i58 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS "And by authoring five textbooks and your contribution of over 300 published articles "In gratitude of your active interest in behalf of the Som•T¾ or CosM•'r•e CHEMISTS in establishing our library "Florence E. Wall, I present you, on behalf of the SOm•TY or Cos•T•e CH•sn's, our Medal which the SOm•TV has established as our highest award for outstanding contributions to the science and art of cosmetics." .. .,... ---- . .'7':" .•.., •' ---,•,' ........ • '.: ,: v - ..•...•..• .'.-• ......... . . :.• t • •, ..- : .:• •.,. • ..• '• x..:.:v :,=•- . :-: :" • ß '¾-i*-cx'•.• ': •%5:1•': ?• --• '•e,.:s::::• .... ! i •. :•'o •.3•."5'• ..... ' ß ' ..' ...... : •:•::.57.:•35 "•' . ...• • .•' ..• •. •.' •..•.: •.•: President Kolar (R.) presenting the Medal to Miss Wall.

FLORENCE E. WALL: GIRL CHEMIST, B.C.* By MARSTON L. HAMLIN, PH.D. IT IS TRITE but true that it is both a pleasure and an honor to be here--to tell you something of your brilliant Medalist's background, particularly her early background. The honor is obvious, but the pleasure stems from the realization of Miss Wall's achievements since her very early professional life when I first met her. During and immediately after World War I, Ricketts and Company was a well-known chemical consulting firm having an old-fashioned laboratory in an ancient loft building on Dutch Street in downtown Manhattan. It specialized in assaying and mineralogical analysis but was by no means limited to that field. Memories of those busy days in the uncertain post- war year crowd on me. It was in January of 1919 that I engaged a scrawny red-headed girl with clear Irish blue eyes to work for Ricketts in that old laboratory. Florence worked with us as an assistant chemist under the direction of Thomas A. Shegog. She had limitless courage and energy, and we knew we had a personality among us. Hundreds of samples of brass for Mer- genthaler, a hundred more of unusual ores from South America, essential oils rushed in on Washington's Birthday (only laboratory open, she the only one there!), a long and involved program of petroleum cracking re- search--it was all the same to Florence. She turned them out and her work was reliable. Her earlier background may be gathered from the facts that she was born in Paterson, N.J. (she used to say that dyes and textile chemicals were in her blood), and was graduated from the College of St. Elizabeth just before World War I, with honors in both chemistry and English, and with Bachelors' degrees in both Arts and Education. As there were then very few types of positions open to girls interested in chemistry she first taught high school sciences in New York State. She seized the first opportunity to enter industrial work during the war, and before she came to Ricketts she had worked as a chemist for the Radium Luminous Material Corporation (on uranium ores and electroscopic determination of radium) also for the Seydel Manufacturing Company (on textile chemicals, ben- * Before Cosmetics. 159