Call Number:

032

Repository:

Science History Institute Archives

Extent:

22 linear feet (15 boxes)

Preferred Citation:

James E. Cochran Archives, Science History Institute Archives Philadelphia, Pennsylvania..

Date:

1938-2008 (inclusive) and 1972-1983 (bulk)

Creator:

Cochran, James Edward

Form:

Archival materials

Abstract:

This is a collection of papers (largely memos and reports) marketing materials, reprints and some patent files relating to the activities of the Stauffer Chemical Company and many other manufacturers of reaction intermediates. Chemical instruments and ephemera were also donated to CHF by James E. Cochran. Photographs and some audio-visual materials have been removed from the collection.

James E. Cochran was interested in chemistry from an early age serving as a boy model for the advertising of Porter Chemistry Sets, and upon completion of military service in WW II and university he went to work for Hynson Wescott & Dunning, manufacturers of the once popular antiseptic, Mercurochrome. Leaving there he worked for Elanco, a division of Eli Lilly in research and manufacturing. He remained at Elanco from 1951 through to 1965 when he accepted a position with Benzol Products, a New Jersey-based manufacturer of chemical intermediates, which was later bought out by Cowles, and then by Stauffer Chemical Company. In 1985 he took a position with the consultancy firm Tech-Chem Associates as Managing Director.

For a more detailed inventory, please view this record in our library catalog: https://othmerlib.sciencehistory.org/record=b1063322~S6

The collection is both a personal and a research collection. While materials relating to Cochran's own career are scattered throughout, it functions in the main as a research collection dealing with pharmaceuticals and the chemical intermediates industry.

Series: Organized into three series: I. Personal & Professional Files. II. Corporate and Trade. III. Books & Memorabilia.