Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 2. Photograph of Sir William Ramsay (1902) showing the formal image of a
chemist of the era (from Picture card 1920).
The European scientist was a member of the intellectual class, dressed in
a three-piece suit, watch chain across the vest and wearing a carefully
trimmed beard or goatee. This style remained popular for professional
men in the U.S. until the early 1920s, as can be seen in the formal por-
traits of chemists in the ACS's
A Half-Century of Chemistry in America,
1876-1926
(Browne 1926). This image, however, was completely absent
in Morrison and Söderston's depiction of American chemists.
Morrison's American scientist was a leader, economically as well as
scientifically, but he was not an outsider, nor an effete scholar or from an
upper class. Söderston shows us this Americanized scientist. The Ameri-
can scientist is dressed practically, either in the lab coat or working
man's clothes. His clothes carry with them no hint of social rank, just as
the monk's habit abolishes the distinction of class at birth. The new sci-
entist was clean-shaven, with short, slicked down hair. This reflected the
new fashion for men of the day, especially in the U.S. and it also made
clear that these men were progressive, concerned with the needs of the
market, and distinct from the old professors. The new scientist was also
