Chair of Chemistry (1882 - 1959)

The first lectures in chemistry in the University of Melbourne were given in 1856, only three years after the University was founded. Originally encompassed in the Natural Sciences, Chemistry was taught by John Macadam, lecturer in medicine, from at least 1862, before the establishment of a chair of Chemistry in 1882 under Professor Kirkland. The Chair of Chemistry was vacant after the retirement of John S. Anderson in 1959 until R. L. Martin was appointed and it was renamed the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry.

Prior to the establishment of the professorial chair, Chemistry was taught by the foundation professor of Natural Science, Sir Frederick McCoy. His lecture theatre on the east side of the north wing of the Quadrangle had, attached to his preparation room, a chemistry laboratory, conceived, it would appear, for dealing with the chemistry of minerals and metals: it stood where the entrance to law Library now is. One the other hand, the teaching of chemistry also had its origins in the Medical School as part of forensic medicine and the study of natural compounds used in medicine (as distinct from organic and botanical compounds, the subject of Materia Medica). McCoy’s interests were not in chemistry and the teaching of chemistry expanded in the medical school.

Medical students studied theoretical and practical chemistry under Dr John Macadam, the government analyst, and a forensic expert. In 1862 Macadam took his first lectures in theoretical and practical chemistry, McCoy wouldn’t let him use the lecture theatre, mostly due to a personal feud, and so the classes were conducted in Macadam’s lab at the rear of the public library. Macadam was also the parliamentary representative of the Castlemaine miners and a versatile and popular lecturer on scientific subjects at the Mechanic’s Institute. When Macadam died suddenly in 1865, the course was continued by his assistant, Kirkland. Because Kirkland seems not to have had sufficient status and influence within the University he consistently failed to achieve the physical expansion of a chemistry domain, though in teaching he was greatly successful, developing courses for other disciplines in the University, such as the emerging engineering course then centered in the Quadrangle. Even when the professorship was created in 1882 the discipline remained under-resourced working in cramped conditions on the north side of the old medical school until Masson arrived in 1886. To accommodate his demands for lab space a ‘long addition in a simplified renaissance style was made along Tin Alley, then still called the avenue adding on the north side of the Palladian Villa [old medical school] a further asymmetrical feature.

Previous and Subsequent Entities

 1854 - 1899 Office of the Professor of Natural Science
       1882 - 1959 Chair of Chemistry
             1962 - 1994 Chair of Inorganic Chemistry

Academic Department

• School of Chemistry (1886 - )

  [1882 - 1959]

Professors

• Anderson, John Stuart (1908 - 1990)

  [1954 - 1959]

• Hartung, Ernst Johannes (1893 - 1979)

  [1927 - 1954]

• Kirkland, John Drummond (1836? - 1885)

  First Professor of Chemistry

  [1882 - 1885]

• Masson, David Orme (1858 - 1937)

  [1886 - 1923]

• Rivett, Albert Cherbury David (1885 - 1961)

  [1923 - 1927]