Chymica Acta

On 10 December 2007 a meeting was held at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford to launch Frank Greenaway’s Autobiography/Festschrift, Chymica Acta, and to celebrate the deposit of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry’s archive in the Library of the Museum.

In 2007, the curator and historian Frank Greenaway celebrated his 90 th birthday. He decided it was time to put pen to paper and write an autobiographical memoir, a very rare genre for museum curators. When his friends heard of this, they proposed that a joint Memoir-Festchrift might be published, interspersing episodes of Frank’s full and fascinating life with essays which bear on his interests.

To celebrate the book’s launch and the deposit of SHAC’s archive at the Museum of History of Science three short papers were delivered. Firstly William Brock, the former Chairman of SHAC, spoke on “The Alchemical Society and its Journal: a Precursor of SHAC.” Although SHAC celebrated its 50 th anniversary in 1986, a more recent scrutiny of the Society’s archives reveals that it was first formed in November 1935. However, it was not the first British society dedicated to the study of the history of alchemy. An Alchemical Society had been founded in London at the end of 1912 by a mixed group of occultists, chemists and historians. In the 19 th century, middle-class Victorians, faced by religious doubts, sought solace in spiritualism, theosophy and all sorts of esoteric clubs based upon the rituals of freemasonry. The publication of Mrs Atwood’s Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery (1850) had led occultists to interpret alchemy as a way of spiritual enlightenment, not as a search for the physical transmutation of matter. On the other hand, the study of radioactivity at the beginning of the 20 th century seemed to make the possibility of elemental transmutations a rational possibility –as a series of experiments made by William Ramsay appeared to suggest. The mission of the new society was to study the works and theories of the alchemists in all their aspects, both physical and spiritual. The society’s driving force was the erudite Regent Street Polytechnic chemist, Herbert Stanley Redgrove, who also edited the Society’s journal. Despite a thriving membership and auspicious beginning, WW1 brought about the collapse of both the society and its interesting journal. Redgrove tried to restart the society with a broader remit in the 1920s, but by appealing only to readers of the Occult Review he failed to attract the attentions of historically-minded chemists like Frank Sherwood Taylor and James R. Partington who independently founded the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry in 1935. Although Redwood, who started a perfumery business in the 1930s, was still alive, he did not join. SHAC’s only occultist was the genial Gerard Heym (1888-1972) who became Hon. Foreign Secretary.

[More details on the Alchemical Society will be found in Mark S. Morrisson, Modern Alchemy: Occultism and the Emergence of Atomic Theory (OUP, 2007) which appeared after the paper was delivered.]

Tony Simcock, Archivist at the Museum of the History of Science, then spoke on “A Dip into the Archive.” Amongst the manuscripts and volumes deposited by the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry are a number of fascinating documents which shed light on the history of the Society from its foundation in 1935. These augment a small collection of items that were already in the Museum’s possession and had belonged to former officers of the Society who worked there, such as C.H. Josten (Treasurer, 1953-56). They also happily cohabit with the papers of prominent members of the Society, Frank Sherwood Taylor and H.E. Stapleton, that are deposited at the Museum.

The manuscripts highlighted by Tony Simcock included letters inviting prospective members to join, the first set of printed rules from 1936 and the first circular announcement sent out to members. A range of administrative papers, letters from members and miscellaneous items such as petty cash books also survive. Interestingly, unlike today, in its early years SHAC had a President, Sir Robert Ludwig Mond (1867-1938), the chemist and archaeologist. Mond helped found the Society and the combination of his death, then the outbreak of the Second World War, almost led to its closure in 1939. Mond’s contribution in the Society’s early years had been vital: he had previously covered a deficit of £150 that had been run up by the Society. Amongst the more amusing items to be found in the archive was an enquiry from India regarding how much the Society would be prepared to give for information on how to prepare the Philosophers’ Stone. The Hon. Secretary at the time replied stating that the Society existed for the publication of original studies, not financial assistance, but he did not miss the chance of encouraging the individuals to join!

Peter Morris then revisited a paper he had given at the 6 th International Conference on the History of Chemistry in Leuven, earlier in the year: “Chemistry in the 21 st Century: Death or Transformation?” The paper examined the probable future of chemistry in terms of its past. Chemistry today looks very different from how it did thirty years ago. In effect it is an alliance between biomedicine and material science. The various professional organisations and journals are scrambling to reposition themselves in terms of the “chemical sciences” rather than chemistry per se. But chemistry has always been shaped by its shifting intellectual, professional and economic alliances. In the eighteenth century, it was the territory between medicine, assaying and metallurgy, and the study of heat – strikingly evocative of the situation today.

Over the last century, the pharmaceutical industry has displaced the dyestuffs industry as the major sponsor of organic chemistry. For two centuries, however, chemistry has retained a strong identity despite these changes. The key questions now are whether the current alliance between biomedicine and materials can hold and whether the term “chemistry” really means anything anymore except as a historical throwback to an earlier period (thus paralleling alchemy in the late 17 th/18 th century). Will chemistry be reinvigorated by the creation of a new identity as “chemical sciences” or will it “decompose” reverting back to its parent sciences of medicine (as biomedicine) and metallurgy (as nanotechnology and materials science)?

Derek Robinson brought the meeting to a close by paying tribute to Frank Greenaway and his contributions to the history of science. Frank was born in South Wales in 1917 and educated at Cardiff High School before proceeding to Jesus College, Oxford, to study chemistry. Graduating at the beginning of the Second World War, he served in the armed forces as an ordnance officer and later became involved in photographic techniques and the training of agents. At the end of the War he taught briefly and then worked for Kodak at Harrow.

In 1949 he was appointed as a curator at the Science Museum, London, one of the world’s greatest museums, but one which was finding it difficult to recover from the War. He was to spend the remainder of his career there, building up the Museum’s strengths, eventually retiring in 1980 as Keeper of the Chemistry Department. This was by no means all that he did: his active disposition led him into all manner of extra-mural activity. He was involved with the Royal Philharmonic Society, the Open University, the Wellcome Trust, the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science (Serving as General Secretary from 1972 to 1977), the Commonwealth Association of Museums, ICOM, the Museums Association and the Royal Institution, where he held the post of Honorary Reader in the History of Science. He was appointed Regents’ Fellow of the Smithsonian Institution and he holds the Boerhaave Medal. It was left to Frank to provide the concluding words for the meeting, thanking the editors and chapter authors of the book, all his family, friends and colleagues present and to set out a few ideas for future work.

Anna Simmons