Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
sent a more substantial view of the importance of chemistry than could
be obtained from brief newspaper articles, even if those reports were
positive. During the planning stages of the conference, the ACS had es-
tablished the Executive Committee of the American Chemical Industries
Tercentenary, with Francis P. Garvan as the honorary chairman and Ar-
thur W. Hixson, a chemist at Columbia University, as the general chair-
man. The Committee in turn asked Morrison to write a companion book
about the importance of chemistry and chemical industries (Morrison
1937, 'Acknowledgment').
Morrison's book may have been modeled in part on E.F. Armstrong's
Chemistry in the Twentieth Century
(1924). Armstrong was the chair of
the Committee of Scientific Societies and coordinated the participation
of British scientific organizations including the Royal Society in the
1924 British Empire Exhibition.
3
His book was “offered as a contribution
made by British men of science to the work of building up the Empire”
(Armstrong 1924, preface). Just as Armstrong had linked the importance
of chemistry to the success of the Empire, so too did Morrison attempt to
show how integral the role of chemists and chemistry was to American
life.
3.
Morrison and the 'Agora' of Popular Writing
Morrison was a good choice to write the companion book. He had a
strong interest in popularizing science, having written articles for
Scien-
tific American
and
Science Digest
, as well as
Reader's Digest
. He was
also the author/compiler of
The Baking Powder Controversy
, a massive
two-volume work that compiled all the important documents and ex-
plained the convoluted legal, political, and business history of the fight to
control the production of baking powder in the U.S. (Morrison 1904-7).
He had been the President of the New York Academy of Sciences, which
named a prize in his honor. The A. Cressy Morrison Award for Natural
Sciences was conceived to acknowledge not only important scientific
work, but also the best communication of that work.
3
For a history of the exhibition, see Knight & Sabey 1984.
