John Musser

John Musser (November 14, 1889 – March 21, 1949) was an American historian and educator who was dean of the graduate school at New York University and an instructor of American History.[1][2]

Musser attended Franklin and Marshall College before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, from which he received his bachelor's degree.[3] He went on to also earn his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania under the direction of Herman Vandenburg Ames.[4] An authority on Benjamin Franklin, in 1937 Musser debunked a claim made by the Nazi Party that Charles Pinkney had once recorded in his diary that Franklin had made an anti-Semitic prophecy about a future threat of Jews in the United States by noting that Pinckney had never kept a diary and that Franklin himself had once donated money for the construction of a synagogue in Philadelphia.[5]

He was the grandfather of Charles Musser.[6]

References

  1. ^ "Dr. John Musser". Bedford Gazette. March 25, 1949. Retrieved February 14, 2018.(subscription required)
  2. ^ "Air College Opens Spring Term". Orlando Sentinel. February 15, 1925. Retrieved February 14, 2018.
  3. ^ "Dr. John Musser, Educator, Dies". Everett Press. April 1, 1949. Retrieved February 14, 2018.
  4. ^ Memorial: Herman Vandenburg Ames. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1936. pp. 2–25.
  5. ^ "The Franklin "Prophecy"". Courier-Journal. March 12, 1937. p. 6. Retrieved February 14, 2018.(subscription required)
  6. ^ "Dr. Lynne M. Zeavin Is Married to Charles Musser". New York Times. October 16, 1988. Retrieved February 14, 2018.