Robert P. Multhauf

Robert P. Multhauf (June 8, 1919– May 8, 2004) was an American historian of science, museum curator, director, scientific scholar, and author. He was the first PhD historian to work at the Smithsonian Institution, where he worked as a curator 1954–1987, serving as head curator (1957–1966) and then director (1966–1970) of the Museum of History and Technology. He also served as editor of the History of Science Society's journal Isis for fifteen years 1964–1978 and as the society's president 1979–1980. He was president of the Society for the History of Technology 1969–1970 and was awarded its Leonardo da Vinci Medal in 1987.

Early life and education Multhauf was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on June 8, 1919, and raised in Newton, Iowa. He attended Iowa State University and received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1941. He then worked for a short time manufacturing explosives for the Hercules Powder Company and then the United States Rubber Company, but soon joined the US Navy in 1943, serving as a lieutenant naval engineer in the Pacific theater of World War II until 1946. He did postdoctoral work at the Johns Hopkins University Institute for the History of Medicine.

Career In 1954, via a connection from Richard Shryock, He became the division's curator in 1955, and was promoted to head curator of both the Division of Engineering and of Industries two years later, in 1957. That same year, he was appointed head curator of the Department of Science and Technology under the newly established Museum of History and Technology, for which he was also the acting curator of the Division of Physical Sciences.

In 1985, Multhauf received the Dexter Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. He was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medal in 1987.

Selected publications

as compiler with the assistance of David Davies: with Allen G. Debus:

as editor with Lloyd G. Stevenson:

with Gregory Good: with John L. DuBois and Charles A. Ziegler: