetha Herald of Sabetha,Kansas of Friday August 14, 1891:

SLOSSON-PRESTON.---At Centralia,KS Wednesday morning
August 12, 1891 by Rev. A. C. Hogbin, assisted by
Rev. A. S. Bush, Mr. Edwin E. slosson and Miss May Preston. ..among the best known in Sabetha, the bridegroom being a native of the vicinity and having lived here until a few years ago, the bride having taught one year as assistant principal in the Sabetha high school.... Festivities of the day were...wedding breakfast at the home of bride's mother, Mrs. M. G. Preston..at nine o'clock a.m. ...wedding..conducted by Rev. A. C. Hogbin, brother-in-law of the bride...Bryant Preston..best man... ...carriages were taken for Seneca at which piont the cars were boarded for Laramie, Wyoming, where the bridegroom has lately been installed as professor in the state University, where will be their home.

Among the guests....M/M C. L. Sherwood, M/M F. E. Graham,
M/M Lyman Lilly and children, M/M Sam Slosson and children, Mrs. E. F. Bouton, Miss Rosa Bouton, Mrs. Emily Slosson, Foster Lilly, Rev. and Mrs. A. C. Hogbin, and M/M W. B. Slosson were present from New Birmingham, Texas (The W.B. Slosson's were instrumental in establishing that new city-referred to as a "boom".)

See the following:
1900 Laramie WY census ED 7
1910 Manhattan NY census ED 721
WW I Registration of Preston W Slosson
1920 Manhattan NY census ED 956
1930 Ann Arbor MI census

end

From: "Who's Who In America":

SLOSSON, Edwin Emery, editor; b. Albany, Kan., June 7, 1865; s. William B. and Louise (Lilly) S.; B.S. U. of Kan., 1890, M.S. 1892; Ph.D., U. of Chicago, 1902; m. May Preston (Ph.D., Cornell), of Centralia, Kan., Aug. 12, 1891. Prof. chemistry, U. of Wyo., and chemist, Wyo. Agrl. Expt. Sta., 1891-1903; Lit. editor The Independent, 1903-20; dir. of Science Service. Fellow A.A.A.S.; mem. Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Washington Acaad. Sciences. Clubs: Authors (New York) Cosmos (Washington). Author: Great American Universities, 1910; Major Prophets of Today, 1914; Six Major Prophets, 1917; Creative Chemistry, 1919; Easy Lessons in Einstein, 1920; The American Spirit in Education, 1921; Plots and Personalities, 1922; Chats on Science, 1923. Home: 1739 Lanier Pl. Office: 1115 Conn. Av., Washington, D.C.

Name:
Edwin Emery Slosson (7 June 1865 - 15 October 1929) was an American magazine editor, author, journalist and chemist. He was the first head of Science Service, and a notable popularizer of science.

Family background and education

Edwin Emery Slosson was born in Albany, Kansas, the son of William Butler Slosson and his wife, the former Achsah Louise Lilly. His parents were pioneers who had moved from New York State to Kansas in 1857. William Slosson ran the first general store in Albany. A supporter of free state status for Kansas, he helped to organize a branch of the Underground Railroad and ran a "station" where escaping slaves were sheltered.[1][2]

Edwin Slosson attended Leavenworth High School for three years and travelled in Europe before entering the University of Kansas. He majored in chemistry and was a member of both Sigma Xi and Phi Beta Kappa.[3] After obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in 1890, he remained at the University of Kansas as a graduate student, studying chemistry, physics, geology and psychology. He was awarded a Master of Science degree in 1892.[4] Slosson was offered a fellowship in psychology at Clark University, but chose instead to accept a position as Assistant Professor of chemistry at the University of Wyoming because it paid well enough to allow him to marry.[5] He married May Gorslin Preston at Centralia, Kansas on August 12, 1891.[4]

University of Wyoming

From 1891 to 1903 Edwin Slosson lived in Laramie, Wyoming, where he taught chemistry at the University of Wyoming and carried out chemical research at the Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station, which was associated with the University. He also acted as state chemist. His main areas of research were alkali in Wyoming soils and petroleum. His observations on these and other subjects, including food adulteration and the fuel value of prepared cereals, were published in numerous bulletins of the Experiment Station.[6][7] He participated as a special demonstrator in chemistry at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.[3]

Slosson taught all the chemistry courses at the University of Wyoming and taught popular extension courses in chemistry to community members. He also taught a course in experimental psychology and lectured on photography to the local Camera Club. During the summer vacations he studied organic chemistry at the University of Chicago, working under Julius Stieglitz and John Nef. He completed his doctoral dissertation and was awarded his Ph.D. degree magna cum laude in 1902.[3][8]

The Independent

While living in Laramie, Slosson had contributed articles to The Independent, a weekly magazine published in New York City. After his doctoral studies, he spent the summer of 1903 in New York, working as an unpaid assistant to Hamilton Holt, the magazine's editor and publisher. He returned to Laramie in the fall, but when Holt offered him the position of literary editor on The Independent he accepted the offer and moved with his family to New York in 1904.[3]

He was connected with The Independent until 1920 as literary or managing editor and contributor.[9] He wrote many articles for the magazine and his journalism formed the basis for several books. On behalf of the magazine, he travelled around the United States visiting universities and visited Europe to interview leading philosophers and writers, including Henri Bergson, H.G. Wells, and Ernst Haeckel. The resulting articles were collected and published as Great American Universities (1910), Major Prophets of Today (1914) and Six Major Prophets (1916).[1][5]

His many articles for The Independent about scientific topics won him a reputation as a leading popularizer of science. His book Creative Chemistry, published in 1919, was a collection of articles about industrial applications of chemistry. It was his most successful publication and became a bestseller, with 200,000 copies sold by 1929.[5] It was still being used in high school and college chemistry courses in the early 1940s.[3] In 1920 he published another collection, Easy Lessons in Einstein, explaining the theory of relativity to a non-scientific audience. From 1912 to 1920 he taught a course on physical science for journalists at the Pulitzer School of Journalism.[5]

Science Service

In 1920, the biologist William Emerson Ritter invited Slosson to become the first head of Science Service, which was being organized by Ritter and the newspaper publisher E.W. Scripps with the aim of improving the general public's understanding of science by providing scientific news to daily newspapers.[10] Slosson accepted Ritter's job offer, and in January 1921 he moved to Washington, D.C., where Science Service's offices were located in the National Research Council building.[11]
Slosson, whose official title at Science Service was Editor, was responsible for organizing and staffing the agency. His initial efforts were concentrated on promoting and developing science journalism by the means of a weekly syndicated news service called Science News Bulletin.

Slosson described Science Service as "a sort of liaison officer between scientific circles and the outside world".[12]Science News Bulletin was well received and in September 1922 it began to be issued to newspapers and magazines daily rather than weekly.[10] Also in 1922, Science Service started publishing Science News Letter, a weekly magazine for sale to individuals.

Watson Davis, an engineer at the National Bureau of Standards and part-time science journalist who had been submitting articles to Science News Bulletin since it was established, became managing editor of Science Service in January 1923.[11] Davis's assistance and the growing success of the agency allowed Slosson to devote more of his time to writing, lecturing and travelling.[1] He contributed many articles to Science News Letter and other magazines including Collier's Weekly, and published five more books during the last decade of his life. He made his first radio broadcast at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in 1924, and in June of that year Science Service collaborated with the National Research Council to establish a weekly series called Science News of the Week. These radio broadcasts featured scientists talking about their work. Slosson also travelled extensively as a news correspondent for Science Service, in 1923 joining an expedition by astronomers to Mount Wilson Observatory in California to observe a solar eclipse.[11]

When Slosson died of heart disease on October 15, 1929 in Washington, he was "easily the outstanding interpreter of sciences to the non-technical public", according to the Dictionary of American Biography.[4]

Edwin married May Genevieve PRESTON on 12 Aug 1891 in Centralia, Kansas. May (daughter of Levi C. PRESTON and Mary GORSLINE) was born on 10 Sep 1858 in New York, USA; died on 26 Nov 1943 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Education: 1880; Graduated from Cornell University
• Census: 1900, Living with husband in Laramie, Albany Co., Wyoming
• Census: 1910, Living with husband in Manhattan, New York Co., New York
• Census: 1920, Living with husband in Manhattan, New York Co., New York

Notes:

Excerpts from "Graduate and Professional Education":

The first woman to earn a Ph.D. at Cornell was Mary (May) G. Preston. As described by Charlotte Conable,
In 1880, Cornell University awarded to may Preston a Ph.D. degree, the first such degree granted to a woman at this institution. After serving as professor of Greek and English, May Preston Slosson moved to Laramie, Wyoming, where she was appointed by the governor to serve as chaplain of the State Penitentiary for Men, reputedly one of the first women to hold such a position.

May's graduate work was in philosophy and her thesis was entitled "Different Theories of Beauty." She was interviewed by Florence Hazzard many years later and observed that the four faculty who examined her for her degree in 1880 "compromised" on a harder cours for her than was required for male candidates at the time. As May noted, female students at Cornell in that era were "a picked lot," having a deep sense of responsibility. Their conduct had to be "impecable - couldn't be frivolous- were conscious of being pioneers." The examination by this committee was grueling, lasting one week and taking 8 hours per day.

Name:
THE LADY CHAPLAIN

CONVICTS IN A PENITENTIARY PETITIONED THE GOVERNOR TO APPOINT MRS. SLOSSON,
By a Special Contributor.

Mrs. May Preston Slosson, wife of Prof Slosson of Platt University, has recently been appointed chaplain to the Wyoming State Penitentiary at Laramie.

Before her formal appointment as chaplain, Mrs. Slosson devoted several hours each week to teaching the convicts. When the Governor of the State decided that the welfare of the prisoners called for the appointment of a chaplain, he naturally turned to the clergy, and it was expected that some popular preacher of the day would receive the appointment, and with one voice petitioned the Governor that Mrs Slosson be made State chaplain.

Mrs. Slosson is a native of New York State, and studied at Cornell University, where she was one of the first women enrolled; she was also the first woman to receive from the university the degree of Ph.D. In her undergraduate days she attracted the notice of President White and the late H.H. Boyesen, and was distinguished in her college course for her knowledge of literature and her readiness in composition, in both prose and verse.

"The chaplain's work is still in the experimental stage," Mrs. Slosson says, in speaking of her appointment, "and marked results cannot yet be looked for. What I am trying to do for the prisoners is to awaken hoe in their hearts, to reiterate words of encouragement, to give them a desire to cultivate their higher natures. Hope is the best ally a chaplain can have in persuading men to reform, aided by a realization of the truth that those men are not unlike others--
save these chains' of untoward circumstances. I try to make my afternoon sermons at the penitentiary as practical as can be; one series of talks on the ideal man took some manly quality for the text, each Sunday for instance, courage, honesty, industry, and so on. Sometimes I read to the men, sometimes I simply talk. I get the best music I can, and if some distinguished orator comes to Laramie I beg a talk for my boys.

"How much I am doing for their reformation I cannot tell; they do love me, and that gives me courage to go on, and a certain leverage. The men are visited when sick, and their personal letters to the chaplain receive careful attention and an earl answer. They are urged to visit the chaplain when released, and many do so, and assure me of their determination to live a better life. many things encourage me, however, in my work; for one thing, the warden's report that cases of insubordination have deceased 50 per cent, since my appointment."

Upon occasions Mrs. Slosson has been asked to preach at different churches. "Whether I preach a really sermon or only deliver a lecture, I cannot say."