Guide to the William Crowell Bray Papers, 1890-1945
Processed by The Bancroft Library staff
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University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
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© 1996
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Note
Physical Sciences --Chemistry History --History, University of California --History, UC Berkeley
Guide to the William Crowell Bray Papers, 1890-1945
Collection number: BANC MSS 73/55 c
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Contact Information:
- Processed by:
- The Bancroft Library staff
- Date Completed:
- ca. 1976
- Encoded by:
- Xiuzhi Zhou
© 1996 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Collection Summary
Collection Title: William Crowell Bray Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1890-1945
Collection Number: BANC MSS 73/55 c
Creator:
Bray, William C. (William Crowell), 1879-1946
Extent:
Number of containers: 4 boxes and 1 v.
Linear feet: 2.1
Repository: The
Bancroft Library
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Abstract: Letters written to Bray and copies of letters by him; papers and articles; notes; reprints, etc. Concerning his career as
professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
Languages Represented:
English
Information for Researchers
Access
Collection is open for research
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of the Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft
Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], William Crowell Bray Papers, BANC MSS 73/55 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Biographical Sketch
William Crowell Bray was born September 2, 1879 in Wingham, Ontario, Canada. Graduated from the University of Toronto in 1902 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, he received a travelling fellowship which
he spent in Germany doing graduate work in chemistry under Professor Robert Luther at the University of Leipzig and received his Ph.D. in 1905.
He moved to the United States and worked as a research associate in physical chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under Professor Arthur A. Noyes from 1905 to 1910, and from 1910 to 1912 he was assistant professor of physico-chemical research.
In 1912 he moved to Berkeley, California to accept the position of assistant professor of chemistry at the University of California.
He was naturalized in 1913 and in 1914 married Nora Thomas. He became professor of chemistry in 1918, a position which he
held until he was forced to resign in 1945 due to ill health.
During World War I he directed research at the Experimental Station, American University, Washington, D.C. and in 1919 was associate director of the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory. He was, also, chairman of the
Department of Chemistry from March 1943 to March 1, 1945. A heart attack late in 1945 immobilized him and after seeming improvement
he was suddenly and fatally stricken on February 24, 1946.
His research covered the kinetics of inorganic reactions, especially involving compounds of the halogens and the mechanism
of inorganic oxidation-reduction reactions in aqueous solutions.
Scope and Content
The Bray collection came to The Bancroft Library in October 1972 as a gift of Professor Robert E. Connick, with additions in July 1976 as a gift of Warren Matthew. Consisting of four boxes of correspondence and related papers,
it includes letters addressed to Bray; copies of letters written by him; notes; awards; financial statements; drafts and reprints
of his Papers and articles and papers written by his students. The papers cover such subjects as his studies in inorganic
chemistry of oxygenation, chemical kinetics, nitrogen and the halogens, personal and family business and the work of colleagues
from his college days.
There is no information in the papers about his work in Washington, D.C. during World War I, his chairmanship of the Department
of Chemistry, his teaching career, or the books he authored.
The Key to Arrangement which follows describes the collection in greater detail.
Boxes 1-2
Letters written to Bray
Scope and Content Note
Includes letters from colleagues, organizations, family and friends relating to his research and publications in inorganic
and physical chemistry, personal business and news of former student colleagues from the Universities of Toronto and Leipzig.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically. A partial list of correspondents follows the Key to Arrangement. Unlisted letters are arranged alphabetically
in miscellanies preceding each letter of the alphabet. Unidentified letters are at the end.
Box 2
Letters written by Bray, 1900-1945
Scope and Content Note
Holograph and carbon copies. No letters for the years 1903, 1907-13, 1918-24, 1926-27 and 1936-39.
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically, with undated letters at the end.
Papers by Bray's students
American Chemical Society
card, January 16, 1933
Scope and Content Note
Included also, budgets and policy statements, 1922-23, and abstracts of papers presented at the September 1939 meeting.
See also Lamb, Arthur B.
Bancroft, Wilder Dwight, 1867-1953
Brewster, Ray Quincy, 1892-
letter, February 25, 1941
Burton, Eli Franklin, 1879-1948
Clark, Robert Harvey, 1880-
Coryell, Charles Dubois, 1912-1971
Dowell, Carr Thomas, 1878-
telegram, August 11, 1915
Scope and Content Note
Included also, copy of his paper,
Preparations of Nitrogen Trichloride, 1914 and thesis,
A Study of Nitrogen Trichloride and the Reactions between Chlorine and Ammonia, 1915.
Fink, Colin Garfield, 1881-1953
Frankforter, George Bell, 1860-1947
letter, June 28, 1931
Scope and Content Note
Included also, reprint of an article by him,
Die photochemische Bildung von Peroxyd bei der Sauerstoff-Übertrazung durch Chlorophyll, 1927.
Hibbert, Harold, 1877-1945
letter, September 9, 1905
Kraus, Charles August, 1875-1957
Lamb, Arthur Becket, 1880-1952
Lind, Samuel Colville, 1879-1965
Livingston, Robert Stanley, 1898-
Luther, Robert, 1868-1945
Mellor, Joseph William, 1869-1938
Miller, William Lash, 1866-1940
Mitchell, John Pearce, 1880-
Noyes, Arthur Amos, 1866-1936
Noyes, William Albert, 1857-1941
Ostwald, Wilhelm, 1853-1932
Additional Note
No incoming letters; copy of a letter, n.d., addressed to him in Bray's outgoing correspondence.
Ramsey, James Blaine, 1892-1965
8 letters, 1929-32
Scope and Content Note
Included also, copies of papers by him,
The Iodimetric Determination of Vanadium and
The Simultaneous Reduction of Vanadic Acid and Oxygen by Iodine and by Sulfurous Acid.
Rideal, Eric Keightley, 1890-
letter, September 18, 1928
Roebuck, John Ransom, 1876-
Rosenstein, Ludwig, 1886-
3 letters, 1921, 1922 and no date
2 letters, 1934 and 1937
Scope and Content Note
Included also, seven reprints of articles by him, 1933-38.
12 letters, 1940-45
Scope and Content Note
Included also, a summary of his dissertation, 1940, a reprint of an article by him,
The Production of Atomic Iodide Ion, 1942, and notes and a list of his published papers.
Tolman, Richard Chace, 1881-1948
Vaughan, Thomas Wayland, 1870-1952