About: Robert Taft (chemist and author)

Robert Taft (March 24, 1894 – September 22, 1955) was a professor of chemistry at the University of Kansas. He was known for his contributions to American studies, including photography and Western art and illustrations. His two books in these fields were Photography and the American Scene (1938) and Artists and Illustrators of the Old West (1953). The historian Bernard DeVoto said of Taft: "For one man to produce two books so original and fundamental, so comprehensive, so authoritative, and I may add so delightful—surely this is one of the most remarkable scholarly achievements in our time." Taft's extensive papers, documenting the research he did in all fields, were donated by his children to the Kansas Historical Society. His personal papers, especially relating to his Mt. Oread books,