Leo H. Baekeland Papers
name: label: Creator
content: Baekeland, L. H. (Leo Hendrik), 1863-1944
label: Names
content: Bakelite Corporation
label: Names
content: Nepera Chemical Co.
topic: label: Topic
content: Phenolic resins
label: Topic
content: Travel -- Photographs
label: Topic
content: Chemists -- 1880-1970
label: Topic
content: Inventors -- 1880-1970
label: Topic
content: Plastics -- 1880-1970
label: Topic
content: Chemistry
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The bulk of the collection was donated to the National Museum of American History's Division of Physical Sciences in November, 1981, by Celine Karraker, Leo H. Baekeland's granddaughter.
creator: label: Creator
content: Baekeland, L. H. (Leo Hendrik), 1863-1944
setName: label: See more items in
content: Leo H. Baekeland Papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers document Leo H. Baekeland, a Belgian born chemist who invented Velox photographic paper (1893) and Bakelite (1907), an inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile plastic. The papers include student notebooks; private laboratory notebooks and journals; commercial laboratory notes; diaries; patents; technical papers; biographies; newspaper clippings; maps; graphs; blueprints; account books; batch books; formula books; order books; photographs; and correspondence regarding Baekeland, 1887-1943.
accruals: label: Accruals
content: Sixty-two of Leo H. Baekeland's personal diaries were donated directly to the Archives Center by Mrs. Karraker in subsequent installments between 1984-1995.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Leo Hendrik Baekeland was an industrial chemist famous for his invention of Bakelite, the first moldable synthetic polymer, and for his invention of Velox photographic paper.  Baekeland's career as an inventor and innovator was punctuated by an urge to improve existing technologies and a willingness to experiment both meticulously and daringly. Born in Ghent, Belgium in 1863, Baekeland was a distinguished chemistry student and became a young professor at the University of Ghent.  He had a long standing interest in photography and sought to further photographic technology with his expertise in chemistry.  In 1887 he obtained his first patent for a dry plate which contained its own developer and could be developed in a tray of water. With the support of a business partner/faculty associate, Jules Guequier, he formed a company named Baekeland et Cie to produce the plate, but the venture failed due to lack of capital.

On August 8, 1889, he married Celine Swarts, daughter of his academic mentor Theodore Swarts, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Ghent. After his wedding he travelled to different countries using a traveling scholarship he had been awarded two years previously.  His travels ended in the United States where he was offered a job researching chemical problems associated with manufacturing bromide papers and films with A. and H.T. Anthony and Company, a photographic supply producer. Leo and Celine Baekeland had three children: George, Nina and Jenny (1890-1895). 

He left Anthony and Company in 1891 to be a consulting chemist. During that time he invented a photographic print paper using silver chloride which could be developed in artificial light instead of sunlight and thus offered more flexibility and consistency to photographers.  In 1893, with financial support from Leonard Jacobi, a scrap metal dealer from San Francisco, he formed the
Nepera Chemical Company in Yonkers, New York, to manufacture "gaslight" paper under the trade name Velox. The paper became quite popular and the company expanded its operations after its first three years.  Finally, George Eastman bought the company for a reported $750,000 which afforded Baekeland the time to conduct his own research in a laboratory he set up on his estate, "Snug Rock," in Yonkers.

Baekeland worked on problems of electrolysis of salt and the production of synthetic resins.  He was hired as a consultant to work with Clinton P. Townsend to perfect Townsend's patented
electrolytic cell.  Baekeland's work there contributed to the success of the Hooke Electrochemical Company which began in operations in Niagara Falls in 1905.

Simultaneously, in 1902 Baekeland began researching reactions of phenol and formaldehyde, and by 1907 was able to control the reactions and produce a moldable plastic (oxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride) which he named Bakelite. Although the process was not perfected for another couple of years, Baekeland applied for a patent for Bakelite right away.       
      
He announced his discovery to the scientific community in 1909, and in 1910 formed the General Bakelite Company. Bakelite was a thermosetting resin that, unlike Celluloid became permanently solid when heated.  It was virtually impervious to heat, acids, or caustic substances.  It could be molded into a wide variety of shapes and was an excellent electric insulator that came to replace hard rubber and amber for electrical and industrial applications.  It was also suitable for a wide variety of consumer products such as billiard balls, jewelry, pot handles, telephones, toasters, electric plugs, and airplane instrument knobs.
Two companies challenged Bakelite with significant competition, Condensite Corporation of America and Redmanol Chemical Products Company.  Bakelite finally merged with these two companies in 1922 to become the Bakelite Corporation. Union Carbide finally bought the corporation in 1939.

Baekeland sustained his interest in photography by taking numerous photographs throughout his lifetime.  He also devoted much of his spare time to professional societies and received various
honorary degrees and awards such as the Perkin Medal. He had several hobbies such as boating, wine and beer making, and, exotic plants.  He also traveled extensively throughout the world, which is documented in his diaries and photographs.

 Baekeland spent his final years mostly in his Coconut Grove, Florida home where he became increasingly eccentric until his mind failed him and he was institutionalized. He died in 1943 at the age of eighty.

Scope and Content: Baekeland documented his life prolifically through diaries, laboratory notebooks, photographs, and correspondence. These constitute the bulk of the collection. The Bakelite company history is also incompletely documented in this collection through Baekeland's correspondence, the commercial laboratory notebooks, and some company ledgers.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 15 Cubic feet (49 boxes)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1976
label: Date
content: 1863 - 1968
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: The materials were on temporary loan to the Museum since May, 1976.  The first accession included eighteen boxes of papers and correspondence and eighteen boxes of photographs and negatives. Boxes were transferred to the Archives Center in April 1983 and one additional box was transferred in March 1984.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0005
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Professional papers
label: Type
content: Clippings
label: Type
content: Laboratory notes
label: Type
content: Personal correspondence
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Notebooks
label: Type
content: Diaries
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Series 1: Reference Materials, 1863-1868 and undated

Subseries 1.1: Biographical, 1880-1965

Subseries 1.2:Company History, 1910-1961

Subseries 1.3: Related Interests, 1863-1968 and undated

Series 2: Published and Unpublished Writings (by Leo H. Baekeland), 1884-1945

Series 3: Correspondence, 1888-1963
 
Subseries 3.1: Personal Correspondence, 1916-1943

Subseries 3.2: Charitable Donations, 1916-1938

Subseries 3.3: Family Correspondence, 1888-1963

Subseries 3.4: Clubs and Associations, 1916-1943

Series 4: Diaries, 1907-1943

Series 5: Reading and Lecture Notes, 1878-1886

Series 6, Laboratory Notebooks, 1893-1915

Series 7: Commercial Laboratory Notebooks, 1910-1920

Series 8: Bakelite Company, 1887-1945

Series 9, Patents, 1894-1940

Series 10: Bakelite Corporation Ledgers, 1910-1924; 1935; 1939

Series 11: Photographs, 1889-1950 and undated

Subseries 11.1: Photographs, 1889-1950 and undated

Subseries 11.2: Film Negatives, 1900-1941 and undated

Subseries 11.3: Photoprints, 1894-1941

Subseries 11.4: Stereographs, 1888-1902 and undated

Subseries 11.5: Film and Glass Plate Negatives, 1899-1900 and undated

Series 12: Audio Materials, 1976
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Processed by Robert Harding, archivist, 1994; revised Alison Oswald, archivist, 2010; revised Joe Hursey, 2014.
label: Processing Information
content: Collection processed by Robert Harding, 1994
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Select diaries in Series 4 digitized in 2014-2015.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Professional papers -- 1880-1970
label: Genre/Form
content: Clippings -- 1880-1970
label: Genre/Form
content: Laboratory notes
label: Genre/Form
content: Personal correspondence -- 1880-1970
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- Glass -- 19th-20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Notebooks -- 1880-1970
label: Genre/Form
content: Diaries -- 1880-1970
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs -- Black-and-white photoprints -- Silver gelatin -- 19th-20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- Nitrate -- 19th-20th century
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Baekeland documented his life prolifically through diaries, laboratory notebooks, photographs, and correspondence. These constitute the bulk of the collection. The Bakelite company history is also incompletely documented in this collection through Baekeland's correspondence, the commercial laboratory notebooks, and some company ledgers.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Materials in the Archives Center

Albany Billiard Ball Company Records (AC0011)

Celluloid Corporation Records (AC0009)

J. Harry DuBois Collection on the History of Plastics (AC0008)

Materials at Other Organizations

The Hagley Museum and Library, Manuscripts and Archives Department in Delaware also several related collections including: the Directors of Industrial Research Records, 1929 -982; the Du Pont Viscoloid Company, Survey of the Plastics Field, 1932; The Society of the Plastics Industry, 1937-1987; the Roy J. Plunkett Collection, 1910-1994 (inventor of Teflon); and the Gordon M. Kline Collection, 1903.
separatedmaterial: label: Separated Materials
content: The National Museum of American History, Division Medicine and Science has several artifacts associated with Baekeland including the original "Bakalizer" the apparatus in which Bakelite was first made. See accession numbers: 1977.0368; 1979.1179; 1981.0976; 1982.0034; 1983.0524; 1984.0138.