Call Number:

36.002

Repository:

Science History Institute Archives

Extent:

1500 photographic prints (13 boxes, 1 binder)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Photographs from the Perkin-Elmer-Applera Collection, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, PA.

Date:

1937-1985 (inclusive) and 1960s-1970s (bulk)

Creator:

Perkin-Elmer Corporation

Form:

Photograph collections, Photographs, and Slides (photography)

Abstract:

Print photographs and slides depicting the staff, facilities, and instrumentation of the Perkin-Elmer Corporation dating from the 1930s through the 1980s.

Richard Perkin and Charles Elmer founded the Perkin-Elmer Corporation in 1937 as an optical design and consulting company specializing in optical systems for astronomical instruments. During World War II, Perkin-Elmer notably produced aerial camera lenses and high precision tank periscope prisms, products that effectively established its reputation as a preeminent source for military optics and electronics. Following the war, the company extended into the manufacture of precision analytical instruments, including infrared spectrometers, flame photometers, vapor fractometers, spectrophotometers, and other infrared analytical equipment. As the beneficiary of various government contracts for Research and Development, Perkin-Elmer expanded throughout the 1950s from its home base in Norwalk, Connecticut to include plants and offices in Chicago, New Orleans, Pasadena, and Zurich. Other significant expansions included the acquisition of Bodenseewerk Apparate und Machinenbau G.m.b.H., an optical and aircraft testing instrument plant in Ueberlingen/Bodensee, Germany in 1954 and the establishment of the Nuclear Magnetics Corporation as a new subsidiary of Perkin-Elmer in 1955. In the 1990s, Perkin-Elmer's growing focus on life science technologies led to a merger with Applied Biosystems, Inc. and a recapitalization as PE Corporation in 1999. PE Corporation subsequently sold off its analytical instruments business, as well as the Perkin-Elmer name, and rebranded itself as Applera Corporation in 2000.

This collection consists of print photographs and slides depicting the staff, facilities, and instrumentation of the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, with the bulk of the photographs dating from the 1960s and 1970s. Photographs of instrumentation, including stratoscopes, atomic absorption and ultraviolet spectrophotometers, and gas chromatographs, form the core of the collection and include both staged publicity photographs and images of these instruments in use in various laboratory settings. Notably, many of the laboratory photographs include corresponding model numbers and type-written descriptions detailing the operation of the instrument and its use in the laboratory. Photographs from the Bodenseewerk Perkin-Elmer & Co. plant, which operated in Bodensee, Germany from 1954 to 2001, comprise a smaller sub-set of materials within the larger collection. Finally, portraits of Perkin-Elmer founders Richard Perkin and Charles Elmer, as well as other notable individuals including Tom Fahy, Ted Talmage, and Chester Nimitz, Jr., round out the collection.