Evan Jay Crane

Evan Jay Crane (1899-1966) forged the 'key to the world's chemical literature'...organized, along with the help of Dr. Patterson, and weld[ed] chemical information into a discipline...was devoted to bettering [scientists'] science by bettering their access to it.

Life

Crane was Chemical Abstracts Editor from 1914-1958, the leading abstract journal in the field of science, largely due to its "effective indexing of chemistry." Crane published numerous articles on abstracting, indexing and documentation activities. He changed the indexing system of Chemical Abstracts from word indexing to classified subject entry. He developed a unified system of chemical nomenclature. Crane was the first director of CAS 1956-58. He wrote A Guide to Literature of Chemistry (1927) with Patterson.

Crane started the List of Periodicals Abstracted by Chemical Abstracts in 1908 to help the user identify the complete titles of materials cited by abbreviations and to provide the user with a list of publishers and addresses for the abstracted material.

Contributions

Crane worked at ChemicalAbstracts. He changed the indexing system of Chemical Abstracts from word indexing to classified subject entry. He developed a unified system of chemical nomenclature.

AWARDS:

1937 Chemical Industry Medal(Society of Chemical Industry of London); 1951 Priestly Medal(ACS); 1953 Patterson Award(ACS); Changed to Patterson-Crane (1975), honoring Crane; Honorary Doctor of Science(Ohio State).

OFFICES:

ACS Committee on Nomenclature, Spelling, and Pronunciation Chairman 1914-58; Mayor of Upper Arlington in Ohio 1924.