Frank Sherwood Taylor (1897 – 5 January 1956) was a British historian of science, museum curator, and

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

who was Director of the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

.Ralph E. Oesper
"Frank Sherwood Taylor"
'' Journal of Chemical Education'', 27(5), p 253, May 1950.

ACS Publications The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

. F. Sherwood Taylor was educated at

Sherborne School (God and My Right) , established = 705 by Aldhelm, re-founded by King Edward VI 1550 , closed = , type = Public school Independent, boarding school , religion = Church of England , president = , chair_label = Chairman of the governors , ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, southern

and

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...

. He then undertook a PhD at University College, London in the new Department of History and Method of Science. He spent a period as a schoolmaster and then as a lecturer in

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

Queen Mary College, London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

. He was a founder member of the Philosophy of Science Group. He was also the founder editor of the ''

Ambix ''Ambix'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal on the history of alchemy and chemistry; it was founded in 1936 and has appeared continuously from 1937 to the present, other than from 1939 to 1945 during World War II. It is currently published by the ...

'' journal, started in 1937, and the journal of the

Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry {{short description, British academic society The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, founded as the ''Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry'' in 1935, holds biennial meetings and a yearly Graduate Workshop, publishes t ...

In 1940, he succeeded

Robert Gunther Robert William Theodore Gunther (23 August 1869 – 9 March 1940) was a historian of science, zoologist, and founder of the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. Gunther's father, Albert Günther, was Keeper of Zoology at the British Museu ...

as Curator of the Museum of the History of Science in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. Towards the end of his life, he was Director of the Science Museum from 1950 until his death in 1956. During this time, he delivered the 1952

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a series of lectures on a single topic each, which have been held at the Royal Institution in London each year since 1825, missing 1939–1942 because of the Second World War. The lectures present sci ...

in London on ''How Science has Grown''. He was President of the British Society for the History of Science from 1951 to 1953.

''The Young Chemist'' and Sydney Brenner

In an interview conducted by

Errol Friedberg Errol Clive Friedberg was a biologist and historian of science in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University and subsequently the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Education He studied medicine at the University of Witwater ...

, Sydney Brenner said:

Books

F. Sherwood Taylor wrote many books on the history of

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

and

in particular, and also of

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

in general: * Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry (1931)
5th edition (1939)
* Organic Chemistry (1933) * A Short Organic Chemistry (1933) * The Young Chemist (1934, new edition 1961). Practical Books, Thomas Nelson and Sons, Edinburgh. * The World of Science (1936); 1064 pages *

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

and the Freedom of Thought (1938) * General Science for Schools: Parts 1–3 (1939) * The March of Mind: A Short History of Science (1939) * A Short History of Science and Scientific Thought, with readings from the great scientists from the

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...

ns to

Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

(1940) * The Century of Science (1941) * The Conquest of Bacteria, from

Salvarsan Arsphenamine, also known as Salvarsan or compound 606, is a drug that was introduced at the beginning of the 1910s as the first effective treatment for syphilis, relapsing fever, and African trypanosomiasis. This organoarsenic compound was the fi ...

to Sulphapyridine (1942) * Science, Past and Present (1945)
The Fourfold Vision: a study of the relations of science and religion
(1946) * Two Ways of Life - Christian and Materialist (1947) * A Century of British Chemistry (Science in Britain) (1947) * Man's Conquest of Nature (1948) * Concerning Science (1949) * The Alchemists, Founders of Modern Chemistry (1949) * British Inventions (1950) * Man and Matter - Essays Scientific & Christian (1951) * The Alchemists (1952) * Power Today and Tomorrow (1954) * An Illustrated History of Science (1955) * A History of Industrial Chemistry (Technology and Society) (1957) * An Introduction To Alchemy

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, F. Sherwood 1897 births 1956 deaths Schoolteachers from London People educated at Sherborne School Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Alumni of University College London English chemists English curators Historians of science Academic journal editors Academics of Queen Mary University of London Academics of the University of Oxford Directors of museums in the United Kingdom Directors of the Science Museum, London 20th-century English historians