David Ford McFarland papers and Pennsylvania iron furnace collection, 1801-1963
- Author
- McFarland, David Ford, 1878-1955
- Physical Description
- 2 cubic feet
- Additional Creators
- Ulf, Franklin E. and Thompson, James G.
- Restrictions on Access
- Unrestricted access.
- Summary
- The David Ford McFarland collection consists of personal and professional papers as well as a small historical collection, profiling the iron furnaces of central Pennsylvania. The collection contains his personal and professional correspondence and papers (1927-1949), his biography and publication list, books, and two theses: "A History of the Early Charcoal Iron Furnaces in Juniata Valley, " by James G. Thompson, Jr., and "A History of the Early Charcoal Iron Furnaces in Centre County, " by Franklin E. Ulf, Jr. The historical material regarding iron furnaces consists of the deed to land for Centre Furnace (1801), extracts of the undated will of Peter Shoenberger, considered the great ironmaster of Bedford, Blair, and Huntingdon counties in the mid-19th century, descriptive sketches of local iron furnaces and 66 photographs and a group of glass plate negatives of over 25 Pennsylvania iron furnaces and forges, taken in the 1930s and 1940s. Other furnace-related material includes maps, newspaper and magazine clippings about various iron works, iron industry booklets (including the zinc oxide manufacturing process), reports on iron mines and the usage of iron ore and steel, investigative reports (1930-1935), and articles about early mining and iron production in various Pennsylvania counties.
- Subject(s)
- Genre(s)
- Note
- In Historical Collections and Labor Archives, University Libraries, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. (#MG 196)
- Biographical or Historical Sketch
- David Ford McFarland, the chemist and metallurgist, "beloved teacher, " and the co-discoverer of helium in natural gas, was born 1878. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Kansas and a master's and doctorate from Yale University. Dr. McFarland served as assistant professor of Applied Chemistry at the University of Illinois from 1910 to 1920 before joining the Penn State College of Mineral Industries. There he served as acting dean in 1922, and again in 1927-1928. He was a Professor and Head of the Department of Metallurgy at Penn State until 1945. In 1948, in his honor, The American Society for Metals, Penn State Chapter, established The David Ford McFarland Award for Achievement in Metallurgy. He died in 1955.
View MARC record | catkey: 5545267