Elsie Ruth Anderson (23 June 1907,

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New ...

– 24 November 1989, Boston, Massachusetts) was an American musicologist,

weather observer A meteorological observer, or weather observer, is a person authorized by a weather authority to make or record meteorological observations. They are technicians who are responsible for the accurate observation, rapid measurement, timely collectio ...

, and editor.

Biography

Anderson attended the

New England Conservatory of Music The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on ...

from 1924 to 1931, again in 1934, and again from 1940 to 1941. On June 23, 1931, Anderson received a Diploma in Orchestra with a concentration in Violin from the

. 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Anderson enlisted in the

WAVES Waves most often refers to: * Waves, oscillations accompanied by a transfer of energy that travel through space or mass. *Wind waves, surface waves that occur on the free surface of bodies of water. Waves may also refer to: Music *Waves (band ...

and trained at the Navy Aerographers School at

Lakehurst Maxfield Field Lakehurst Maxfield Field, formerly known as Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst (NAES Lakehurst), is the naval component of Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst (JB MDL), a United States Air Force-managed joint base headquartered approximatel ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

. She was assigned first to a Naval Air Station in Indiana and then to the Naval Intelligence Unit in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

After

, Anderson continued with that unit, including one year in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. In 1954, Anderson began working for the

American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Its mission is to advance t ...

in Boston. For 15 years, she served as News Editor of the ''

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society The ''Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society'' is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society. ''BAMS'' is the flagship magazine of AMS and publishes peer reviewed articles of interest and significance for the wea ...

''.. She also wrote a history of the building that houses the AMS – the

Harrison Gray Otis House There are three houses named the Harrison Gray Otis House in Boston, Massachusetts. All were built by noted American architect Charles Bulfinch for the same man, Federalist lawyer and politician Harrison Gray Otis. First Harrison Gray Otis House ...

at 45

Beacon Street Beacon Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts and its western suburbs Brookline and Newton. It passes through many of Boston's central and western neighborhoods, including Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Fenway–Kenmore, the Boston Uni ...

. While working for the AMS, she compiled and wrote the ''Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary,'' published in 1977, with a follow-up edition in 1982.

Published works

* ''Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary'', G K Hall & Co. (G.K. Hall was acquired by ITT in September 1969
The Money Manias: The Eras of Great Speculation in America, 1770–1970
by

Robert Sobel Robert Sobel (February 19, 1931 – June 2, 1999) was an American professor of history at Hofstra University and a well-known and prolific writer of business histories. Biography Sobel was born in the Bronx, in New York City, New York. He c ...

, Weybright and Talley (1973); and sold to

Macmillan Publishing Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publ ...

in 1985; it is now an imprint of

Thomson Gale Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007. The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale Gr ...

) :: 1st ed. (1976) (513 pages,

4to Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

); :: 2nd ed. (1982);

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, E. Ruth 1907 births 1989 deaths American book editors New England Conservatory alumni 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American scientists United States Navy sailors WAVES personnel