Background
The son of James Cannon III (1892-1960), Dean of Duke University Divinity School, Walter F. Cannon gained a degree in physics at Princeton University.
The son of James Cannon III (1892-1960), Dean of Duke University Divinity School, Walter F. Cannon gained a degree in physics at Princeton University.
Turning to history of science, his Doctor of Philosophy (Harvard University, 1956) was titled "On uniformity and progression in early Victorian cosmography".
From 1962 to 1979 Cannon, as a historian of science, was Curator of the Classical Physics and Geosciences collection at the Smithsonian Institution. He founded and was the first editor of the Smithsonian Journal of History. In 1976 Cannon changed his name to Susan Faye Cannon, thereafter referring to himself as a "male woman".