Overview
Theodore William Richards (1868-1928), Harvard's first Nobel Laureate and first American recipient of a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, received his A.B. from Harvard in 1886 and his A.M. and Ph.D. in 1888. He taught chemistry at Harvard from 1891 to 1928, becoming the Erving Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Wolcott Gibbs Memorial Laboratory in 1912. The Papers of Theodore William Richards document his professional and personal life. Professional papers include correspondence, teaching materials, and notes, lectures, and writings. Personal papers include correspondence, diaries, autobiographical and biographical materials, and medals.
Dates
- Creation: 1877 - 1947
Creator
Language of Materials
Materials are in English and German.
Researcher Access
Open for research.
Extent
9.42 cubic feet (25 half document boxes, 7 document boxes, 4 flat boxes, 4 volumes, 3 pamphlet folders, 2 card boxes, 1 microfiche box, 1 accordion folder, and 1 record carton)The Papers of Theodore William Richards document Richards’s professional and personal activities from 1877 to 1928. The collection includes personal and professional correspondence, teaching papers, and biographical and autobiographical material. Professional correspondence includes Richards’s files as President of the American Chemical Society in 1914, Chemical Laboratory correspondence from 1895 to 1928, and correspondence with colleagues. Correspondents include Charles William Eliot, W. P. White, and others. Teaching materials include chemistry course lists and grades from 1890 to 1928, A.B. degree requirements, lecture and laboratory notes, and computation books. The collection contains notes and manuscripts for addresses, lectures, and writings, including manuscripts of Lowell Lectures. The collection also contains reprints of Richards’s writings. Personal papers include correspondence such as family letters, diaries, scrapbooks of clippings, watercolors, poems, and photographs. Autobiographical writings include a description of a visit with the Kaiser. The collection also includes biographical data compiled by James Bryant Conant for a memoir of Richards, along with Conant’s notes on these unpublished materials. The collection also contains medals and corresponding information, including the Nobel Prize for Chemistry Richards won in 1914.
Biographical Note on Theodore William Richards
Theodore William Richards, Harvard's first Nobel Laureate and the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, taught chemistry at Harvard from 1891 to 1928. Richards was born on January 31, 1868 in Germantown, Pennsylvania to William Trost Richards, a landscape and seascape painter, and Anna Matlack, a poet. He was educated by his mother until entering Haverford College, where he received a S.B. in 1884. Richards then attended Harvard, receiving a A.B. in 1886 and A.M. and Ph.D. in 1888. He completed postdoctoral work in Germany in 1888-1889. He returned to Harvard as an instructor in Chemistry in 1891, becoming a full professor in 1901, and was named the Erving Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Wolcott Gibbs Memorial Laboratory in 1912. Richards spent one year as a visiting professor in Berlin in 1907. He married Miriam Stuart Thayer on May 28, 1896, and they had a daughter, Grace Thayer, and two sons, William Theodore and Greenough Thayer. Grace married James Bryant Conant, Harvard President and Richards’s student.
Richards was well known for his research on atomic weights, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1914 (presented in 1915). He was Harvard’s first Nobel Laureate and the first American recipient of a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Richards’s research also focused on compressibility of atoms, chemical thermodynamics and adiabatic calorimetry, chemical equilibrium, and electrochemistry. He was President of the American Chemical Society in 1914, the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1917, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1919-1921, and was a member of many other professional organizations. Richards was awarded the Davy Medal (The Royal Society) in 1910, the Faraday Medal (also known as the Faraday Lectureship, from the Royal Society of Chemistry) in 1911, the Willard Gibbs Medal (Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society) in 1912, the Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) in 1916, and the Le Blanc and Lavoisier Medal (Société Chimique de France) in 1922, as well as other medals and prizes. The Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society established the Theodore William Richards Medal after Richards's death in 1928, and it was awarded to him and posthumously in 1932. Richards died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 2, 1928.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in 24 series. The collection follows the arrangement of call numbers given to series upon receipt at the Harvard University Archives.
- Letters to, 1889-1912 (HUG 1743)
- Diaries, 1907-1928 (HUG 1743.1.2)
- Personal correspondence, 1889-1928 (HUG 1743.1.5)
- Personal correspondence, 1911-1913 (HUG 1743.1.6)
- Professional and personal correspondence, 1902-1926 (HUG 1743.1.8)
- Correspondence of Chemistry, 1895-1928 (HUG 1743.1.10)
- Correspondence as President of the American Chemical Society, 1914 (HUG 1743.1.12)
- Correspondence with W. P. White and others about thermoelements, 1910-1916 (HUG 1743.1.15)
- Correspondence about a teaching position for his [Richards's] son, W. T. Richards, 1926 (HUG 1743.1.17)
- Miscellaneous items, [1901-1928 and undated] (HUG 1743.1.20)
- Notes, workbooks, lectures, correspondence (HUG 1743.1.25)
- Lists and marks in Chemistry courses, 1890-1928 (HUG 1743.2)
- Papers re: requirements for degree of A.B., 1904-1906 (HUG 1743.3)
- Lowell lectures, [circa 1908] (HUG 1743.4)
- Addresses, lectures, etc. (HUG 1743.4.5)
- Miscellaneous lectures and manuscripts (HUG 1743.5)
- Chemistry lecture and lab. notes (HUG 1743.5.5)
- Laboratory computation books. "Series 10", Nov. 1914-? (HUG 1743.5.10)
- Scrapbooks of clippings, circa 1895-1923 (HUG 1743.6)
- Autobiographical and biographical materials on T. W. Richards (HUG 1743.6.5)
- Biographical and autobiographical materials, manuscripts, etc., [circa 1877-1915 and undated] (HUG 1743.6.6)
- Medals, [1901-1947 and undated] (HUG 1743.7)
- Reprints Papers, 1887-1929 (HUG 1743.75)
- Reprints Chemical Papers, 1886-1927 (HUG 1743.76)
Acquisition
Received in the following and possibly other accessions.
- Transferred from the Chemistry Department, received 1940.
- Gift of Mrs. T. W. Richards, received 1941-06-09.
- Transferred from the Chemical Laboratories, received 1946-11-30.
- Gift of Mrs. T. W. Richards, received 1948.
- Transferred from the Chemical Laboratories, received 1952-02.
- Gift of Mrs. G. P. Baxter, received 1953-03.
- Transferred from the Chemical Laboratories, received 1953-12-09.
- Transferred from the Chemical Laboratories, received 1954-01-27.
- Gift of D. P. Wheatland, received 1955-11-02.
- Gift of Mrs. James B. Conant, received 1972-10.
- Gift of Mrs. James B. Conant, received 1980-03-19, accession 8859.
Inventory update
This document last updated 2022 May 02.
Processing Information
The finding aid was created by Erin Clauss in December 2020-January 2021. Information in this finding aid was assembled from legacy paper inventories and container management data. Titles are transcribed, except those in square brackets. The collection was not re-examined.
Creator
Subject
- Title
- Richards, Theodore W. (Theodore William), 1868-1928. Papers of Theodore William Richards, 1877-1947 : an inventory
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hua91020
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository
Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.
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Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2461
archives_reference@harvard.edu