May Gorslin Preston Slosson | |
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Born |
May Gorslin Preston September 10, 1858 Ilion, New York |
Died | November 26, 1943 Ann Arbor, Michigan |
(aged 85)
Alma mater | Bachelor of Science (1878) and Master of Science (1879), from Hillsdale College; Ph.D. from Cornell University (1880) |
Occupation | Educator and suffragist |
Employer | Professor of Greek at Hastings College, Assistant Principal at Sabetha High School, Kansas, chaplain at Wyoming State Penitentiary |
Known for | First woman to earn a Ph.D. from Cornell University, and the first woman to obtain a doctoral degree in Philosophy in the United States. |
Spouse(s) | Edwin Emery Slosson |
Children | Two sons |
Parent(s) | Reverend Levi Campbell Preston, Mary Gorslin Preston |
May Gorslin Preston Slosson (10 September 1858, Ilion, New York – 26 November 1943, Ann Arbor, Michigan) was an American educator and suffragist. She was the first woman to obtain a doctoral degree in Philosophy in the United States.
May Gorslin Preston was the daughter of Reverend Levi Campbell Preston and the former Mary Gorslin. Her family moved to Kansas from New York State. She earned Bachelor of Science (1878) and Master of Science (1879) degrees from Hillsdale College in Michigan. In 1880 she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. from Cornell University, and the first woman to obtain a doctoral degree in Philosophy in the United States. Her thesis was entitled Different Theories of Beauty.
After obtaining her PhD she became a professor of Greek at Hastings College in Nebraska, and was later Assistant Principal at Sabetha High School in Kansas. She married Edwin Emery Slosson in 1891 in Centralia, Kansas and moved with him in 1892 to Laramie, Wyoming, where he had been appointed professor of Chemistry at the University of Wyoming. Their son Preston William Slosson, born in Laramie in 1892, went on to have a long career as professor of History at the University of Michigan. A younger son, Alfred Raymond, died in childhood of scarlet fever.