Centennial Perspectives

Edwin L. Moseley
1869-1948
Faculty

Edwin Lincoln Moseley was a member of the first faculty of the Bowling Green State Normal College in 1914. Dr. Moseley earned both his Bachelors and Masters degrees at the University of Michigan in a period of four years, the youngest person, at age 20, to graduate that year. He specialized in Chemistry, Botany, and Zoology. During his time at Bowling Green, he gained a reputation as a scientist, educator, and naturalist, authoring numerous books and conducting scientific experiments regarding weather, geology, and human health. His best-known work included the discovery of the cause of milk sickness (a toxin found in white snakeroot) and a long-term study of tree-rings which allowed study of weather cycles and climate changes over long periods of time. Dr. Moseley retired from teaching in 1936, and upon his death, willed his entire estate, roughly $100,000 in 1948, to the University in trust to be used to assist students in affording college into the future, and the scholarship in his honor still exists. Science Hall, one of the first buildings on campus, was renamed Moseley Hall in 1950.

For further reading in University Archives

• News articles in BG News
• pUA 591 - "My Association with Edwin Lincoln Moseley," by Frank J. Prout
• MS 87 - Edwin L. Moseley Collection

Return to People | More on Buildings