Special Collections
Milton S. Eisenhower Library
The Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21218
410-516-8348

Remsen (Ira) 1846-1927
Papers (1846-1927)
Ms. 39

Size:          23 document boxes
               (9.6 linear ft.)

Processed:
By:

Provenance:    The papers were acquired by the Chemistry Alumni in
1927.

Permission:    Permission to publish material from this collection
               must be requested in writing from the Manuscripts
               Librarian, Special Collections, Milton S. Eisenhower
               Library, The Johns Hopkins University.

Citation:      Ira Remsen Papers Ms. 39
               Special Collections
               Milton S. Eisenhower Library
               The Johns Hopkins University                           Remsen (Ira) 1846-1927
                            Papers (1846-1927)
                                  Ms. 39

Provenance

     Following Ira Remsen's death in 1927, his papers were acquired
gradually by Johns Hopkins University over a period of years. In
September 1931 the Chemistry Alumni of Johns Hopkins University
established the Remsen Memorial Collection with addresses, reports,
articles, recollections and reminiscences. A considerable quantity of
material was collected which was at first lodged in the Library of the
Chemistry Department at Johns Hopkins University, before it eventually
came to the Eisenhower Library. The Collection was catalogued in about
1950 and consists of ca. 4,000 items of correspondence, speeches,
lectures, publications, notes, notebooks, ledgers, photographs,
newspaper clippings, annotated books, and memorabilia.

Biographical Sketch

     Ira Remsen, American chemist, educator and second President of
Johns
Hopkins University was born in New York City on February 10, 1846, the
son of
Rosanna Secor and James Vanderbilt Remsen. At the age of 14 Ira Remsen
became a
freshman at the New York Free Academy (later the College of the City
of New
York). It was at that time that a series of popular lectures on
chemistry and
physics given by R. Ogden Doremus first stirred Remsen's interest in
the science
to which he would later contribute so much. However, before the
completion of
his college course Remsen's father decided that his son should enter
the medical
profession. Ira Remsen was removed from college and placed under the
tutelage of
a practicing physician who also occupied the chair of chemistry in a
local
homeopathic medical school. Although Remsen's college course was thus
abruptly
terminated, he later received the degree of A.B. nunc pro tunc from
the College
of the City of New York. He enrolled as a student in the College of
Physicians
and Surgeons and in 1867 he graduated with honors as a Doctor of
Medicine. He
then became apprenticed to a physician in New York City  and for about
a year
was actively engaged in the practice of medicine. By 1868, however,
Remsen
decided to abandon his medical career and devote himself to the
serious study of
chemistry. to this end he went to Germany and commenced work at the
University of
Munich in the autumn of that year under the laboratory instruction of
Jacob
Volhard and attending the lectures of Justus von Liebig. the following
year
Remsen went to Gottingen to work under Rudolf Fittig, and he received
his Ph.D.
degree in 1870. Remsen next accompanied Fittig as his assistant to
Tubingen
where he remained for two years. It was at this time that Remsen first
met Sir
William Ramsay. This marked the beginning of a lifelong  association.

     Remsen returned to the United states in 1872, and after some
delay took up the post of Professor of Physics and Chemistry at
Williams College. He remained at Williams for four years during which
he published 9 papers on the results of original investigations and a
book on theoretical chemistry which became one of the leading
textbooks of the day. In 1876 Remsen was offered and accepted the
chair of chemistry at the newly established Johns Hopkins University,
and in 1877 he
delivered his first lecture on advanced organic chemistry. Thus began
that course of instruction in chemical science which ultimately became
the accepted pattern of American universities.

     Perhaps the best known of Remsen's many discoveries was that of
benzoic
sulfinide or saccharin, in collaboration with one of his students,
Constantine
Fahlberg. Fahlberg quickly recognized the financial potential of
benzoic
sulfinide and secured patent protection for its manufacture under the
trade name
saccharin, ensuring his exclusive control of its future production.
Fahlberg
thus denied Remsen any financial benefits, and also sought to
discredit Remsen's
claim to any connection with the discovery of saccharin.

     In 1879 Remsen established the American Chemical Journal of which
he
remained editor until 1915. Remsen's numerous published works include:
The
Principles of Theoretic Chemistry (1876); Organic Chemistry (1885);
Introduction
to the study of Chemistry (1887); Elements of Chemistry (1888); A
Laboratory
Manual (1889); Chemical Experiments (1895); Inorganic Chemistry
(1898); The
University Movement (1915).

     Remsen performed many services of a civic nature. In 1881 he was
called
upon for advice on major problems in the Boston water supply. After
the
Baltimore fire in 1904 he was the most important member of a
commission to
design a new system of sewage disposal for the city. In 1909 he was
appointed by
President Theodore Roosevelt the Chairman of a Board commissioned to
study
administration of the Pure Food Law. Remsen found distasteful all the
publicity
and the political and commercial influences connected with this work.

     Many honors were conferred upon Remsen. He was made a member of
the
National Academy of Science in 1882 and was President of the Academy
from
1907 - 1913. He was President of the American Chemical Society in
1902; of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1903; of the
Society of
Chemical Industry in 1910. He was honorary member of the Societe
Chimique de
France; of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain; of the
American Chemical
Society. He was medalist of the Society of Chemical Industry in 1904,
and
received the Willard Gibbs Medal in 1914 and the Priestly Medal in
1923. He was
awarded many honorary degrees: LLD Columbia University 1893; Princeton
University 1896;  Yale University 1901; University of Toronto 1902;
Harvard
University 1909; Pennsylvania College 1910; University of Pittsburgh
1915;
DCL University of the South 1907.

     While Daniel Coit Gilman was absent in Europe from 1889 - 1890,
Ira Remsen served as Acting President of Johns Hopkins University.
When Gilman retired in 1901 Remsen was chosen as his successor.
Remsen's administration was a period of steady progress against
difficulties and marked the founding of the School of Engineering and
the removal of the University to the Homewood site. Remsen retired
from Johns Hopkins University in 1913. After that he devoted his time
to travel, to revising his books, in work for the Government as
Chairman of the Referee Board, and consulting work for one of the
largest American industrial corporations. He married Elizabeth
H.Mallory in 1875. They had two sons, Ira M. Remsen and Charles M.
Remsen. Ira Remsen died in Carmel, California on March 4, 1927.

Scope and Content

     The collection spans the years 1868 - 1938. The material consists
of
correspondence, speeches, publications, lectures and lecture notes,
notebooks,
scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, photgraphs, reprints, books annotated
by
Remsen, and memorabilia.

Series Description

     1. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by author of letter.
There
          is also correspondence relating to business of the Referee
          Board.

     2. Speeches, lectures and publications
    
     3. Notebooks, scrapbooks, reprints, memorabilia

Correspondents:

Andrews, Charles McLean (1863 - 1913)
Angell, James Burrill (1829 - 1916)
Bancroft, Wilder Dwight (1867 - 1953)
Brown, Elmer Ellsworth (1861 - 1934)
Burton, William Merian (1865 - 1954)
Butler, Nicholas Murray (1862 - 1947)
Chandler, Charles Frederick (1836 - 1925)
Chittenden, Russell Henry (1856 - 1943)
Dana, James Dwight (1813 - 1895)
Eliot, Charles William (1834 - 1926)
Geikie, Sir Archibald (1835 - 1924)
Gilman, Daniel Coit (1831 - 1908)
Hadley, Arthur Twining (1856 - 1930)
Hall, Granville Stanley (1846 - 1924)
Harper, William Rainey (1856 - 1906)
Herter, Christian Archibald (1865 - 1910)
James, Edmund Janes (1855 - 1925)
Jameson, John Franklin (1859 - 1937)
Jastrow, Morris, Jr. (1861 - 1921)
Jordan, David Starr (1851 - 1931)
Kelvin, 1st Baron, William Thomson (1824 - 1907)
Loeb, Morris (1863 - 1912)
Long, John Harper (1856 - 1918)
Maclaurin, Richard Cockburn (1870 - 1920)
Marsh, Othniel Charles (1831 - 1899)
Meldola, Raphael (1849 - 1915)
Meyer, Adolf (1866 - 1950)
Mitchell, Silas Weir (1829 - 1914)
Noyes, William Albert (1857 - 1941)
Osler, Sir William (1849 - 1919)
Page, Walter Hines (1855 - 1918)
Pritchett, Henry Smith (1857 - 1939)
Ramsay, Sir William (1852 - 1916)
Richards, Theodore William (1868 - 1928)
Roosevelt, Theodore (1858 - 1919)
Schouler, James (1839 - 1920)
Smith, Theobald (1859 - 1934)
Walcott, Charles Doolittle (1850 - 1927)
Welch, William Henry (1850 - 1934)
Wheeler, Benjamin Ide (1854 - 1927)
Willard, Daniel (1861 - 1942)
Willoughby, Westal Woodbury (1867 - 1945)
Wilson, Thomas Woodrow (1856 - 1924)

                              Container List

Box 1     Correspondence A-H

Box 2     Correspondence I-M

Box 3     Correspondence N-Ramsay

Box 4     Correspondence Reid-Y

Box 5     U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Referee Board.
          1908-1911

Box 6     U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Referee Board.
          1911-1913

Box 7     U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Referee Board.
          Appointments 1905-1910

Box 8     U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Referee Board.
          Appointments 1911-1913

Box 9     diary 1868
          memoranda books 1860s-1870s
          student notebooks 1867-70

Box 10    notebooks 1886, 1889, 1892
          American Chemical Journal records
               papers published 1902-1912
               book reviewers 1901-1913

Box 11    addresses by Remsen 1878-1925

Box 12    addresses by Remsen n.d.
          articles by Remsen 1870-1892

Box 13    articles by Remsen 1893-1923, n.d.
          lectures by Remsen 1880-1917, n.d.

          "Notes & Queries, Investigations" 1898-1899
          notes

Box 14    books by Remsen

Box 15    books by Remsen

Box 16    books owned by Remsen

Box 17    reprints, reports (not by Remsen)

Box 18    scrapbook: 25th Anniversary of Johns Hopkins University
                    installation of Remsen, 1902

Box 19    scrapbook: Baltimore Sewerage Commission 1905-1912

Box 20    Personal:
          awards
          printed material
          "Purim" by Paul Haupt
          memorabilia from trip to New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti 1914

Box 21    Personal:
          memorabilia
          commemorative coins
          office tile, key
          engraving plates
          Victor talking machine

Box 22    Personal:
          itinerary, n.d.
          curriculum vitae [1876], [1923]
          Williams College Catalogue 1874-1875
          photographs
          invitations, programs
          newspaper clippings
          biographical sketches
          obituaries
          condolences
          genealogical material

Box 23    Personal:
          reminiscences about Remsen
               correspondence solicited by E.Emmet Reid

          Remsen Memorial Number Journal of the American
               Chemical Society J.C.W. Frazer correspondence

          Remsen Memorial Collection
               Lyman C. Newell correspondence

          Chemistry Alumni of Johns Hopkins University
               minutes 1931

          notes on the contents of the Remsen Collection