IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
SYLVIA M. STOESSER
(1901-1991)
PAPERS, 1952-1992
(bulk 1992)
9 items
and audiovisual material
|
ACQUISITION: |
The papers
(donor no. 101) were donated by Judy
Jaastad, Sylvia Stoesser's daughter, in 1991. |
|
ACCESS: |
The papers
are open for research. |
|
AUDIOVISUAL: |
One videocassette is shelved in the videocassette collection [V42]. |
|
COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright has not been transferred to the University of Iowa. |
|
PROCESSED BY: |
Robert J. Jett, 1995. |
Biography
Sylvia M. Goergen was born on July 18,
1901 in Buffalo, New York. She earned her
B.A. from the University of Buffalo in 1923 and her Ph.D. in physical chemistry
from the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa) in 1928. Goergen married Wesley C. Stoesser in 1929
and was hired along with her husband by Dow Chemical Company in Midland,
Michigan, that same year. Sylvia
Stoesser was hired directly by H. H. Dow, foregoing the usual hiring procedure,
since women were not considered part of the Dow workforce in the 1920s. She was the first woman hired as a physical
chemist and the only Ph.D. in the group.
Stoesser assisted with writing the first complete book published on
styrene, Styrene: Its Polymers,
Copolymers and Derivatives, published in 1952. She contributed a chapter to the publication A History of the Dow Physics Lab, published in 1990. During her ten years of working for Dow,
Stoesser earned twenty-nine patents.
Scope and
Content Note
The Sylvia M. Stoesser papers date from 1952 to 1992 and consist of 9 items. They include an obituary, abstracts of the
patents of Sylvia Stoesser (1929-1947), Michigan Women's Hall Of Fame candidate
nomination forms, photocopies of newspaper clippings, and a copy of the Dow Chemical Company newsletter, Dow Today, announcing a television
commercial highlighting Stoesser's achievements. A videocassette of the television commercial is shelved in the
audiocassette collection. Also included
is a paper on Styrene presented to the American Chemical Society Annual Meeting
in 1990 by James J. Bohning in which Stoesser's role at Dow is discussed.
A
History of The Dow Chemical Physics Lab and Styrene, Its Polymers, Copolymers,
and Derivatives, are shelved in the printed works collection.
Box no. Description
Folder 1
Obituary, undated
Abstracts of the patents of
Sylvia Stoesser [1929-1947]
Michigan Women's Hall of
Fame candidate nomination forms, 1992
Newspaper clippings,
1991-1992 and undated
Dow Today, August 9, 1991
"Inspiration," Dow
Chemical commercial (VHS, 30 seconds)
[shelved in audiocassette collection: V42]
"Subterfuge and Patriotism:
Styrene at Dow for the World War II Synthetic Rubber Program" by James J.
Bohning, 1990