Joseph Priestley collection, 1874-1996.

ArchivalResource

Joseph Priestley collection, 1874-1996.

Joseph Priestley collection, 1874-1996.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53101446

In 1918 George Gilbert Pond, Professor of Chemistry and Dean of the School of Natural Science at the then Pennsylvania State College, began soliciting funds for the purchase of the home of Joseph Priestley in Northumberland. The original plan was to move the building to the campus as a permanent shrine, but when it was finally purchased and turned over to the College, it was left at Northumberland. A memorial museum was built on the grounds to house the Priestley relics. The collection contains correspondence and documentation on the house and museum. The Priestley memorial scrapbook, compiled by Henry Carrington Bolton, New York, 1875, contains mounted photographs and clippings. The original gold-toned albumen photographs by Louis H. Landy show posed groups of the scientists in attendance, Priestley's house, his gravestone, and original scientific apparatus prepared for exhibition. The celebration was known as the Centennial of Chemistry and was the first important gathering of chemists held in the United States. (The group later became known as the American Chemical Society.). The collection includes notes by Sister Mary Grace Waring and biographical references on all scientists who attended the Centennial of Chemistry 1874 celebration. This series includes reprints, photos, negatives, photostats of the accounts of the meeting in the New York newspapers. Other correspondence relates to the condition and disposition of Priestley's house at Northumberland. Also, memorabilia from the second centennial of chemistry, 1974 at Penn State University and the Priestley house.

2 cubic feet.

Pennsylvania State University Libraries