Abstract

Joseph TurneyWood (1865-1924) was an internationally renowned chemist and a director of Turney Brothers Limited, tanners. He left a series of diaries dating from 1887 to 1923 which give an insight into his working life at Turney Brothers and his private life in Nottingham. This article looks at Josephʼs contribution to the science of leather making through the diaries and contemporary reports.

There are twenty-eight diaries spanning the period from 1887 to 1923. They are not contiguous. There are gaps from 1888 to 1890, November 1908 to August 1909, July 1912 to August 1913, October 1915 to June 1917 and December 1918 to November 1922. Many of them are in conventional pocket diary size (A6), others are of larger size, up to eight inches by twelve inches. All are written in ink in style close to copperplate, and, save when written in moments of stress, remain perfectly legible. Robert Cooper is most grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Peter Derry for making the diaries available.