Donation by M. Saltzman
Max Saltzman was a chemist, educator, and scholar. As a steadfast member of the color community in the USA, he often mentored colleagues with thoughtful and generous encouragement, resulting in him having a profound influence in the field of color science in both industry and the art community.
Saltzman received a B. S. degree in chemistry from the College of the City of New York in 1936. In this early period, he worked in the field of medical instrument research and during the war years was in civilian service with the Chemical Warfare Service. Following the war, he settled into his first career in color by joining Harmon Colors, which later became Allied Chemical Corporation, where he worked in various research and management capacities for 26 years. As a native New Yorker, he lived in the city and reverse-commuted to New Jersey for this entire period.
At Harmon, he became an expert in pigments, dyes, and resins by identifying the colorants, making objective color measurements, defining criteria for selection of colorants for specific applications, and use of computers for color matching. We can see his interest and influences through the organizations which he joined: The American Chemical Society, the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists, the Inter-Society Color Council, the Society of Plastic Engineers, the Optical Society of America, the Society of Dyers and Colourists (UK), the Colour Group (Great Britain), the Dry Color Manufacturers’ Association, and the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology.
85.1 Color Education
During this time, Max realized there was a need for academic and industrial training in color technology. He encouraged Dr. Walter Bauer, Dean of the College of Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to establish a new research laboratory at RPI and to recruit Dr. Fred W. Billmeyer, Jr., to run the undergraduate and graduate program in color science and to expand it to include summer short courses for people from industry. The very popular textbook, Principles of Color Technology by Fred W. Billmeyer and Max Saltzman [1] went through two editions during this period (1966 and 1981) and followed Max’s teaching principles of going back to the basics for a thorough understanding of the issue [2]. Max served as an adjunct professor for most of the 20 years the Rensselaer Color Laboratory was in existence.
Upon retiring from Allied Chemical in 1973, Max left New York moving to the west coast where he found time to follow one of his other major interests: the study and identification of ancient dyestuffs in textiles [3–9]. He began by establishing a color identification laboratory in the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California. His research led him far and wide, for example, he traveled to Peru to collect authentic samples of dyes used in ancient Peruvian textiles. This soon led to his second career in the area of conservation of historical textiles and other objects. He became active in the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. In 1984, he was invited to present the George L. Stout Memorial Lecture, a prestigious honor from the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. When the J. Paul Getty Conservation Institute was established, Max became a consultant there.
Although often working behind the scenes with individuals, Max Saltzman became an internationally recognized authority in the field of color science, receiving the Armin J. Bruning Award (1969) and the Inter-Society Color Council Macbeth Award (1986). Among his many recognitions and awards, the Inter-Society Color Council also honored Max Saltzman’s lifetime of contributions by bestowing on him the 2001 Godlove Award. Sadly, he died before the ceremony to receive the award.