LibGuides: World War I, Chemistry and the Chemical Industry: Archives

About

In 1914 when much of Europe went to war U.S. industries were heavily dependent upon imports from Germany. Wartime trade restrictions made it imperative that the American chemical industry quickly mature.

Hercules Powder Company Advertisement, 1918

Records of Hercules Inc., Science History Institute Archives.

Archival Collections

Papers of Herbert H. Dow
1872-1930 (bulk 1915-1922)
With the outbreak of World War I and a cut-off of German-manufactured chemicals, Dow expanded into the production of calcium chloride, aniline, salicylic acid, acetic anhydride, monochloracetic acid, monochlorobenzene, phenol and magnesium in addition to bromine.
Dow Chemical Company
1897 - 2006 (bulk 1900 - 1990)
Hercules Incorporated
Records & ephemera of Hercules Incorporated 1913-1997.
ADVERTISEMENTS—Vol. “1918”
Series VII, Box 14: Project to manufacture acetone from kelp—1915-1917
Rohm and Haas Company
1743-1998 (bulk 1907-1983)
Alien Property Custodian Act
United States Army Gas School notebook ; 1918.
Author: Scott, Francis E.
These are comprehensive notes on the use of gas in warfare, both offensively and defensively. The notes include teaching aids and a circular letter from Brig. Gen. Amos A. Fries, Chief of the Chemical warfare Service in which he discusses use of gas in trench warfare in France.
Goran Morris Collection
Research & notes assembled for Goran’s biography of Fritz Haber.
Travis P. Hignett Collection of Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory Photographs
Initially part of the War Department, the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory was the successor to several wartime initiatives to develop a secure domestic supply of nitrate compounds for the manufacture of explosives. Includes images of various equipment and apparatus predominately dating from the 1920s and 1930s.