Evan Jay Crane

Evan Jay Crane (1899-1966), an American chemist, was an indexer of Chemical Abstracts.

Evan Jay Crane

Life

Evan Jay Crane was born on February 14, 1889 in Columbus, Ohio. He received a BS from Ohio State University in 1911, then joined the staff of the American Chemical Society's Chemical Abstracts (founded in 1907) as an associate editor and in 1914 Acting Editor. In 1915 he became 1915 and served until 1958. From 1956 to 1958 Crane also served as Director of the Chemical Abstracts Service. He continued writing and abstracting until he died on December 30, 1966 in Columbus, Ohio.

Contributions

Crane introduced a carefully classified subject entry list and an entire unified system of nomenclature so that chemical compounds could be indexed coherently without scattering the entries by means of an alphabetical list of compound families. The author indexes were improved. An annual formula index and a numerical patent index were added.

Crane assisted in the development of the Division of Chemical Literature within the American Chemical Society and was its first chairman in 1958.

Publications

Crane published around eighty articles on abstracting, indexing and documentation activities.

• A Guide to Literature of Chemistry (1927) with Austin Patterson. [1] [2] 2nd ed., with Eleanor Marr, New York: Wiley, 1957. [3]
• "The standardization of chemical nomenclature." Journal of Chemical Education 8, no. 7 (1931): 1335.
• "Scientist Share And Serve." [The Priestley Medal Address]. Chemical & Engineering News Archive 1951, 29, no 42 (Oct 15, 1951): 4250-4253. [4]
• "Nomenclature of Chemical Compounds." With Mary A. Magill. Journal of the American Chemical Society 79 (Oct. 1957): 5328.
• CA today; the production of Chemical abstracts. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, 1958.
• "Correlative Indexes. VIII. Subject-Indexing vs. Word Indexing." With Charles L. Bernier. Journal of Chemical Documentation 2 (April 1962): 117

Offices

Crane served on numerous committees and held several offices relating to chemical literature.

• American Chemical Society. Committee on Nomenclature, Spelling, and Pronunciation, Chairman, 1914-58. *Mayor of Upper Arlington, Ohio, 1924.

Awards

• American Chemical Society. Priestley Medal, 1951. [5]
• American Chemical Society. Patterson Award, 1963. Renamed Patterson-Crane award, 1975.
• Society of Chemical Industry of London. Chemical Industry Medal, 1937.
• Ohio State University. Honorary Doctor of Science, 1938.

Further reading

• Dikeman, Robert K. "Crane, Evan Jay (1889-1966)." Dictionary of American library biography, ed. by Bohdan S. Wynar. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1978, pp 100-102.
• "Evan J. Crane." Wikipedia [6]
• "1951: Evan J. Crane (1889–1966)." Chemical & Engineering News Special Issue – 85th Anniversary Of The Priestley Medal. 86, no 14 (April 7, 2008). [7].
• "CA's E. J . Crane dead at 77." Chemical & Engineering News Archive 45, no 2 (Jan 9, 1967): 5 & 18. [8]

Papers

• Chemical Abstracts Service Library, Columbus, OH. Papers and correspondence.
• Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 90-105, Science Service Records, Image No. SIA2008-0684. [9]