Mary Elvira Weeks

In 1913 Weeks earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Ripon College where she worked with Albert F. Gilman. In 1914 she received a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison where she worked with Joseph Howard Mathews. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Kansas in 1927, writing a thesis on the role of hydrogen ion concentration in the precipitation of calcium and magnesium. carrying a heavy teaching load and doing a limited amount of laboratory research. While in Kansas, she began researching and writing about the history of chemistry, and published Discovery of the Elements (1933). Weeks retired from Wayne State in 1954 and continued to live in Detroit. Weeks continued to be active as a translator and as an editor after her retirement, working with the Record of Chemical Progress (?-1971) and Chymia (1956-1967). Weeks was a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Association for Advancement of Science, the History of Science Society, the Special Libraries Association, the Swedish History of Science Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi. ==Discovery of the Elements==

Because her interests leaned to the humanities, Weeks was drawn to the history of chemistry. Initially, she wrote about the elements as a hobby. From 1932-1933, while at the University of Kansas, Weeks wrote a series of 21 articles on the discovery of the elements for the Journal of Chemical Education. Discovery of the Elements went through multiple editions. Both book and the earlier articles were liberally illustrated with pictures of chemists from the collection of Frank B. Dains, an older Kansas colleague of Weeks. By 1968, Discovery of the Elements had appeared in seven editions, and had been updated to include the 94 elements that were discovered between 1524 and 1964. The book had been translated into multiple languages. Weeks, who spoke French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish, and Russian, The seventh edition was identified as a "classic of chemistry". It was hailed as "a new edition of an old favorite", a "definitive and unique work" whose "value is well established and recognized by all". Revised by Weeks and Henry M. Leicester, it contained 2,688 references and 373 illustrations.) Weeks's work was one of the inspirations for ''The Lost Elements: The Periodic Table's Shadow Side'' (2015). ==A History of the American Chemical Society==

In 1946 or 1947, Weeks began collaborating with Charles A. Browne on a retrospective history of the American Chemical Society. Browne was responsible for the structure of the project and the first nine chapters. After Browne's death in 1947, Weeks brought the project to completion, and A History of the American Chemical Society—Seventy-five Eventful Years was published in 1952. ==Recognition==

In 1967, Weeks won the Dexter Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. ==References==