(image via Shorpy)
Mary Texanna Loomis is someone who deserves a biography last-century, but still we wait. (I might have to take up the challenge of writing it myself!) Not only was she a radio operator and engineer in the early 20th century, but she was also the Founder & President of one of the nation’s first educational institutions dedicated to radio: Loomis Radio School, located in Washington D.C. (seen below) She was also the likely owner of Loomis Publishing Co., publishers of the 1,000-page-long Radio Theory and Operating for the Radio Student and Practical Operator textbook, authored by Loomis herself. There’s very little of her in the written record (no Wikipedia article, for example) but IEEE does appear to have a book review of the Third Edition of her manual (I believe the fifth edition was the final version), and there are backups of this PDF telling her biographical story on several websites – the PDF filename is her school’s callsign: 3YA. The Library of Congress also have several images available (below) but this only makes me yearn to know more!
October 10th is Ada Lovelace Day! Today the world celebrates all of the accomplishments of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering, and math. Each year, Adafruit highlights a number of women who are pioneering their fields and inspiring women of all ages to make their voices heard. Today we will be sharing the stories of women that we think are modern day “Adas” alongside historical women that have made impacts in science and math.
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