KU’s First Woman of Chemistry, Mary Elvira Weeks, A History of Our Historian

This five-page article was originally published in 1999 as a press release by the University of Kansas Department of Chemistry in the publication "Chemistry at the University of Kansas," A greatly abridged version, consisting of one page and lacking notes, appeared as “Our First Woman of Chemistry, Mary Elvira Weeks, A History of Our Historian,” Jayhawk Chemist, The Newsletter of the University of Kansas Chemistry Department, October 1999, Issue No. 33, p 11.Mary Elvira Weeks (1892–1975) was the first woman to earn a PhD in chemistry at the University of Kansas and the first woman on the chemistry faculty there (1921–1944), attaining the rank of associate professor in 1937. Her book, Discovery of the Elements, went through seven editions between 1934 and 1968. In 1967 she received the Dexter Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry from the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. This article tells the story of her life and career with particular attention to the challenges she faced as a woman in a profession dominated by men