Denis Duveen

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Denis Ian Duveen (born June 5, 1910 near London , † December 2, 1992 in Rio de Janeiro ) was a British chemist, entrepreneur, orchid grower and chemical historian.

Duveen attended rugby school and studied chemistry at Merton College, University of Oxford, and also at the Collège de France and Battersea Polytechnic Institute. He was then a chemist at the Royal Gunpowder Factory in Waltham and, during World War II, technical assistant to the director of the London armaments factories (Ordnance Factories). At the end of World War II, he was a senior manager at Ashe Laboratories Ltd. In 1949 he emigrated to the USA and founded the Duveen Soap Corporation in Long Island City, New York, of which he remained president until 1970. That year he emigrated to Brazil and settled in Petrópolis , where he dealt with dog breeding and orchid breeding (he was also internationally known in the field of orchid breeding and published a lot about it).

Duveen built several valuable libraries on the history of chemistry, alchemy, and especially Antoine Laurent Lavoisier . He started doing this in Oxford and continued to do so during his studies in Paris and even during the Second World War (he had his library in France hidden in a haystack). His collection of old books and manuscripts comprised 3,000 volumes at the end of the 1940s. In 1949 he published a catalog (Bibliotheca Alchemica et Chemica: An Annotated Catalog of Printed Books on Alchemy, Chemistry, and Cognate Subjects in The Library Of Denis I. Duveen) before selling it to the University of Wisconsin . He only kept the Lavoisier collection and expanded it further by buying up parts of Lavoisier's archive and library. In the 1960s this collection was acquired by Cornell University (Kroch Library). Duveen also published a lot on Lavoisier.

At the end of the 1930s he was active in chemical research and published mainly on optically active substances.

In 1960 he received the Dexter Award , particularly for his bibliographies on the history of chemistry.

Fonts

  • Bibliotheca Alchemica et Chemica: An Annotated Catalog of Printed Books on Alchemy, Chemistry, and Cognate Subjects in The Library Of Denis I. Duveen, 1949
  • The Duveen Collection of Alchemy and Chemistry: Supplementing The Bibliotheca Alchemica et Chemica, 1953
  • with John Dietzel, GW Surya, Emil Offenbacher: An Alchemical Correspondence in Germany Under the Nazi Regime between J. Dietzel and D. Georgievitz-Weitzer, 1951
  • with Herbert S. Klickstein: Catalog of Printed Works by and Memorabilia of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, London: Dawson's of Pall Mall 1952
  • with Herbert S. Klickstein: A Bibliography of the Works of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, London: Dawson's of Pall Mall 1954, reprinted 1965

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Most of Lavoisier's manuscripts are in the Archives de l'Académie des science in Paris and his chemistry library in the Bibliothèque de l'Institut in Paris
personal data
SURNAME Duveen, Denis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Duveen, Denis Ian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British chemist, entrepreneur, orchid grower and chemical historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH 2nd December 1992
Place of death Rio de Janeiro