Frankland Papers
Date range: 1772-1959
Medium: Archive
Sir Edward Frankland (1825–1899) was one of the leading scientists of the 19th century.He was born near Garstang, Lancashire. After working in chemist’s shop in Lancaster, he secured a highly desirable place at the London laboratory of Lyon Playfair. He then studied at the University of Marburg, where he received his Ph.D., Frankland was the first professor of chemistry at Owens College, Manchester (1851–7), where he established a strong tradition of applied chemistry. He advised local industries on water purity, gas making, coal analysis, and the manufacture of alkalis.
In 1857 Frankland moved to London, to take up a post at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, before transferring to the Royal Institution, and from 1865 to 1885 he was professor of chemistry at the Royal College of Chemistry (later part of Imperial College). He was also one of nine scientists who founded the exclusive X Club, a dining club which promoted the advancement of science.
Frankland’s contributions to chemistry were profound and far-reaching: he recognized the chemical bond and developed the idea of valency; he pioneered the new field of organometallic chemistry; he played a significant role in transforming the teaching of science; and he was instrumental in the formation of the Institute of Chemistry. Frankland also acquired a significant reputation as a water analyst, supplying reports on London’s water to the Local Government Board, and he was heavily involved in several public inquiries into water supply and quality between the 1860s and the 1890s. Frankland enjoyed a lucrative private practice as a water analyst for local authorities, industry and private individuals.
Edward Frankland's papers are extensive and offer considerable potential for the study of many aspects of science in 19th-century Britain. There are several thousand letters from leading scientific contemporaries including Robert Bunsen, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley, Hermann Kolbe, Justus von Liebig, Joseph Lister, John Lubbock, Lyon Playfair, Herbert Spencer and John Tyndall. Other material includes Frankland’s diary from 1848/9, lecture notes (his teachers and his own), scientific notebooks, water analysis reports, and personal and family papers. A particularly significant item is a rare minute book of the X Club, the exclusive scientific group of which Frankland was a founder member.
The Frankland Papers include significant archival material for Edward Frankland's son, Percy Faraday Frankland (1858–1946), who was also distinguished chemist, and his wife Grace Frankland (née Toynbee) (1858–1946).
Percy Frankland was professor of chemistry at University College, Dundee, and later, at the University of Birmingham. He made important contributions to the chemistry of fermentation and optically active compounds. Like his father, he was involved in improving the quality of the public's water supply by acting as an analyst for public authorities. Percy was also very active in promoting the academic study of bacteriology, having been influenced by Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch.
Grace Frankland was a pioneering woman scientist, who made important contributions to microbiology and bacteriology, and was also a prolific science journalist. Grace was one of the first twelve women scientists admitted to the Linnean Society of London, in 1904.
The archive also includes papers of Percy and Grace’s son, Edward (1884-1959), also an academic chemist who later became a farmer and novelist, and family papers of Percy’s sisters, Sophie (Colenso) and Maggie (West).
See also:
Further information:
- Catalogue available online via ELGAR.
- Colin A. Russell, Edward Frankland: Chemistry, Controversy and Conspiracy in Victorian England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
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