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Creator:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History  Search this

Names:

Centennial Exhibition (1876 : Philadelphia, Pa.)  Search this

Extent:

8 Items (1 box)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Date:

circa 1870-1880

Scope and Contents note:

This artificial collection is the repository for miscellaneous photoprints transferred from other Smithsonian units: see series records.

Arrangement:

Divided into 2 series (new series to be added as needed: (1) Philadelphia Centennial; (2) sightseeing bus.

Biographical / Historical:

This collection has been designated as a repository for miscellaneous photographic prints transferred from Smithsonian curatorial divisions, other offices, and outside donors. The first items (Series 1) were transferred to the Archives Center by Deborah J. Warner, Curator, Division of Physical Sciences, NMAH, November 9, 1992: she reported that these items were found in her collections, source unknown. The second acquisition (Series 2) is a gift from Alberta Young. Series 3 was found in the collections, Archives Center.

Provenance:

Found in collections in the Division of Physical Sciences, National Museum of American History.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

Tourist trade -- 1900-1910 -- Washington (D.C.)  Search this

Buses  Search this

Exhibitions -- 1870-1880 -- Philadelphia  Search this

Sightseeing business -- 1900-1910 -- Washington (D.C.)  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs -- 1850-1900

Citation:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0496

See more items in:

Archives Center Photoprint Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8a46243e9-58c5-47c8-906c-3c352ad2ad0b

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0496

Creator:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History  Search this

Former owner:

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Physical Sciences  Search this

Names:

Burka, S. W.  Search this

Rowland, Henry Augustus  Search this

Extent:

0.1 Cubic feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Transparencies

Photographs

Place:

Moon

Date:

ca. 1910-1920.

Scope and Contents:

Collection designated for miscellaneous glass plates, unidentified and/or of unknown provenance. The plates included here are indexed, but additional items may be added to the collection. There are eight plates, both negatives and positives; subjects include a man with cog railway tracks(?), two images of an observatory and two of the moon, and four identical images (two negatives and two positives) of Henry A. Rowland with his ruling engine.

Arrangement:

Divided into two series.

Series 1: Silver Gelatin Plates (8 x 10)

Series 2: Silver Gelatin Plates (4 x 5)

Provenance:

Immediate source of acquisition unknown. Found in collections, November 12, 1986.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

Cog railways  Search this

Ruling engines  Search this

Observatories  Search this

Genre/Form:

Transparencies

Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- Glass -- 1910-1920

Citation:

Archives Center Glass Plate Collection, National Museum of American History.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0246

See more items in:

Archives Center Glass Plate Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep841daf1f1-d21a-4886-be74-20de3abdf648

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0246

Creator:

National Museum of American History  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2012-05-08T17:35:02.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

American History  Search this

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SmithsonianAmHistory

Data Source:

National Museum of American History

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianAmHistory

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_A9XLNH8FPd0

Creator:

National Museum of American History  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2012-05-08T17:39:03.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

American History  Search this

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SmithsonianAmHistory

Data Source:

National Museum of American History

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianAmHistory

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_E_ZBELcyb3g

Creator:

National Museum of American History  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2012-05-08T17:33:00.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

American History  Search this

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SmithsonianAmHistory

Data Source:

National Museum of American History

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianAmHistory

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_Rs7CC4pdJeM

Creator:

National Museum of American History  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2012-05-08T17:37:04.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

American History  Search this

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SmithsonianAmHistory

Data Source:

National Museum of American History

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianAmHistory

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_hzoelA3Pm8E

Creator:

National Museum of American History  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2012-05-08T17:32:55.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

American History  Search this

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SmithsonianAmHistory

Data Source:

National Museum of American History

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianAmHistory

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_l0ggExIQurY

Creator:

Smithsonian Magazine  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2016-12-09T16:34:19.000Z

YouTube Category:

Entertainment  Search this

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SmithsonianMagazine

Data Source:

Smithsonian Magazine

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianMagazine

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_X2sECLzyNwM

Creator:

Smithsonian Libraries  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2020-09-17T12:30:46.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Library science  Search this

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SmithsonianLibraries

Data Source:

Smithsonian Libraries

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianLibraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_6xefegm9ekA

Creator:

Smithsonian Science Education Center  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2015-10-20T12:17:51.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Education;Science  Search this

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SmithsonianScienceEdCenter

Data Source:

Smithsonian Science Education Center

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianScienceEdCenter

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_tfDfLXnW2N0

Creator:

National Air and Space Museum  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2013-07-17T13:18:25.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Aeronautics;Flight;Space Sciences  Search this

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airandspace

Data Source:

National Air and Space Museum

YouTube Channel:

airandspace

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_3JLNxCN0Q8E

Creator:

National Air and Space Museum  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2012-10-05T13:41:25.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Aeronautics;Flight;Space Sciences  Search this

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airandspace

Data Source:

National Air and Space Museum

YouTube Channel:

airandspace

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_3fsr9jybAZo

Creator:

National Museum of Natural History  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2015-11-12T17:09:51.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Natural History  Search this

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smithsonianNMNH

Data Source:

National Museum of Natural History

YouTube Channel:

smithsonianNMNH

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_VvT6j5FYhao

Creator:

Smithsonian Institution  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2012-03-09T22:52:56.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

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SmithsonianVideos

Data Source:

Smithsonian Institution

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianVideos

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_f2oyU0RusiA

Creator:

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2017-02-11T00:38:28.000Z

YouTube Category:

Science & Technology  Search this

Topic:

Animal health;Environmental Sciences;Coastal ecology  Search this

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SmithsonianSERC

Data Source:

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianSERC

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_KeaMiMjvYrw

Creator:

Baekeland, L. H. (Leo Hendrik), 1863-1944  Search this

Names:

Bakelite Corporation  Search this

Nepera Chemical Co.  Search this

Extent:

15 Cubic feet (49 boxes)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Professional papers

Clippings

Laboratory notes

Personal correspondence

Photographs

Notebooks

Diaries

Date:

1976

1863 - 1968

Summary:

The papers document Leo H. Baekeland, a Belgian born chemist who invented Velox photographic paper (1893) and Bakelite (1907), an inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile plastic. The papers include student notebooks; private laboratory notebooks and journals; commercial laboratory notes; diaries; patents; technical papers; biographies; newspaper clippings; maps; graphs; blueprints; account books; batch books; formula books; order books; photographs; and correspondence regarding Baekeland, 1887-1943.

Scope and Contents:

Baekeland documented his life prolifically through diaries, laboratory notebooks, photographs, and correspondence. These constitute the bulk of the collection. The Bakelite company history is also incompletely documented in this collection through Baekeland's correspondence, the commercial laboratory notebooks, and some company ledgers.

Arrangement:

Series 1: Reference Materials, 1863-1868 and undated

Subseries 1.1: Biographical, 1880-1965

Subseries 1.2:Company History, 1910-1961

Subseries 1.3: Related Interests, 1863-1968 and undated

Series 2: Published and Unpublished Writings (by Leo H. Baekeland), 1884-1945

Series 3: Correspondence, 1888-1963 Subseries 3.1: Personal Correspondence, 1916-1943

Subseries 3.2: Charitable Donations, 1916-1938

Subseries 3.3: Family Correspondence, 1888-1963

Subseries 3.4: Clubs and Associations, 1916-1943

Series 4: Diaries, 1907-1943

Series 5: Reading and Lecture Notes, 1878-1886

Series 6, Laboratory Notebooks, 1893-1915

Series 7: Commercial Laboratory Notebooks, 1910-1920

Series 8: Bakelite Company, 1887-1945

Series 9, Patents, 1894-1940

Series 10: Bakelite Corporation Ledgers, 1910-1924; 1935; 1939

Series 11: Photographs, 1889-1950 and undated

Subseries 11.1: Photographs, 1889-1950 and undated

Subseries 11.2: Film Negatives, 1900-1941 and undated

Subseries 11.3: Photoprints, 1894-1941

Subseries 11.4: Stereographs, 1888-1902 and undated

Subseries 11.5: Film and Glass Plate Negatives, 1899-1900 and undated

Series 12: Audio Materials, 1976

Biographical / Historical:

Leo Hendrik Baekeland was an industrial chemist famous for his invention of Bakelite, the first moldable synthetic polymer, and for his invention of Velox photographic paper. Baekeland's career as an inventor and innovator was punctuated by an urge to improve existing technologies and a willingness to experiment both meticulously and daringly. Born in Ghent, Belgium in 1863, Baekeland was a distinguished chemistry student and became a young professor at the University of Ghent. He had a long standing interest in photography and sought to further photographic technology with his expertise in chemistry. In 1887 he obtained his first patent for a dry plate which contained its own developer and could be developed in a tray of water. With the support of a business partner/faculty associate, Jules Guequier, he formed a company named Baekeland et Cie to produce the plate, but the venture failed due to lack of capital.

On August 8, 1889, he married Celine Swarts, daughter of his academic mentor Theodore Swarts, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Ghent. After his wedding he travelled to different countries using a traveling scholarship he had been awarded two years previously. His travels ended in the United States where he was offered a job researching chemical problems associated with manufacturing bromide papers and films with A. and H.T. Anthony and Company, a photographic supply producer. Leo and Celine Baekeland had three children: George, Nina and Jenny (1890-1895).

He left Anthony and Company in 1891 to be a consulting chemist. During that time he invented a photographic print paper using silver chloride which could be developed in artificial light instead of sunlight and thus offered more flexibility and consistency to photographers. In 1893, with financial support from Leonard Jacobi, a scrap metal dealer from San Francisco, he formed the Nepera Chemical Company in Yonkers, New York, to manufacture "gaslight" paper under the trade name Velox. The paper became quite popular and the company expanded its operations after its first three years. Finally, George Eastman bought the company for a reported $750,000 which afforded Baekeland the time to conduct his own research in a laboratory he set up on his estate, "Snug Rock," in Yonkers.

Baekeland worked on problems of electrolysis of salt and the production of synthetic resins. He was hired as a consultant to work with Clinton P. Townsend to perfect Townsend's patented electrolytic cell. Baekeland's work there contributed to the success of the Hooke Electrochemical Company which began in operations in Niagara Falls in 1905.

Simultaneously, in 1902 Baekeland began researching reactions of phenol and formaldehyde, and by 1907 was able to control the reactions and produce a moldable plastic (oxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride) which he named Bakelite. Although the process was not perfected for another couple of years, Baekeland applied for a patent for Bakelite right away. He announced his discovery to the scientific community in 1909, and in 1910 formed the General Bakelite Company. Bakelite was a thermosetting resin that, unlike Celluloid became permanently solid when heated. It was virtually impervious to heat, acids, or caustic substances. It could be molded into a wide variety of shapes and was an excellent electric insulator that came to replace hard rubber and amber for electrical and industrial applications. It was also suitable for a wide variety of consumer products such as billiard balls, jewelry, pot handles, telephones, toasters, electric plugs, and airplane instrument knobs. Two companies challenged Bakelite with significant competition, Condensite Corporation of America and Redmanol Chemical Products Company. Bakelite finally merged with these two companies in 1922 to become the Bakelite Corporation. Union Carbide finally bought the corporation in 1939.

Baekeland sustained his interest in photography by taking numerous photographs throughout his lifetime. He also devoted much of his spare time to professional societies and received various honorary degrees and awards such as the Perkin Medal. He had several hobbies such as boating, wine and beer making, and, exotic plants. He also traveled extensively throughout the world, which is documented in his diaries and photographs.

Baekeland spent his final years mostly in his Coconut Grove, Florida home where he became increasingly eccentric until his mind failed him and he was institutionalized. He died in 1943 at the age of eighty.

Scope and Content: Baekeland documented his life prolifically through diaries, laboratory notebooks, photographs, and correspondence. These constitute the bulk of the collection. The Bakelite company history is also incompletely documented in this collection through Baekeland's correspondence, the commercial laboratory notebooks, and some company ledgers.

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

Albany Billiard Ball Company Records (AC0011)

Celluloid Corporation Records (AC0009)

J. Harry DuBois Collection on the History of Plastics (AC0008)

Materials at Other Organizations

The Hagley Museum and Library, Manuscripts and Archives Department in Delaware also several related collections including: the Directors of Industrial Research Records, 1929 -982; the Du Pont Viscoloid Company, Survey of the Plastics Field, 1932; The Society of the Plastics Industry, 1937-1987; the Roy J. Plunkett Collection, 1910-1994 (inventor of Teflon); and the Gordon M. Kline Collection, 1903.

Separated Materials:

The National Museum of American History, Division Medicine and Science has several artifacts associated with Baekeland including the original "Bakalizer" the apparatus in which Bakelite was first made. See accession numbers: 1977.0368; 1979.1179; 1981.0976; 1982.0034; 1983.0524; 1984.0138.

Provenance:

The bulk of the collection was donated to the National Museum of American History's Division of Physical Sciences in November, 1981, by Celine Karraker, Leo H. Baekeland's granddaughter.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

Phenolic resins  Search this

Travel -- Photographs  Search this

Chemists -- 1880-1970  Search this

Inventors -- 1880-1970  Search this

Plastics -- 1880-1970  Search this

Chemistry  Search this

Genre/Form:

Professional papers -- 1880-1970

Clippings -- 1880-1970

Laboratory notes

Personal correspondence -- 1880-1970

Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- Glass -- 19th-20th century

Notebooks -- 1880-1970

Diaries -- 1880-1970

Photographs -- Black-and-white photoprints -- Silver gelatin -- 19th-20th century

Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- Nitrate -- 19th-20th century

Citation:

Leo Baekeland Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0005

See more items in:

Leo H. Baekeland Papers

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep846e88df6-033d-4805-99e2-b308002a75f4

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0005

Creator:

National Museum of American History  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2012-05-08T17:38:51.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

American History  Search this

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SmithsonianAmHistory

Data Source:

National Museum of American History

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianAmHistory

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_IqU9MWBLqVw

Creator:

National Museum of American History  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2012-05-08T17:40:01.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

American History  Search this

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SmithsonianAmHistory

Data Source:

National Museum of American History

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianAmHistory

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_OQPI5Ng-3vI

Creator:

National Museum of American History  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2012-05-08T17:34:40.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

American History  Search this

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SmithsonianAmHistory

Data Source:

National Museum of American History

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SmithsonianAmHistory

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edanmdm:yt_P8DbK-kMCTA

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National Museum of American History  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2012-05-08T17:36:25.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

American History  Search this

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SmithsonianAmHistory

Data Source:

National Museum of American History

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianAmHistory

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_PhcKVs5Zy8Y