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COLLECTION Identifier: HUD 3276

Records of the Association of Harvard Chemists

Overview

The Association of Harvard Chemists was organized in 1911 and remains active (2008), to aid in the advancement of chemical education and research at Harvard University and to assist members in their professional development as chemists. The records are organized in three series: Constitution and membership list, General information and ephemera, and Secretary-Treasurer records.

Dates

  • Creation: 1906, 1911-1989.

Creator

Conditions on Use and Access

The Records of the Association of Harvard Chemists are open for research.

Extent

2 cubic feet (5 document boxes, 1 volume)

The Records of the Association of Harvard Chemists document its founding, organization, and activities in support of chemical education and research at Harvard University. The records contain the Association's constitution, general information about the Association and the Association's Secretary-Treasurer records which include meeting minutes, correspondence, financial records, subject files, and the Secretary's annual letter to members of the Association.

Historical Essay

The Association of Harvard Chemists was organized on April 8, 1911 and remains active (2008), to aid in the advancement of chemical education and research at Harvard University and to assist members in their professional development as chemists. Membership in the Association is open to any "degree holder of Harvard University, who has been or is identified professionally or associated, as a chemist, owner, or director, with the manufacture of chemicals, or other work in which chemical reactions are largely concerned." Among the Association's ranks are prominent industrial, government and commercial chemists, physicians and surgeons, and professors of chemistry.

The initial founders of the Association were John Downer (A.B. 1883), Dr. Morris Loeb (A.B. 1883), Theodore W. Richards (A.B. 1886), and Gregory P. Baxter (A.B. 1896). In its early days, the Association helped raise funds for the upkeep of the chemistry library originally located in Boylston Hall. The Association later helped to promote the construction of two new chemical laboratories at Harvard, the Converse Memorial Laboratory (1928) and the Edward Mallinckrodt Chemical Laboratory (1928). Over the years, the Association has maintained a working relationship with the Department of Chemistry in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, helping new graduates secure employment in the chemical field. In addition, members have held regular gatherings, including ones at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, to hear addresses and reports by prominent chemists and to socialize with fellow alumni interested in chemistry.

Obsolete Call Numbers

The following list provides a map to call numbers that were made obsolete by the archivist during the 2008 re-processing. All the materials for the Records of the Association of Harvard Chemists now fall under the single call number HUD 3276.

  1. HUD 3276 General folder moved to Secretary-Treasurer records, correspondence and Secretary's letter to members of the Association of Harvard Chemists.
  2. HUD 3276.2 General folder by and about moved to General information and ephemera.
  3. HUD 3276.211 Constitution and list of members moved to Constitution and members of the Association of Harvard Chemists.
  4. HUD 3276.260 Reunion of March 4, 1960, notices, programs, etc. moved to Secretary-Treasurer records, subject files.
  5. HUD 3276.261 Reunion of April 21, 1961, misc. moved to Secretary-Treasurer records, subject files.
  6. HUD 3276.500 Correspondence and records moved to Secretary-Treasurer records: correspondence, Financial records, Subject files, and General information and ephemera.
  7. HUD 3276.505 Minutes, 1911-1931, and other records of the Secretary moved to Secretary-Treasurer records, Meeting minutes.
  8. HUD 3276.929 Pledge book, 1929-1935 moved to Secretary-Treasurer records, Financial records.

Acquisition Information

The Records of the Association of Harvard Chemists were acquired through donation. Whenever possible the archivist noted the terms of acquisition in the descriptions and item lists.

The acquisitions are as follows:1913 Charles W. Eliot, 1944 Library of the Chemical Laboratories, 1952 E.L. Tulloch, 1954 Library of the Chemical Laboratories.

Related Material

Archival Materials
  1. A group photograph of the Association of Harvard Chemists taken at the Second National Symposium on Colloid Chemistry at Northwestern University (1924) is included in the Harvard University Archives' Photograph Subject Files and classified as HUPSF, Association of Harvard Chemists. Consult the Harvard University Photographs: Subject Files inventory.
Library Materials
  1. Search HOLLIS, Harvard's online library system, for related materials held both in the University Archives and other Harvard libraries.

Inventory upate

This document last updated 2016 October 25.

Processing Information

The Records were first classified and described in the Harvard University Archives shelflist prior to 1990. In September 2008, Dominic P. Grandinetti re-processed the collection. Re-processing included integrating and reorganizing the collection, re-housing materials in the appropriate containers, placing documents into acid-free folders, establishing series arrangement, and preparing this inventory.

Call numbers were simplified and reassigned. A list of obsolete call numbers is included in this finding aid.

Weeding

Publications by chemistry professor Arthur B. Lamb found in these records were compared to identical materials in the Papers of Arthur Becket Lamb (HUG 4508.72). They were found to duplicate existing holdings in Lamb's papers and therefore weeded and discarded. The publications are as follows:The Cooper Flame Test for Halogens in Air, 1920, The Densities of Certain Dilute Aqueous Solutions by a New and Precise Method, 1913, The Determination of Chlorine with Nephelometer, 1920, An Equilibrium in the Cobaltammines, 1911, The Heat of Absorbtion of Vapors on Charcoal, 1920, Portable Electrical Filter for Smokes and Bacteria, 1919, The Preparation of Iodic Acid and Its Anhydride, 1920, The Rapid Determination of Carbon Monoxide Air, 1919, The Removal of Carbon Monoxide from Air, 1920, Reproducible Liquid Junction Potentials: The Flowing Junction, 1920, The Stability of the Cobaltammines, 1920.

Relocated material

The following publication by chemistry professor Grinnell Jones was relocated to the Papers of Grinnell Jones (HUG 4469) during reprocessing:The Potential of the Thallium Electrode and the Free Energy of Formation of Thallous Iodide, 1921.

Title
Association of Harvard Chemists. Records of the Association of Harvard Chemists : an inventory
Author
Harvard University Archives
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hua25008

Repository Details

Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository

Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.

Contact:
Pusey Library
Harvard Yard
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2461