Smith, Henry George (1852 - 1924)

Summary

Henry Smith was on the staff of the Sydney Technological Museum 1884-1921. He studied chemistry at evening classes and was appointed Laboratory Assistant in 1890, Mineralogist in 1895 and Economic Chemist in 1899. He taught at Sydney Technical College 1898-1911. Smith collaborated with Richard Baker on essential oils, especially of eucalypts, their major publication on this being "A research on the eucalypts, especially in regard to their essential oils" (1902, revised edition 1920). They also published "A research on the pines of Australia" (1910).

He is commemorated by the H. G. Smith Memorial Medal that has been awarded annually since 1929 by the Australian Chemical Institute (and later the Royal Australian Chemical Institute) for significant contribution to a field of chemistry based on published research in the preceding ten years.

Details

Chronology

1891 - 1895

Career position - Laboratory assistant, Sydney Technological Museum

1891 - 1911

Career position - Lecturer in organic chemistry at Sydney Technical College

1895 - 1899

Career position - Mineralogist, Sydney Technological Museum

1899

Taxonomy event - Honoured with Eucalyptus smithii R.T.Baker

1899 - 1921

Career position - Assistant curator and economic chemist, Sydney Technological Museum

1902

Taxonomy event - Co-authority of Eucalyptus rossii R.T.Baker & H.G.Sm.

1902

Taxonomy event - Co-authority Eucalyptus apiculata R.T.Baker & H.G.Sm.

1913

Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales

1921 -

Career position - Foundation Councillor (Chemistry), Australian National Research Council

1922

Award - David Syme Research Prize, University of Melbourne

1922 - 1923

Career position - President, Australian Chemical Institute

1923

Career position - President, Section B (Chemistry), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Powerhouse Museum

• Henry George Smith - Records, 1891 - 1908, MA 135; Powerhouse Museum. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Collins, David, Chemistry in 19th Australia - Select Bibliography, An exhibition of the Encyclopedia circa 2005 with assistance from Ailie Smith and Gavan McCarthy., eScholarship Research Centre (original publisher), Melbourne, 2009, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/ciab/ciab_ALL.html. Details
• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• List of Original Papers by Henry G. Smith, FCS (Sydney: W.A. Gullick, Government Printer, 1914). Details
• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry G., A research on the eucalypts, especially in regard to their essential oils (Sydney: Government Printer, 1920), 471 pp. Details

Book Sections

• McKern, H. H. G., 'Smith, Henry George (1852-1924), chemist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 11: 1891 - 1939 Nes-Smi, Geoffrey Serle, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1988), pp. 646-647. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110666b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry G., 'On the Presence of a True Manna on a "Blue Grass", Andropogon annulatus , Forsk.', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 30 (1896), 291-308. Details
• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry G., 'On the Essential Oil and the Presence of a Solid Camphor or Stearoptene in the "Sydney Peppermint" Eucalyptus piperita, Sm', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 31 (1897), 195-200. Details
• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry G., 'On "Grey Gum", (Eucalyptus punctata, DC.,) particularly in Regard to its Essential Oil', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 31 (1897), 259-280. Details
• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry G., 'On the "Stringybark" Trees of N.S.Wales, Especially in Regard to their Essential Olis', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 32 (1898), 104-119. Details
• Baker, Richard T.; Smith, Henry G., 'On the Darwinias of Port Jackson and their Essential Oils', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 33 (1899), 163-176. Details
• H., G., 'Henry George Smith, FACI', The Science Journal of the University of Sydney, VIII (3) (1924). Details
• Lucas, A. M., 'A nineteenth-century exploration of phytochemistry in botanical systematics: Joseph Henry Maiden and Eucalyptus kinos', Historical Records of Australian Science, 28 (1) (2017), 18-25, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR16020. Details
• Maiden, J. H.; and Smith, Henry G., 'On a Natural Deposit of Aluminium Succinate in the Timber of Grevillea robusta', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 29 (1895), 325-335. Details
• Maiden, J. H.; and Smith, Henry G., 'Preliminary Notes on the Bark of Carissa ovata, R. Br., var. stolonifera, Bail.', Report of the sixth meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 6 (1895), 278-282, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/52884152. Details
• Maiden, J. H.; and Smith, Henry G., 'Contributions to a Knowledge of Australian Vegetable Exudations. No. 1', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 29 (1895), 393-404. Details
• Maiden, J. H.; and Smith, Henry G., 'A Contribution to the Chemistry of Australian Myrtaceous Kinos', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 29 (1895), 30-40. Details
• Mellor, D.P., 'H. G. Smith. A Pioneer in Australian Phytochemistry', The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Proceedings, 27 (1960), 309-216. Details
• Pearson, Michael, 'The good oil: eucalyptus oil distilleries in Australia.', Australasian Historical Archaeology, 11 (1993), 99-107. Details
• Smith, H.G., 'H.G. Smith - A Pioneer in Australian Phytochemistry, by D.P. Mellor', Proceedings of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (1960), 309-316. Details
• Smith, Henry G., 'On Kaolinite from the Hawkesbury Sandstone', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 25 (1891), 171-178. Details
• Smith, Henry G., 'Preliminary Note on Limestone Occurring Near Sydney', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 26 (1892), 302-304. Details
• Smith, Henry G., 'Occurrence of Evansite in Tasmania', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 27 (1893), 382-383. Details
• Smith, Henry G., 'On the Constituents of the Sap of the "Silky Oak", Grevillea robusta , R. Br., and the Presence of Butyric Acid Therein', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 30 (1896), 194-201. Details
• Smith, Henry G., 'On Aromadendrin or Aromadendric Acid from the Turbid Group of Eucalypt Kinos', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 30 (1896), 135-143. Details
• Smith, Henry G., 'Notes on Myrticolorin', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 31 (1897), 377-380. Details
• Smith, Henry G., 'On the Saccharine and Astringent Exudations of the "Grey Gum" Eucalyptus punctata, DC., and on a Product Allied to Aromadendrin', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 31 (1897), 177-194. Details
• Smith, Henry G., 'On the Pinenes of the Oils of the Genus Eucalyptus', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 32 (1898), 195-207. Details
• Smith, Henry G., 'On Myrticolorin, the Yellow Dye Material of Eucalyptus Leaves', Journal of the Chemical Society, London, 73 (1898), 697-701. Details
• Smith, Henry G., 'Note on Eucalyptus Gum and Kino in the Proposed Addendum (to the British Pharmacopoeia)', The Chemist and Druggist of Australasia, 14 (1899), 67. Details
• Smith, Henry G., 'On the Crystalline Camphor of Eucalyptus Oil (Eudesmol), and the Natural Formation of Eucalyptol', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 33 (1899), 86-107. Details
• Smith, Henry George, 'obituary of Henry George Smith in presidential address by C. Anderson', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 59 (1925), 11-12. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/93581388. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5721931. Details
• Early Chemists of Sydney, 2006, http://members.optusnet.com.au/jph8524/McKern.htm. Details
• 'Smith, Henry G (1852-1924)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-575675. Details

See also

• Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts: short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. Details
• Legge, J. W.; and Gibson, F., 'Victor Martin Trikojus, 1902-1985', Historical Records of Australian Science, 6 (4) (1987), 519-531. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9870640519. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details