American geneticist
Elizabeth Wagner Reed
|
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![Photograph of the right profile of a woman's head and shoulders](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Elizabeth_Cleland_Wagner_from_Makio_1933.jpg) Wagner from
Makio
, the Ohio State University 1933 yearbook
|
Born
| Elizabeth Cleland Wagner
(
1912-08-27
)
August 27, 1912
|
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Died
| July 14, 1996
(1996-07-14)
(aged 83)
|
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Nationality
| American
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Other names
| E. W. Beasley, Elizabeth Wagner Beasley, E. W. Reed, E. C. Wagner
|
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Occupation(s)
| Scientist and academic
|
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Years active
| 1932?1992
|
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Elizabeth Wagner Reed
(August 27, 1912 ? July 14, 1996) was an American geneticist and one of the first scientists to work on
Drosophila
speciation
. She taught
women's studies
courses and had a particular interest in research aimed at recovering the history of nineteenth-century women scientists. Born in the
Philippines
to a Northern Irish nurse and an American civil servant, she grew up in
Carroll, Ohio
. After earning bachelor's, master's, and PhD degrees from
Ohio State University
, she became a teacher with an interest in genetics. In the 1940s, she worked with her husband on plant genetics at the
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
. After he was killed in action during
World War II
, she returned to Ohio and conducted studies on penicillin at the Ohio State Research Foundation.
After a second marriage to
Sheldon C. Reed
, the couple became research partners, first at
Harvard University
and from 1947 at the
Dight Institute for Human Genetics
at the
University of Minnesota
. As her husband directed the institute which had rules against nepotism, although she had a work station at the institute, Reed was not listed as staff until the 1970s. She was one of the few women who performed pioneering work in genetics. Her studies first focused on species evolution, for which she undertook statistical analysis and comparison of minute differences in the
Drosophila
genus of flies. Later, as the couple's interest shifted to human genetics, the Reeds published works on
congenital disorders
and diseases. They were in favor of
genetic counseling
based on an understanding of how such disorders occurred, especially in connection with family planning.
In addition to her genetic work, Reed wrote about
sexism
toward women scientists. An active women's rights advocate, she not only strove to mentor other women in the profession, but to recover the histories of women scientists. Her book
American Women in Science before the Civil War
(1992), reclaimed the contributions and biographies of twenty-two women who published in science before the
American Civil War
. Among them were
Eunice Newton Foote
and
Mary Amelia Swift
. Reed's own legacy was obscured by her husband's prominence, until her contributions were recovered by Marta Velasco Martin in 2020.
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Map of Luzon Island
Elizabeth Cleland Wagner was born on August 27, 1912, in
Baguio
, on the island of
Luzon
, in the
Philippines
to Catherine (nee Cleland) and John O. Wagner.
Her mother was from
Killyleagh
,
Northern Ireland
, but was working as a nurse and nurse trainer in the Philippines when she met her husband.
Her father served in the
Spanish-American War
and afterwards worked in various
civil service
positions during the period when the Philippines was an
unincorporated territory
of the United States, including as a court interpreter and secretary to the Governor of the
Mountain Province
on Luzon.
Her only sibling died in infancy.
In 1917, the family returned to Wagner's home state of Ohio and settled in
Fairfield County
, where her father operated a fruit orchard.
Wagner grew up near
Carroll, Ohio
, and graduated from
Canal Winchester High School
.
From 1930, she furthered her studies at
Ohio State University
, majoring in
botany
.
She excelled in her studies and in her second year had the highest marks in her class.
She graduated with honors and was elected to the academic
honor society
Phi Beta Kappa
, in 1933.
With support from the Ohio State Graduate School, Wagner earned her master's degree in 1934 and a PhD in 1936.
After graduation, she did further studies in 1937 in plant research, with funding provided by the
Sherwin-Williams Paint Company
.
Because of biases against women, Wagner was told she should publish her research using only her initials. Thus, her thesis,
Effects of Certain Insecticides and Inert Materials upon the Transpiration Rate of Bean Plants
, published in 1939, appeared in the name of E. C. Wagner.
Career
[
edit
]
Early teaching career (1938?1943)
[
edit
]
After completing her studies, Wagner was hired as a biology and chemistry instructor at
Atlantic Christian College
in
Wilson, North Carolina
.
In 1938, she was promoted to head the school's biology department and worked there until her marriage in 1940.
Wagner married James O. Beasley, a pioneering plant geneticist, on September 17, 1940. After their marriage, the couple moved to
College Station, Texas
, where both were employed at the
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
.
Beasley was drafted to fight in
World War II
in 1942 shortly after Wagner published her second paper and just prior to the birth of their son John in April.
Soon after, Beasley went missing in action and Wagner contacted his friend,
Sheldon C. Reed
, to see if he had any information.
She returned to Ohio with their son and lived with her parents during this time, while working on
penicillin
studies at the Ohio State Research Foundation.
Wagner was notified in November 1943, that Beasley had been in killed in action, in September 1943 in Italy.
He was subsequently awarded a
Purple Heart
.
Genetics work (1944?1966)
[
edit
]
Drosophila melanogaster
In 1944, Wagner took a post at
Vassar College
in
Poughkeepsie, New York
, as an assistant professor in plant sciences. In 1945, she relocated to
Delaware, Ohio
, and taught botany at
Ohio Wesleyan University
.
On August 20, 1946, she and Sheldon Reed, who had remained in touch, married. He was at the time an assistant professor at
Harvard University
, teaching biology.
After their marriage, the couple lived in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
, and both worked at Harvard.
They began collaborating on research at that time and thereafter jointly published works. Their first project concerned the
speciation
of flies, which was published as
Morphological Differences and Problems of Speciation in
Drosophila
in March 1948. Reed gave birth to their daughter, Catherine, that same month.
By the time the paper was published, the family had moved to
Minneapolis, Minnesota
, where Sheldon had become the director of the
Dight Institute for Human Genetics
at the
University of Minnesota
in 1947.
Although Reed had a desk at the Dight Institute from 1947 to 1966, she never held an academic position with the institute because of nepotism rules. Her nominal tie was to the University of Minnesota.
She nevertheless continued to work with Sheldon and publish works on genetics. Their next two papers,
Natural Selection in Laboratory Populations of
Drosophila
(1948) and
Natural Selection in Laboratory Populations of
Drosophila
II: Competition between a White Eye Gene and Its Wild Type Allele
(1950), focused on
Drosophila melanogaster
and
natural selection
.
These studies were important in the development of new theoretical and methodological approaches, using statistical analysis and comparison of minute differences, to studying the process of speciation. As a pioneer in the work on
Drosophila
genetics, Reed was one of the women who contributed to establishing and standardizing processes to study species evolution.
From 1950, the Reeds changed from studying flies to human genetics and published works together on
intellectual disability
. In June 1951, their son William was born.
Many of their works, like a 1958 follow-up study of former residents from the turn-of-the-century at the
Minnesota Experimental School for the Feeble Minded
in
Faribault
, and a 1962 study on intelligence, focused on families and attempted to determine whether certain traits were genetic.
They became proponents of
genetic counseling
, studying parental genes to determine the probable source of children's
congenital disorders
or diseases, in an effort to mitigate and understand how they occurred.
Their best known joint book, which gave Reed lead author position, was
Mental Retardation: A Family Study
, published in 1965.
Women's studies (1950?1992)
[
edit
]
From 1950, Reed was interested in writing about women and studying
sexism
in science. Having been a member of
Sigma Delta Epsilon
, an organization dedicated to fostering women in their scientific endeavors, she recognized that issues of self-esteem, family obligations, and sexual discrimination they faced were largely responsible for women leaving the profession. That year, she published
Productivity and Attitudes of Seventy Scientific Women
,
[Notes 1]
which analyzed the impact of marriage and childbirth on scientific careers. She noted that of the women in her sample four-fifths regardless of marital status indicated working was a necessity for financial reasons. She concluded that in her study group marriage and children were the primary reason women abandoned scientific careers. Aware of the difficulties, Reed tried to encourage members of Sigma Delta Epsilon to continue working and to know their rights.
She was a committed women's rights activist, supporter of the
National Abortion Rights Action League
, and served on the board of
Planned Parenthood
.
The push of activists in the
Women's Liberation Movement
in the 1970s brought about the advent of
women's studies
courses. A central role of the new field was to recover the histories of women's participation and contributions to society. In 1992, Reed published
American Women in Science before the Civil War
, which recovered the histories of twenty-two American women scientists who had published prior to the
American Civil War
.
[Notes 2]
The book, along with
Ladies in the Laboratory
by Mary R. S. Creese, was acknowledged by Tina Gianquitto, a professor at the
Colorado School of Mines
, whose work focuses in on nineteenth-century women scientists, as being one of two sources that gave extensive historical and biographical information on women scientists of that era.
Historian William P. Palmer noted in 2011 that Reed had been "the most thorough biographer of
Mary Amelia Swift
".
In a different chapter of the book, about
Eunice Newton Foote
, Reed wrote that Foote's experiments confirmed that when subjected to sunlight, carbon dioxide became warmer than air "thereby demonstrating what we call the greenhouse effect today".
[Notes 3]
Later career (1966?1980)
[
edit
]
In 1966, Reed was officially hired by the University of Minnesota to develop the
Minne
sota
Ma
thematics and
S
cience
T
eaching project, known as Minnemast. The program was funded by the
National Science Foundation
and aimed to focus on better science and math education for kindergarten and primary school children. Reed worked on the project through 1970.
The project developed twenty-nine teaching plans, six of which were created by Reed.
She was still working at the Dight Institute and was part of the staff in the 1970s, as well as serving as co-director of research for the Minnesota Genetics League.
She taught courses at the University of Minnesota and gave courses on women's contributions throughout history at the university's Continuing Education and Extension Department.
Death and legacy
[
edit
]
Reed died on July 14, 1996, in
Minneapolis
,
Minnesota
.
Her legacy in genetics was obscured and according to scholar Marta Velasco Martin, the academic record omitted the involvement of Reed and other women scientists from the historic record of early genetic research. Reed's work was hidden behind that of her more prominent husband, although he acknowledged their partnership.
This same fate befell women scientists like Foote, whose biography was "recovered" by Reed.
Foote had told
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
in 1868 that women's work was often claimed by men for self-serving reasons.
Reed's legacy, along with that of
Natasha Sivertzeva-Dobzhansk
and
Maria Monclus
, was recovered in the paper
Women and Partnership Genealogies in Drosophila Population Genetics
, written by Velasco Martin in 2020, to confirm that women were pioneers in genetics, although leading historians tended to ignore their contributions.
On 22 April 2023,
The New York Times
feature "
Overlooked No More
" honored Reed.
Selected publications
[
edit
]
- Wagner, E. C. (1939).
Effects of Certain Insecticides and Inert Materials upon the Transpiration Rate of Bean Plants
(PhD). Columbus, Ohio:
Ohio State University
.
OCLC
65405151
.
PMC
437783
.
- Beasley, E. W. (1942).
"Effects of Some Chemically Inert Dusts upon the Transpiration Rate of Yellow Coleus Plants"
.
Plant Physiology
.
17
(1). Rockville, Maryland:
American Society of Plant Biologists
: 101?108.
doi
:
10.1104/pp.17.1.101
.
ISSN
0032-0889
.
OCLC
4645244692
.
PMC
438296
.
PMID
16653746
.
- Reed, S. C.
; Reed, E. W. (March 1948).
"Morphological Differences and Problems of Speciation in Drosophila"
.
Evolution
.
2
(1). Lancaster, Pennsylvania:
Society for the Study of Evolution
: 40?48.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1558-5646.1948.tb02730.x
.
ISSN
0014-3820
.
OCLC
269309298
.
PMID
18860233
.
S2CID
6730465
.
- Reed, S. C.
; Reed, E. W. (June 1948).
"Natural Selection in Laboratory Populations of Drosophila"
.
Evolution
.
2
(2). Lancaster, Pennsylvania:
Society for the Study of Evolution
: 176?186.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1558-5646.1948.tb02739.x
.
ISSN
0014-3820
.
OCLC
7352514281
.
S2CID
37671503
.
- Reed, S. C.
; Reed, E. W. (March 1950). "Natural Selection in Laboratory Populations of Drosophila II: Competition between a White Eye Gene and Its Wild Type Allele".
Evolution
.
4
(1). Lancaster, Pennsylvania:
Society for the Study of Evolution
: 34?42.
ISSN
0014-3820
.
OCLC
5551131154
.
- Reed, Elizabeth Wagner (January 1950).
"Productivity and Attitudes of Seventy Scientific Women"
.
American Scientist
.
38
(1). New Haven, Connecticut:
Sigma Xi
: 132?135.
ISSN
0003-0996
.
JSTOR
27826298
.
OCLC
5551779579
.
- Reed, S. C.
; Reed, E. W. (1957). "The Relatives of the Mentally Retarded".
Human Heredity
.
7
(2). Basel, Switzerland:
Karger Publishers
: 381?382.
doi
:
10.1159/000151011
.
ISSN
0001-5652
.
OCLC
7016721043
.
PMID
13469186
.
- Reed, E. W.;
Reed, S. C.
(1965).
Mental Retardation: A Family Study
. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
W.B. Saunders Company
.
OCLC
794036611
.
- Reed, Elizabeth Wagner (January 1971).
"Temperature Distribution in Water"
.
The Science Teacher
.
38
(1). Arlington, Virginia:
National Science Teachers Association
: 53.
ISSN
0036-8555
.
JSTOR
24119870
.
OCLC
425372216
.
- Reed, Elizabeth Wagner (1992).
American Women in Science before the Civil War
(PDF)
. Minneapolis, Minnesota:
University of Minnesota
.
OCLC
28126164
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on July 8, 2016.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Reed published her works on women using her full name rather than initials.
- ^
Besides Foote and Swift, the other scientists recovered by Reed included:
Elizabeth Cary Agassiz
,
Catharine Esther Beecher
,
Jane Colden
,
Eunice Powers Cutter
,
Dorothea Lynde Dix
, Foote,
Lydia Folger Fowler
,
Sophia Bledsoe Herrick
,
Mary Putnam Jacobi
,
Laura H. Johnson
,
Frances Green McDougall
,
Maria Mitchell
,
Margaretta Hare Morris
,
Hannah Bouvier Peterson
,
Almira Lincoln Phelps
,
Mary Amelia Swift
,
Charlotte de Bernier Taylor
,
Jane Taylor
,
Mary Townsend
,
Ellen Smith Tupper
,
Jane Kilby Welsh
, and
Emma Hart Willard
.
- ^
Twenty-first century authors have tended to credit retired
petroleum geologist
Ray Sorenson, who came across Foote's work in
The Annual of Scientific Discovery
and published about her in 2011,
with Foote's recovery as the woman who first recognized the greenhouse effect.
[37]
Reed's recognition in 1992, of Foote's accomplishment
preceded Sorenson's work by almost two decades,
but Sorenson's work recognized that that Foote had preceded John Tyndall's work,
who had up to that time been considered as the person who had discovered the greenhouse effect.
References
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Brazil, Rachel (May 2020).
"Eunice Foote: The Mother of Climate Change"
.
Chemistry World
. Vol. 17, no. 5. London:
Royal Society of Chemistry
. pp. 36?37.
ISSN
1473-7604
.
OCLC
8699135304
.
Archived
from the original on August 12, 2021
. Retrieved
July 10,
2022
.
- Cohn, Victor (September 23, 1962).
"U Researchers Find IQ-Wise, We're Not Getting Much Smarter ch Smarter"
.
Star Tribune
. Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 34
. Retrieved
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2022
– via
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.
- Gianquitto, Tina (2007).
'Good observers of nature': American Women and the Scientific Study of the Natural World, 1820?1885
. Athens, Georgia:
University of Georgia Press
.
ISBN
978-0-8203-3655-8
.
- Hecht, Jeff (March 1, 2020).
"Something's a-Foote with Climate Science History"
.
SPIE News
. Bellingham, Washington:
International Society for Optics and Photonics
.
Archived
from the original on July 12, 2022
. Retrieved
July 12,
2022
.
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"From Tree House to Family Tree"
.
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. Retrieved
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.
- Mandel, Kyla (May 18, 2018).
"This Woman Fundamentally Changed Climate Science?And You've Probably Never Heard of Her"
.
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. Retrieved
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.
- May, Rachel (April 22, 2023).
"Elizabeth Wagner Reed: Who Resurrected Legacies of Women in Science"
.
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. New York, New York.
Archived
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. Retrieved
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2023
.
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"This Lady Scientist Defined the Greenhouse Effect But Didn't Get the Credit, Because Sexism"
.
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.
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.
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.
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"Forgotten Women in Science Education: The Case of Mary Amelia Swift"
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. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers. pp. 167?187.
ISBN
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.
- Reed, Sheldon (May 1958).
"Genetic Counseling"
(PDF)
.
Counseling Parents of Children with Mental Handicaps
. 33rd Spring Conference of The Woods Schools, held in Minneapolis, May 2 and 3, 1958. Langhorne, Pennsylvania: The Woods Schools for Exceptional Children.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on February 17, 2017
. Retrieved
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2022
.
- Sheffield, Suzanne Le-May (2004).
Women and Science: Social Impact and Interaction
. Santa Barbara, California:
ABC-CLIO
.
ISBN
978-0-8135-3737-5
.
- Sorenson, Raymond P. (2011).
"Eunice Foote's Pioneering Research on CO2 and Climate Warming"
(PDF)
.
Search and Discovery
. Tulsa, Oklahoma:
American Association of Petroleum Geologists
. #70092. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on February 14, 2021.
- Sorenson, Raymond P. (2018).
"Eunice Foote's Pioneering Research on CO2 and Climate Warming: Update*"
(PDF)
.
Search and Discovery
. Tulsa, Oklahoma:
American Association of Petroleum Geologists
. #70317. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on October 21, 2020.
- Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
(April 16, 1868).
"Washington"
.
The Revolution
. New York, New York. p. 226.
- Thomson, Mildred (May 1958).
"Introduction to Dr. Sheldon C. Reed"
(PDF)
.
Counseling Parents of Children with Mental Handicaps
. 33rd Spring Conference of The Woods Schools, held in Minneapolis, May 2 and 3, 1958. Langhorne, Pennsylvania: The Woods Schools for Exceptional Children.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on February 17, 2017
. Retrieved
July 17,
2022
.
- Velasco Martin, Marta (March?April 2020). "Women and Partnership Genealogies in Drosophila Population Genetics".
Perspectives on Science
.
28
(2). Cambridge, Massachusetts:
MIT Press
: 277?317.
doi
:
10.1162/posc_a_00341
.
ISSN
1063-6145
.
OCLC
8594950765
.
S2CID
219048723
.
EBSCO
host
143003976
.
- Von Glahn, Denise (2013).
Music and the Skillful Listener: American Women Compose the Natural World
. Bloomington, Indiana:
Indiana University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-253-00662-2
.
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.
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. Lancaster, Ohio. June 11, 1934. p. 8
. Retrieved
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.
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.
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. Lancaster, Ohio. June 12, 1936. p. 18
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.
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.
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. Winona, Minnesota. October 24, 1974. p. 30
. Retrieved
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.
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.
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. Minneapolis, Minnesota. September 19, 1976. p. 2E
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.
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.
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. Lancaster, Ohio. January 20, 1959. p. 2
. Retrieved
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.
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.
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. Lancaster, Ohio. June 9, 1933. p. 1
. Retrieved
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.
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.
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. Lancaster, Ohio. November 15, 1943. p. 1
. Retrieved
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2022
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.
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.
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. Minneapolis, Minnesota. March 7, 1976. p. 5E
. Retrieved
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2022
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.
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.
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. Racine, Wisconsin. February 7, 1974. p. 12
. Retrieved
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2022
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.
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.
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. Lancaster, Ohio. January 12, 1944. p. 8
. Retrieved
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.
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.
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. Minneapolis, Minnesota. January 26, 1960. p. 12
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.
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. Lancaster, Ohio. October 27, 1932. p. 6
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Lancaster, Ohio. September 18, 1940. p. 4
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Minneapolis, Minnesota. July 16, 1996. p. 12
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.
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.
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. Raleigh, North Carolina. September 8, 1938. p. 5
. Retrieved
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– via
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.
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