For a new specialty area in science to be established, it must be in some sense be "institutionalized." The new specialty must be taught to new students who will perpetuate it; it must have facilities to carry out the scientific studies which advance the research frontier; it must have support to finance this research; it must have journals which will publish the research emanating from the labs; and it must have academic recognition and status in order that it's adherents will have positions to hold. The accrual of these institutional characteristics of a specialty are essential if a specialty is to survive and thrive. These characteristics, however, do not automatically come to promising new ideas in science. The history of science is replete with potential new specialty areas which failed to survive because insufficient or ineffective attention was paid to the institutionalization of the specialty. Professor Holmes is examining the process of institutionalization of a new specialty in the context of one of the most important and productive areas of science in the 19th century: Justus Liebig's "Giessen School" of organic chemistry. Professor Holmes' study will make substantial new contributions to our understanding of the organization of science and the formation of research schools, the symbiotic connections between pedagogy and research, the formation of scientific specialties, debates about the social construction of scientific knowledge, and other issues centering on experimental practice in science. Justus Liebig is one of the most celebrated 19th century scientists. His influence on the development of organic chemistry, agricultural chemistry, and animal chemistry are more than matched by his fame as founder of the first large-scale teaching-research laboratory, the "Giessen School." Professor Holmes, under this grant will examine and integrate the three dimensions of Liebig's career as a chemical investigator, teacher and leader in the formation of the discipline of organic chemistry. Although the study will be centered upon the role of Liebig in the establishment of the new specialty, he will give ample attention to the roles played in this process by Jacob Berzelius, Joseph Gay-Lussac, Jean-Baptiste Dumas, Frederich Wohler and others who played less prominent parts. The sources for this study are contained in the research articles of the specialized journals of the period, in textbooks and published lectures, and private papers, correspondence, and diaries in various archives in Germany.
