Celebrating black scientists. First edition, first printing of this significant volume celebrating Black scientists, edited by prominent physicist Julius H. Taylor (1914-2011).

Taylor earned his master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1941 and remained at the school as a research assistant in a field so cutting edge that its name — solid state physics — was not coined until six years later. He earned his PhD in 1950 with a dissertation on the properties of germanium (Krapp, Notable Black American Scientists, p. 293).

In 1949 Taylor was appointed professor of physics at Morgan State College (now Morgan State University), becoming chair of the department the following year. This volume, which he edited, was published to celebrate the dedication of the school's new science quadrangle.

As the introduction explains, 'That Negroes have made important contributions to the field of the natural sciences is an important fact of which neither the lay public nor scientists themselves are fully cognizant. The primary purposes of this volume, then, are to lay before a larger public the achievements of a little-known group of scientists, and to call attention to the valuable resource constituted by the racial group from which these scientists come'.

The contents include fifteen academic articles in four subjects: biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics, as well as an introduction by physicist Herman R. Branson, a short analysis of current trends in scientific education for Black Americans, and a biographical dictionary. Among the authors represented are W. Montague Cobb, James H.M. Henderson, James Bonner, Samuel M. Nabrit, Lloyd N. Ferguson, David Blackwell, J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr., and Warren E. Henry.

First edition; 8vo; illustrations within the text, light dampstain and spotting in the gutter between the title page and foreword, and a few other light spots to the early leaves, edges of text block spotted; original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt, spine rolled, head of spine bumped, a very good copy in the original plain dust jacket that is a little rubbed with some marks, small chips, and short closed tears; 192pp.