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James J. Bohning Papers
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Held at: Science History Institute Archives [Contact Us]315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Science History Institute Archives. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
James J. Bohning was an oral historian and a historian of science and technology. Bohning was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1934. He received his B.S. in chemistry from Valparaiso University (1956) and his master's degree in chemistry from New York University (1959). In 1959, Bohning began his teaching career as an instructor at Wilkes University (formerly Wilkes College) in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He took a leave of absence from Wilkes in 1962 to pursue his doctorate degree. In 1965, Bohning received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Northeastern University and returned to Wilkes as an assistant professor. In 1974, he chaired the 9th Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM) in Wilkes-Barre. While teaching at Wilkes, Bohning worked as a part-time oral historian at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (now the Science History Institute) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1990, he retired from Wilkes as an emeritus professor after twenty-two years at the university.
Bohning was an active member of the History of Chemistry Division (HIST) of the American Chemical Society (ACS), where he served as the Division's historian from 1988 to 2011 and its archivist from 1988 to 2009. He served on the ACS' National Historic Chemical Landmark Committee and was an associate editor of HIST's Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. Bohning left the Chemical Heritage Foundation in 1995 and became a staff writer for ACS News Service in Washington, D.C. In 1998, he retired from ACS and began conducting research in the history of chemistry as a CESAR Fellow at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In addition to his work at Lehigh, Bohning continued to conduct oral histories for the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the Dow Foundation, and the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society.
James J. Bohning died in Newtown, Pennsylvania on September 2, 2011.
Sources
James J. Bohning Papers, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The James J. Bohning Papers contain the personal papers of James J. Bohning. The collection is arranged into the following three series:
- Union Carbide Corporation Oral History Program
- Research Files
- Conferences and Presentations
The James J. Bohning Papers were donated to the Science History Institute (formerly the Chemical Heritage Foundation) by Ned D. Heindel in 2015.
The James J. Bohning Papers were processed by Andrew Mangravite in 2015 and encoded into EAD by Samantha Brigher in 2020.
People
- Bolton, Henry Carrington, 1843-1903
- Browne, Charles Albert, 1870-1947
- Plunkett, Roy J. (Roy Joseph), 1910-1994
- Rochow, Eugene G. (Eugene George), 1909-2002
Organization
Subject
- Publisher
- Science History Institute Archives
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid created by Andrew Mangravite and encoded into EAD by Samantha Brigher.
- Finding Aid Date
- 2015
- Access Restrictions
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There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes and the collection is open to the public.
- Use Restrictions
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The Science History Institute holds copyright to the James J. Bohning Papers. The researcher assumes full responsibility for all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.
Collection Inventory
This series contains James J. Bohning's Union Carbide Corporation Oral History Program files. Arranged in its original numerical order, this series consists of eighty-three files in two boxes. These files primarily contain notes created by Bohning during his time as the oral historian of the Union Carbide Corporation Oral History Program. Some other miscellaneous materials, including correspondence and articles, are preserved here as well.
This series contains James J. Bohning's Research Files. Arranged in its original order, this series consists of thirty-four files in one box. The files' contents consist of a variety of materials, including, but not limited to, correspondence, articles, and interview transcripts that were of interest to Bohning.
This series contains James J. Bohning's Conferences and Presentations files. Arranged in its original order, this series consists of twenty-three files in one box. These files primarily concern conferences at which Bohning presented papers. The contents of these files consist of copies of papers by Bohning and copies of papers sent to Bohning by colleagues for comments or as tokens of appreciation.