Portraits of crystallography

Science is a social activity, and the history of science is the history of the men and women who work, often alone but more usually in collaboration, building on inspiration, insight, hard work - and in large measure on the enjoyment and sheer exhilaration of discovery. For many years one of us has been privileged to chronicle the social side of crystallography in photographs taken at Congresses, conferences, symposia, workshops and all the other occasions when we come together to celebrate our science.

The attraction of the photographic record is obvious. One of the highlights of last year's Congress in Osaka was the Exhibition of photographs (from the Duax collection and those of André Authier, Chris Gilmore and Syd Hall, amongst others). Many participants enjoyed retreading Memory Lane, seeing themselves in their youth, or remembering their friends, mentors and heroes of times past.

The IUCr is therefore launching on this web site a large collection of (mostly) informal photographs of crystallographers and their friends and families, stretching back to the 1920s. The first galleries draw from some of the contributions to the Osaka Exhibition, and from the IUCr's own archives. More will be added as we continue to catalogue and annotate the photographs contributed to the Osaka Exhibition. We encourage you to consider contributing to this collection, especially if you have images from older or historically important meetings.

We hope that everyone will enjoy this survey of the human face of crystallography.