Fall 2022 ACS Meeting Poster
The Chemical Bulletin by the Chicago Section ACS:
Engaging Chemists for Over One Hundred Years
The Fine Art of Chemistry
Paul F. Brandt
The Chemical Bulletin shows the different talents of the chemical professionals. In the 1950’s the National Meetings held in Chicago began to hold photo and artwork contests at the expositions. The call for the contests and the winners were displayed in the pages of the Bulletin.
In October of 1949 (October 1949, #829 p9) The Chemical Bulletin announces the first Chemical Limerick Contest. First prize was a copy of Carolyn Wells’ “The Book of Humorous Verse”. With so many entries, those who obtained Honorable Mention were ceremoniously entered into the Rough and Ready Rhymers’ Club of which Carl S. Miner was the “Founder and Pooh-Bah” (March 1950, #91 p11). The winner of the competition provided us with the following:
There once was a chemist named Green
Who swallowed a pH machine;
His belches carbonic
When drinking a tonic*
All registered 5.16.
*Tonic: Bostonese for carbonated beverage
- John H. Pomeroy
Not long after, the editors responded to criticism of the Bulletin for running such frivolous contests (May 1950, #175 p 7) and commentary on modern art (November 1949, #871 p11 and January 1950, #13 p13).
The January 1950 article first shows us some of the artwork produced by Harry N. Holmes, a former president of the ACS and professor of chemistry at Oberlin College (1914-1945). In this article it is suggested that the ACS follow in the footsteps of the AMA to hold an art exhibition at the 118th ACS National Meeting in Chicago. And so in March there is an official “Call to the Brush” to submit paintings for the exhibition (March 1950, #95 p15).
In May of 1954 a first call was made for the incorporation of an exhibit of photographs to be held at the National ACS Meeting to be held in Chicago. This was entitled CHEM-PHOT-EX and had a $1 entry fee (May 1954, #670, p23). Ribbons and prizes were awarded. Apparently the other art exhibits were popular enough that there was a fear of having too many photographs entered into the competition if it did not have some kind of limitation on it. Therefore all photographs must contain some “chemical phase” to them.
A full write-up of the Art Exhibit was given in the November Bulletin (November 1954, # 850 p15). At this time we begin to see the artist James A. Wuellner of Standard Oil Company incorporate his sketches into the Bulletin of which he was the Assistant Editor.
Artwork continued to show up in the Bulletin even without the Exhibition at the National Meeting to spur on the artists.
By 1958, we again see an Art Exhibit at the Exposition where the exhibit includes oils, temperas, water colors, drawings, and prints, sculpture, ceramics and hand-crafted glass. A Photo Show is also in place accompanied by numerous lectures on the topic including photographic techniques in the study of crystal structure by W.C. McCrone – founder of McCrone Associates, a world leader in microscopy. Other events included a film of crystal growth through a polarizing microscope, using art in advertising using pictures of crystals, a photographic application in the determination of fluorescent material on the skin, and an exhibit of art in science by the GE Research Laboratory (September 1958, #243 p13).
All of the pictures viewed here are from a collection of rubber stamps that are procured from the Chicago Section office. These stamps were the subject of a series of articles written for The Chemical Bulletin in 2018-2019.
https://chicagoacs.org/images/downloads/Chemical_Bulletin/2018_03_chembull.pdf
https://chicagoacs.org/images/downloads/Chemical_Bulletin/2018_04_chembull.pdf
https://chicagoacs.org/images/downloads/Chemical_Bulletin/2018_05_chembull.pdf
https://chicagoacs.starchapter.com/images/downloads/Chemical_Bulletin/2019_01_chembull.pdf
https://chicagoacs.starchapter.com/images/downloads/Chemical_Bulletin/2018_10_chembull.pdf
At the time of writing for the Bulletin on this last stamp, I was not able to find the image in the archives. It has since been pointed out to me that it was seen in the advertisements. Indeed, upon further inspection, this stamp first appears in an advertisement for Carl S. Miner – Chemist, Patent Consultant in November of 1920 (November 1920, #310 p310). This stamp continued its use through at least December 1958 with Arthur D. Little Inc., the Midwest Division of Miner Laboratories.
