Fisher-Pasteur Memorial Collection

Fisher-Pasteur Memorial Collection The Fisher-Pasteur Memorial Collection is a collection of miscellaneous archival materials compiled by Chester G. Fisher and Fisher Scientific Company. It consists mainly of memorabilia pertaining to French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist Louis Pasteur.

The Fisher-Pasteur Memorial Collection was started in the 1920s by Chester G. Fisher (1881-1965), the founder of Fisher Scientific Company, a well-known American laboratory apparatus and supply firm. He collected with the goal of helping scientists “gain a sense of history, heritage, and pride in the profession they had chosen.” In the beginning, Fisher’s collecting interests stemmed from his interest in the history of laboratory apparatus. As his collection grew, he became increasingly interested in Louis Pasteur and travelled frequently to Europe to collect memorabilia pertaining to the famed French scientist.

Chester G. Fisher passed away in 1965. After his death, his children continued to add Pasteur memorabilia to the collection. James Fisher, as Fisher Scientific Company’s Vice President of Marketing, gathered the Pasteur memorabilia into the exhibit Pasteur Memorial U.S.A., which was displayed in a formal gallery in the firm’s headquarters.

The Fisher-Pasteur Memorial Collection was donated to the Science History Institute (formerly the Chemical Heritage Foundation) in 2001.

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), the focus of the Fisher-Pasteur Memorial Collection, was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist. He was renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the last of which is named after him.

Pasteur was born in Dole, France on December 27, 1822. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree (1840) and Bachelor of Science degree (1842) at the Royal College of Besançon and his doctorate from the École Normale Supérieur in Paris (1847). After receiving his doctorate, Pasteur briefly served as Professor of Physics at the Dijon Lycée (1848), then was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the University of Strasbourg (1848-1854).

As a graduate student, Pasteur studied the crystallographic properties of compounds called tartrates. Continuing his research after receiving his doctorate, he discovered that the crystals’ optic activity related to their shape and that an asymmetric internal arrangement of the crystals was responsible for twisting the light that passed through them. He also found that the tartrate crystals were isometric mirror images of each other. This was the first demonstration of molecular chirality and the first explanation of isomerism.

In 1854, Pasteur was named Dean of Faculty Sciences at the University of Lille. At Lille, he began his studies of fermentation, where he took the minority view that fermentation is carried out by living microorganisms, which was in opposition to the majority theory of spontaneous generation. In 1857, Pasteur was named Director of Scientific Studies at the École Normale Supérieur. At this institution, he discovered that microorganisms in wine could be destroyed by heating it to a temperature between 60 and 100 degrees Celsius in a process now called pasteurization. Patented in 1865, pasteurization was later extended to other spoilable substances, including milk.

Around the same time he began studying fermentation, Pasteur also started studying the cause of diseases. He became a proponent of the germ theory, which argued that diseases are caused by microorganisms, which was a minority view at the time. During the 1860s, he determined that microorganisms were the cause of silkworm blight, which was then devastating the French silk industry. Continuing his study of diseases in the 1870s, he turned his attention to fowl cholera. While studying fowl cholera, he discovered how to make a vaccine for it by weakening the microbes that caused the disease. Realizing that this could be extended to other diseases, he developed a vaccine for anthrax, which he successfully demonstrated to the public in 1881.

During the 1880s, Pasteur turned his attention to developing a vaccine for rabies, a disease that afflicts both animals and humans. He discovered how to make a rabies vaccine by attenuating it in monkeys and rabbits. In his initial tests, the rabies vaccine proved successful in protecting dogs. On July 6, 1885, he successfully vaccinated nine-year-old Joseph Meister, the first human recipient of the vaccine.

In 1887, Louis Pasteur established the Pasteur Institute, serving as its first Director until his death. It continues to be one the premier institutions of biomedical research in the world. Pasteur was also the recipient of numerous awards, which included being named to the French Legion of Honour.

Louis Pasteur passed away on September 28, 1895.

Sources

Fisher-Pasteur Memorial Collection, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Science History Institute. “Louis Pasteur." https://www.sciencehistory.org/education/scientific-biographies/louis-pasteur/