Description
Correspondence in reply to Shipley's letters and questionnaires concerning capital punishment; article based in part on replies
received; studies of capital punishment in various countries; and clippings. Also included are manuscripts and reprints of
Shipley's writings, material on the Shipley family and on the Science League of America, and personal papers (including letters
to his wife Marian Ellen de Ford)
Background
Born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 1, 1872, Maynard Shipley was educated at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
A self-taught musician, Shipley gave music lessons to pay his way through college. At Stanford he specialized in the study
of science and became a writer and lecturer on scientific subjects. For twenty years he lectured on astronomy and evolution,
both on the platform and over the radio. In 1898 he founded the Academy of Science in Seattle, Washington and later became
its second president. During the 1920s Shipley took an active part in the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy, lecturing
and debating on the side of science and liberalism. In 1924 he founded the Science League of America Inc., a national association
to protect freedom in teaching and to resist attempts to unite church and state in the United States. Shipley wrote The War on Modern Science (1927), The Key to Evolution (1929), and was the author of thirty-three "Little Blue Books" on scientific subjects as well as numerous articles on science
and criminology. He married Miriam Allen de Ford, a writer, in 1921. Shipley died in June 1934.
Extent
Number of containers: 3 boxes, 2 oversize folders
Linear feet: 1.30
Restrictions
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft
Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
Availability
Collection is open for research.