Patricia Peck Gossel (1944 — June 12, 2004) was an American science historian and curator, who chaired the Science, Medicine and Society Division at the Smithsonian's

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

Early life and education

Patricia Louise Peck was born during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...

, the daughter of Elsa G. Erickson Peck and Harold G. Peck."Bride-Elect"
''Daily Republic'' (November 29, 1965): 5. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

She grew up in

Murdo, South Dakota Murdo is a List of cities in South Dakota, city in and county seat of Jones County, South Dakota, Jones County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 475 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. History Murdo was founded in about ...

, where her father owned an elevator company. Peck attended Augustana College as an undergraduate, then earned a master's degree in bacteriology from

Montana State University Montana State University (MSU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 6 ...

Bozeman, Montana Bozeman is a city and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. Located in southwest Montana, the 2020 census put Bozeman's population at 53,293, making it the fourth-largest city in Montana. It is the principal city of th ...

. In 1988 she completed her doctoral studies at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

, with a dissertation on "The Emergence of American Bacteriology, 1875-1900.""Obituaries: Patricia Peck Gossel, Museum Curator"
''Washington Post'' (June 24, 2004): B06.

Career

Gossel had work experiences as an electron microscopist and as a clinical bacteriologist in the 1970s, and taught at

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...

in the mid-1980s. At the Smithsonian, she was a major contributor to organizing the permanent exhibit, "Science in American Life," and she founded the museum's History of Biology collection. She laid the initial groundwork for the 2005 exhibit "Whatever Happened to Polio?", which was realized after Gossel's death, timed to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the

Salk vaccine Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis (polio). Two types are used: an inactivated poliovirus given by injection (IPV) and a weakened poliovirus given by mouth (OPV). The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends all chil ...

. She also curated a collection of items related to the history and development of

oral contraceptives Oral contraceptives, abbreviated OCPs, also known as birth control pills, are medications taken by mouth for the purpose of birth control. Female Two types of female oral contraceptive pill, taken once per day, are widely available: * The combin ...

Selected works

Scholarly publications by Gossel included "Pasteur, Koch and American Bacteriology" (2000), "A Need for Standard Methods: The Case of American Bacteriology" (1992), and "Packaging the Pill" (1999).Patricia Peck Gossel, "Packaging the Pill" in Robert Bud, Bernard S. Finn, and Helmuth Trischler, eds
''Manifesting Medicine: Bodies and Machines''
(Taylor & Francis 1999): 105-121.

Personal life

Gossel was married once, in 1966, and divorced. She died from cancer in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

in 2004, aged 60 years.

References

External links

*Patricia Gossel was on

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

in 1989, when she spoke at the Smithsonian on a panel calle
"Not in My Backyard: A Historical & Contemporary Look at Materials Disposal."
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gossel, Patricia Peck 1944 births 2004 deaths American medical historians People from Inglewood, California Smithsonian Institution people People from Jones County, South Dakota Augustana College (Illinois) alumni Montana State University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Deaths from cancer in Maryland Rochester Institute of Technology faculty Historians from California