Call Number:

005

Repository:

Science History Institute Archives

Extent:

11 photographic prints ((1 box))

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Henry Earle Lumpkin Photograph Collection, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, PA.

Date:

1963-1974 (inclusive)

Creator:

Lumpkin, Henry Earle, 1920-

Form:

Photographs and Photograph collections

Abstract:

Photographs associated with the use of mass spectrometry compiled by, and often including, Henry Earle Lumpkin, an employee of an oil company in Texas.

Henry Earle Lumpkin was born in Ingram, Texas in 1920 and received his B.S. in chemistry from Southwest Texas State University. He did graduate work in meteorology at the University of California before joining the Air Corps in 1941. During World War II, Lumpkin was promoted to captain and served as a Base Weather Officer. After the war, he was employed at the Humble Oil and Refining Company. As a research chemist at the Baytown, Texas laboratory (and for a few years at the Houston lab) he saw new technologies emerge in the field. In 1963, the first high resolution mass spectrometer installed in the United States (the MS9) was implemented in the Baytown lab. In the 1960s, Standard Oil Company acquired Humble Oil Company, and this division was designated the Esso Research and Engineering Company. Esso then changed their name to Exxon in 1972. Henry Lumpkin retired from Exxon Research and Engineering Company in 1980. He was a prominent member of both the American Society for Mass Spectrometry and the American Society for Testing and Materials and published several journal articles on the topic of mass spectrometry. Henry Earle Lumpkin died on July 5, 2012 in Round Rock, Texas.

This collection contains black and white photographs primarily documenting the use of a mass spectrometer during the 1960 and 1970s at the Humble Oil/Exxon Research and Engineering Company Laboratory in Baytown, Texas. This includes the installment of the first high resolution mass spectrometer in the United States, the operation of the spectrometer and the discontinuation of use of an IBM computer at the facility. The rest of the collection consists of group portraits from professional meetings and an award ceremony for Mr. Lumpkin's service to the company. Also, included is a photograph of Henry Lumpkin in his personal office at the Exxon laboratory in 1969.