RG 16.4.4 Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials, 1898-2005
Records.
2.0 l.f.

History
The Polymers and Coatings Department* emerged from the chemistry department in 1905 to help regulate paints in North Dakota. Professor E. F. Ladd was one of the primary supporters of this development and helped get a law passed in 1905 that prevented the adulteration and deception in paints. To help enforce this law, paints needed to be tested to determine whether they were labeled correctly. In order to do this, an experiment station was set up which included a test fence and paint bulletins needed to be published with the test results. Ladd could not do this all himself so a staff was hired and the college began training students in this field. Many manufacturers objected to the Paint Law and several sued North Dakota Agricultural College for the findings that cost them business. The college won all of these suits, however, because Ladd and his team were very careful in their testing.

As technology has advanced, the polymers and coatings department has advanced with it. Courses were expanded from paint analysis to paint work in 1919 under the industrial chemistry department in the School of Chemistry and Pharmacy and then to include paint varnishes and pigments in the 1922 in the Physical and Industrial Chemistry Department in the School of Chemistry and Technology and has since moved to become more theoretical. This move requires the education in chemistry, physics and math to parallel the developments in science. This department (which became its own major of Protective Coatings in 1960 and the present Polymers and Coatings in the College of Science and Mathematics in 1974) has developed a renowned reputation throughout the world for its research and education and faculty are invited to speak in many places every year. Students from North Dakota State University are also sought after by companies in the field due to the excellence of their program training.

*Note: Effective December 1, 2004: department name change to: Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials.

Scope and Content
The records have are in eight series: Brochures, Classes and Requirements, Seminars, Rheineck Articles, Paint Bulletins, Scrapbooks, Alumni, and Clippings. 

The Brochures include brochures for undergraduate and graduate study in polymers and coatings from 1957 – 2001. There is also a capital fund drive brochure (n.d.)

Classes and Requirements include copies of the pages from the course bulletins pertaining to the Paint Chemistry Department [gaps]. These pages give the specific requirements for a degree in the field as well as descriptions of the classes. In addition, brochures and information for Coating Science short courses from 1979-1982, 1988, and 2005 are included.

Seminars contain registration and general information brochures for the annual coatings symposiums offered in the summer (1964, 1966-1968, 1970, 1974, 1976-1978).

Rheineck Articles includes articles which Alfred E. Rheineck wrote or collaborated on during his career. See: http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/archives/collections/RheineckPapers.htm

North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station Paint Bulletins consists of copies of the studies issued by the Agricultural Experiment Station, Office of the State Food Commissions and Chemist, North Dakota Regulatory Department, and the State Laboratories Department for 1910, 1915, 1925, 1933, 1935, 1938, 1941, and 1963.

The Alumni series includes information on alumni employment, newsletters to alumni, and some reminisces.

The Clippings series contains information about NDSU, faculty and alumni including promotions, obituaries, paint seminars, articles by faculty members, et cetera. Most clippings are from the American Paint Journal or newspapers and are organized according to the year of publication.

The Scrapbooks series consists of three scrapbooks compiled by Polymers and Coatings Department as well as a package of material sent to Rudolph D. Deanin to compile a coatings history. The three scrapbooks are housed separately in Box Two.

Separations
The following items have been removed from the NDSU Polymers and Coatings and sent to the sections indicated.

Photographs (University Archives Photograph Collection)
Photographs of faculty, students, laboratories, commencement, alumni gatherings and paint shows.

Negatives (University Archives Negative Collection)
Negatives of faculty, students, laboratories, commencement, alumni gatherings and paint shows.

Coatings and Polymeric Materials Records

Inventory

1 Finding aid

Box 1

2 Fifty Years of Paint Chemistry at NDAC – 1905-1955
3 Historical view of Coatings department (articles & remembrances) - 1988
4 Jones, Frank N., Chair - “NDSU Weathering the Drought of `88” - 1988

Brochures

5 Mock-Up – Paint Department – mock-up - brochure – 1957
5a Department of Paints, Varnishes and Lacquers – brochure – 1957
6 Study in Polymers and Coatings – brochures - c.mid-1960s
7 Polymers & Coating – brochures - c. 1970s, 1978
8 NDSU Facts - Polymers and Coatings - 1988
9 Brochure - Polymers and Coatings – brochure - 1998
10 Undergraduate Program in Polymers and Coatings – May 2001
11 Capital Fund Drive – brochure – n.d.

Classes and Requirements

12 Paint Chemistry course bulletin for the years 1898-1988, excluding 1902-1908,
1913-1914.
13 Polymers & Coatings - Coating Science - Short courses – 1951, 1953, 1954, 1957,
1979-1983, 1988, 2005

Seminars

14 6th Annual Symposium on “New Coatings and New Coatings Raw Materials”-
1964
15 8th Annual Symposium on “New Coatings and New Coatings Raw Materials”-
1966
16 9th Annual Symposium on “New Coatings and New Coatings Raw Materials”-
1977
17 10th Annual Symposium on “New Coatings and New Coatings Raw Materials”-
1968
18 12th Annual Symposium on “New Coatings and New Coatings Raw Materials” - 1970
19 14th Annual Coatings Symposium - Ultraviolet Curing Present and Future - 1974
20 16th Annual Coating Symposium: Energy Savings Through Reactive Coatings -
1976
21 17th Annual NDSU Coatings Symposium: Improving Protective Performance
of Coating - 1977
22 18th Annual NDSU Coatings Symposium: Creative Responses to Regulations-
1978

Rheineck Articles

23 "The Birth of Coatings at North Dakota State University" – October 1965
24 Articles written by or collaborated on by Alfred E. Rheineck

NDAES Paint Bulletins

25 1910 bulletin
26 1915 bulletin
27 1925 bulletin
28 1933 bulletin
29 1935 bulletin
30 1935 bulletin by the North Dakota Regulatory Department
31 1938 bulletin
32 1941 bulletin
33 1963 bulletin

Alumni

34 Lost alumni lists, letters to alumni, and award winners
35 Alumni Notes 1950
36 Alumni Notes 1951
37 Alumni Notes 1952
38 Alumni Notes 1953
39 Alumni Notes 1954
40 Information about 1963 alumni
41 NDAC before 1930
42 Remembrance of Amos Roy Van Vorst
43 Season's Greetings from Chemistry 1980,1981, 1990

Clippings

44 1947
45 1951
46 1955
47 1961
48 1962
49 1963
50 1964
51 1965
52 1966
53 1967
54 1968
55 1969
56 1970
57 1971
58 1978
59 1979
60 1980
61 1981
62 1982
63 1983
64 1984
65 1985
66 1986
67 1987
68 1988
69 1995
70 1996
71 1997
72 1998
73 1999
74 No dates

Box 2

Three scrapbooks compiled by the Polymers and Coatings Department, in a very loose
chronological order, from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. [Note -
Scrapbooks have been reconstructed on acid-free sheets in mylar
(Polyester) sleeves in new scrapbook]

Book 1 - photos of alumni, clippings, and brochures for the department
Book 2 - information on alumni, associations & clubs, and men you know about
Book 3 – additional information on clubs and conventions





5/03, rev. 11/06