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Birth:          31 Jan 1868 Germantown, Philadelphia, Pa.
Death:          2 Apr 1928 Cambridge, Mass.

Notes
1981 book:
Theodore received his early schooling from his mother. He graduated from Haverford 
College with a B.S. degree in 1885, and from Harvard University, with an A.B. degree 
in 1886, and a Ph. D. degree in 1888. Theodore was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He 
also studied as a Harvard travelling fellow at Gottingen, Leipzig, and the Dresden 
Technical University. He also received an LL.D. degree in 1908, and was awarded 
additional honorary degrees of A.B., A.M., Ph.D., Sc.D., Chem.D., Ph.D., Sc.D., M.D., 
D.Sc., D.Sc., D.Sc., Ph.D., LL.D., and LL.D.
	Theodore became an instructor at Harvard University in 1891, was promoted 
to assistant professor of chemistry in 1894, and to professor of chemistry in 1901. He 
was made director of the Wolcott Gibbs Memorial Laboratory and Erving professor of 
chemistry in 1912. The Wolcott Gibbs Laboratory at Harvard was built for Theodore as 
part of the inducement for his acceptance of a professorship at that school.
	Theodore greatly improved the technigue of gravimetric atomic weight 
determinations, introducing quartz apparatus, the bottling device, and the 
nephelometer. By his work, he confirmed the existence of isotopes. Between 1886 and 
1903, Theodore published 83 scientific papers, half of which related to determinations 
of the atomic weights of most of the elements.
	Theodore acquired a world-wide reputation. He was consultant to various 
chemical and scientific commissions. He received many honors for his work. In 1914, 
Theodore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry because of his research on 
atomic weights.
Source: French Desc.; Haverford Coll. Matric. Cat.; Enc. Britannica; Conant, Biog. of 
Theodore W. Richards, in Harvard Univ. Archives; Baxter, Theodore W. Richards, in 
Harvard Univ. Archives; Harvard Univ. Minute on the Life and Services of Theodore 
William Richards, in Harvard Univ. Archives; Other Material in Harvard Univ. Archives
Nobel Prize winner
1870 in Phila., Pa.
1880 cannot find
1900 in Cambridge, Mass. professor of chemistry, 2 servants
1910 in Cambridge, Mass. professor, Harvard College, 3 servants
1920 in Cambridge, Mass. "teacher, school" !!!, 2 servants
see www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1914/richards-bio.html (has photo)
Theodore William Richards Biography Theodore William Richards was born in 
Germantown, Pennsylvania, USA on January 31, 1868. His father, William T. Richards 
was a well-known painter of landscapes and seascapes: his mother, Anna, ne 
Matlack, won fame for her poetical works. During his childhood, Richards travelled to 
England and France and, up to the age of fourteen, he was educated by his mother. 
In 1883 he entered Haverford College, Pennsylvania, to graduate in science in 1885 
and enter Harvard University. He received the degrees, B.A. in 1886; M.A. and Ph.D. 
in 1888. The following twelve months were spent in Germany where he studied under 
Victor Meyer, P. Jannasch, G. Kruss and W. Hempel; on his return to Harvard he was 
appointed Assistant in Chemistry. He successively became Instructor (1891), Assistant 
Professor (1894) and Professor (1901); in 1901 he also declined an offer of a full 
professorship in the University of Gttingen. In 1903 he became Chairman of the 
Department of Chemistry at Harvard and in 1912 he was appointed Erving Professor of 
Chemistry and Director of the Wolcott Gibbs Memorial Laboratory. About half of 
Richards' original work has concerned atomic weights, starting in 1886 with work on 
oxygen and copper. He quickly developed a new technique for the determination of 
halide ratios and did much towards improving methods of weighing. He invented the 
nephelometer and demonstrated the insidious effect of occluded moisture in gases and 
solids. By 1912 he had redetermined, with the highest accuracy, the atomic weights of 
over thirty important elements and in later years he was to play his part, by his work on 
the determination of the atomic weight of isotopes, in the modern concept of the atom. 
During his initial work he was guided by J.P. Cooke. Richards also studied atomic and 
molecular volume and he formulated a hypothesis of compressible atoms. He carried 
out a series of measurements of compressibilities of many elements and compounds in 
support of his theory, developing, applying and testing new methods and techniques. 
He introduced the use of transition temperatures of pure hydrated salts as fixed points 
in the standardization of thermometers, and the fundamentals of adiabatic calorimetry 
were developed under his guidance. His researches are recorded in some three 
hundred technical papers published mainly in the Proceedings of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Journal of the American Chemical Society and the 
publications of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Professor Richards received 
honorary doctorate degrees in science from Yale (1905), Harvard (1910), Cambridge, 
Oxford and Manchester (1911) and Princeton (1923); in philosophy from Prague (1909) 
and Christiania (1911); in law from Haverton (1908), Pittsburgh (1915) and 
Pennsylvania (1920); in chemistry from Clark (1909); and in medicine from Berlin 
(1910). He was President of the American Chemical Society (1914), the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science (1917) and the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences (1919-21). He received the Davy Medal (Royal Society), 1910; the 
Faraday Medal, 1911, and Willard Gibbs Medal (American Chemical Society), 1912; 
the Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute), 1916; and the Le Blanc and Lavoisier Medal in 
1922. He was appointed Officier de la Lgion d'Honneur in 1925 and he held 
fellowships or memberships of academies and learned societies in the United States, 
the British Isles, France, Germany and Scandinavia. Richards married Miriam Stuart 
Thayer, daughter of Professor Joseph H. Thayer, in 1896; they had one daughter and 
two sons. His favourite recreations were sketching, golf and sailing. He died at 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 2, 1928. From Nobel Lectures, Chemistry 1901-
1921. 	


Parents
RICHARDS William Trost (14 Nov 1833 - 8 Nov 1905)
MATLACK Anna (15 Mar 1835 - 30 Nov 1900)

Siblings
RICHARDS Archer Ellis (30 Apr 1857 - 20 Aug 1922)
RICHARDS Charles Matlack (7 Jun 1858 - 6 Apr 1865)
RICHARDS Eleanor French (10 May 1862 - 2 Aug 1954)
RICHARDS Josephine Anna (20 Sep 1864 - 30 Aug 1865)
RICHARDS Theodore William (31 Jan 1868 - 2 Apr 1928)
RICHARDS Anna Mary (3 Apr 1870 - 1952)
RICHARDS Herbert Maule (6 Oct 1871 - 9 Jan 1928)
RICHARDS Mildred (30 Jan 1879 - 10 Mar 1880)

Marriage To THAYER Miriam Stuart (30 Jun 1866 - Sep 1957)
    m. 28 May 1896 

Notes

Parents
THAYER Joseph Henry ()
DAVIS Martha Caldwell ()

Children by THAYER Miriam Stuart 30 Jun 1866 - Sep 1957
RICHARDS Grace Thayer ("Patty") (1 Feb 1898 - 31 Oct 1985)
RICHARDS William Theodore (24 Mar 1900 - 30 Jan 1940)
RICHARDS Greenough Thayer (17 Oct 1905 - 24 Nov 1953)

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