Chemical Education Today
From Past Issues
Caricatures from the Past by Kathryn R. Williams
The white-haired gentleman in Figure 1 might lead you to believe that Colonel Sanders had taken up glassblowing in his spare time. But in truth, the caricature portrays Sir William Crookes holding an example of the vacuum tube that bears his name. The caricature by Sir Leslie Ward (whose signature was SPY) appeared in Vanity Fair (1). I found this picture in the article “Caricatures of Chemists as Contributions to the History of Chemistry,” by Lyman C. Newell (2), which contains portraits and caricatures of 11 scientists from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.1 Newell attempts to convince his readers that “if we had only the caricatures themselves we could use them in constructing an accurate historical record”. I doubt sincerely that he would have been able to infer much of anything without prior knowledge of the scientists’ personalities and accomplishments. In Figure 1 for example, I can perhaps see that “[Crookes’s] face discloses the great satisfaction he feels in holding a vacuum tube which he hoped would bear his name for years to come”. But I don’t agree with Newell that “if we had only this caricature we could tell rather fully the story of Crookes and the Crookes tube”. Another reproduction from Newell’s paper (Figure 2) shows Jean-Baptiste Dumas in a sparsely equipped labora-
tory. According to Newell, the lithograph by French artist Honoré Daumier dates from 1850 (3), soon after Dumas set aside his varied experimental pursuits to become a member of the French National Assembly and subsequently to hold several high-ranking posts in the government of Louis Napoleon. The face bears a close likeness to the photograph of Dumas in Figure 3. After reading the short biographies of Dumas in JCE (4, 5), I appreciate his importance to chemistry, and can see in the oversized head of the caricature that Dumas was “an independent, original, and selfconfident chemist” (2). But I hardly would have reached that conclusion with “only this caricature as a guide” (2). Daumier’s lithograph of Dumas also appears in Wilhelm Prandtl’s “Chemical Caricatures”, the only other JCE article of this type retrieved by my online search (6). Prandtl’s article traces the ridicule of chemists’ appearances to 16th century drawings of the generic alchemist in tattered clothing pursuing his deceptive craft in jumbled surroundings. Three centuries later, when chemists were no longer regarded as mere charlatans, artists started poking fun at individual scientists (as well as jurists, politicians, physicians, and others), an indication, according to Prandtl, of the growing respect for the profession. Compared to Newell, Prandtl finds considerably more humor in the Daumier lithograph. Do you agree with Prandtl that “the furnace with the retort seems to look accusingly at Dumas, because he had been unfaithful to science, for which he had substituted politics”? It is doubtful that, by themselves, the pictures in the Newell and Prandtl articles taught me much chemistry or science history. But they roused me to learn more about key figures such as Dumas and Crookes and, most enjoyable of all, to delve into collections of works by Daumier and artistic pieces from Vanity Fair. Notes 1. The scientists whose caricatures appear are: Joseph Black, James Hutton, John Dalton, Joseph Priestley, Lord Rayleigh, Sir William Ramsay, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, Jacobus Henricus van’t Hoff, Jean-Baptiste Dumas, and August Kekulé.
Figure 1. Caricature of Sir William Crookes by Sir Leslie Ward (SPY), 1903. The catchy title “Ubi Crookes ibi lux,” (Where Crookes is, there is light) indicates the high regard for his work, both in scientific and in public circles (see, for example: http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/icl/heyes/LanthAct/Biogs/ Crookes.html; accessed May 2003). But it may also be a subtle reference to Crookes’ activities in psychical research. For details about the latter aspect of Crookes’ career, see Hall T. H. The Medium and the Scientist: The Story of Florence Cook and William Crookes; Prometheus Books: Buffalo, NY, 1984; Chapters 5 and 6. (Figure 15 in J. Chem. Educ. 1931, 8, 2138–2155.)
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Figure 2. Caricature of Dumas by Honoré Daumier, ca. 1850. (Figure 25 in J. Chem. Educ. 1931, 8, 2138–2155; also Figure 9 in J. Chem. Educ. 1948, 25, 323–326.)
Figure 3. Jean-Baptiste André Dumas. ( J. Chem. Educ. 1951, 28, 630–633.)
Literature Cited 1. Vanity Fair (London), #1803, May 21, 1903, indexed by Matthews, R. T.; Mellini, P. In Vanity Fair; University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1982. 2. Newell, L. C. Caricatures of Chemists as Contributions to the History of Chemistry. J. Chem. Educ. 1931, 8, 2138–2155. 3. Efforts to locate the origin of the lithograph were inconclusive. It may be “Les malheurs du chimiste Dumas,” L. Delteil #2068, 1851, catalogued in Bibliothèque Nationale (France). Daumier: lithographies, gravures sur bois, sculptures; Bibliothèque Nationale: Paris, 1934. 4. Leicester, H. M. Dumas, Davy, and Liebig. J. Chem. Educ. 1951, 28, 352–354. 5. Alsobrook, J. W. Jean Baptiste Andre Dumas. J. Chem. Educ. 1951, 28, 630–633. 6. Prandtl, W. Chemical Caricatures. J. Chem. Educ. 1948, 25, 323–326.
Kathryn R. Williams is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, P. O. Box 117200, Gainesville, FL 32611-7200;
[email protected].
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