Elmer Samuel Imes

astrophysicist; college teacher

Personal Information

Born Elmer Samuel Imes on October 12, 1883, in Memphis, TN; died on September 11, 1941, in New York, NY; son of Elizabeth Wallace and Benjamin Albert Imes; married Nella Larsen, 1919 (divorced 1933)
Education: Fisk University, BA, 1903, MA, 1910; University of Michigan, PhD, physics, 1918.
Memberships: American Institute of Electrical Engineers; American Physical Society; American Society for Testing Materials; Sigma Pi Phi; Sigma Xi.

Career

AMA schools, math and physics teacher, 1903-10; Fisk University, math and science instructor, 1910-15, physics professor and department head, 1930-41; New York City government, consulting physicist, 1918-22; Federal Engineers Development Corporation, research physicist, 1922-24; Burrows Magnetic Equipment Corporation, research physicist, 1924-27; E.A. Everett Signal Supplies, research engineer, 1927-30.

Life's Work

Elmer Samuel Imes was the second black American to earn a Ph.D. in physics and the first black scientist to make important contributions to modern physics. He was the first to apply infrared spectroscopy to quantum theory. His two scientific publications established his international reputation and inaugurated a new field of research--the use of high-resolution infrared spectroscopy for studying molecular structure. Imes was a well-known figure of the "Harlem Renaissance" of the 1930s and he played an important role in the academic development of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Background Led to Drive for Education

Born on October 12, 1883, in Memphis, Tennessee, Imes was the oldest son of Elizabeth Wallace and Benjamin Albert Imes, both college-educated home missionaries. His father was descended from free black farmers of south-central Pennsylvania who had fought in the Union Army. His mother was born into slavery in Natchez, Mississippi, and had been brought to Oberlin, Ohio, as a child. His parents met as students at Oberlin College. Benjamin Imes graduated from Oberlin in 1877 and earned a divinity degree from the Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1880. He became one of the first members of the American Missionary Association (AMA) to undertake educational and religious work among former slaves in the southern states. Elmer Imes attended grammar school in Oberlin until about 1895, when he transferred to the Agricultural and Mechanical High School in Normal, Alabama, so as to be closer to his family. Benjamin Imes tutored his sons in the classics to help prepare them for college. Elmer Imes entered Fisk in 1899, earning his B.A. in science in 1903.

After graduation Imes taught mathematics and physics at AMA schools, primarily the Albany Normal Institute in Albany, Georgia, and the Emerson Institute in Mobile, Alabama. With his father's death in 1908, Imes assumed financial responsibility for his mother, who was director of the teachers' residence of the Industrial Missionary Association's school in Beloit, Alabama. Although he had inherited his father's dedication to the home mission movement, Imes' uncle, Dr. Thomas Creigh Imes, a physician in Philadelphia, encouraged him to become a scientist.

In 1910 Imes returned to Fisk as a science and math instructor and began working toward his master's degree in science, which he received in 1915. He then entered a Ph.D. program in physics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. After his first year he received a graduate fellowship to complete his studies. At Michigan Imes worked with Harrison McAllister Randall who had just returned from studying the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum with Friedrich Paschen at Tübingen University in Germany. Randall and his students began building new infrared spectrometers with more resolving power and more sensitive detectors than earlier models. Imes became Randall's star student and the first American black to earn a Ph.D. in physics since Edward Bouchet at Yale University in 1876.

Became an Internationally-Recognized Physicist

Imes' research focused on the infrared spectrum of diatomic gases such as hydrogen bromide (HBr), hydrogen chloride (HCl), and hydrogen fluoride (HF). His Ph.D. thesis, completed in 1918, was published in the Astrophysical Journal. It demonstrated for the first time that quantum theory could be applied to radiation in all regions of the electromagnetic spectrum and to the rotational energy levels of molecules, as well as to the vibrational and electronic levels. His detailed spectra of simple gas molecules provided important verification of quantum theory and the first accurate determination of the distance between atoms in a molecule. Furthermore his experimental results provided some of the first evidence for the existence of nuclear isotopes, since his absorption band for HCl at 1.76 microns revealed a doublet structure, suggesting the presence of two chlorine isotopes.

As the first application of high-resolution infrared spectroscopy to the study of molecular structure, Imes' work was an important contribution to atomic physics. The significance of his discoveries was recognized immediately by quantum physicists. Over the next 20 years, his work was cited repeatedly and, within a short time, had been incorporated into physics textbooks. Imes also was credited with major improvements to infrared spectrometers. James G. Spady, in his essay "Blackspace," quoted the engineer Frederick S. Simmons: "In regards to Dr. Imes' thesis work on HF vibration-rotation, it certainly does qualify as a pioneer effort. The consequences of his work are important today in two areas of technical concern; thermal radiation from rocket engines using fluorine compounds as oxidizers, and radiation from chemical lasers based on hydrogenfluorine reactions."

Despite the significance of Imes' scientific work, the only academic positions available to him were at southern black colleges that lacked graduate programs. Therefore he went to work as a consulting physicist in the New York City area. In 1922 he took a position as a research physicist with the Federal Engineers Development Corporation, moving to the Burrows Magnetic Equipment Corporation in 1924. In 1927 he began working as a research engineer at E.A. Everett Signal Supplies. Over the years Imes' industrial work resulted in four patents for measuring the magnetic and electrical properties of materials and constructing instruments to make such measurements. However, the patents prevented him from publishing his research and garnered him few financial rewards.

Married Novelist Nella Larsen

During his lifetime Imes may have been better known in Europe than in the United States. Today he may be better known as the husband of Nella Larsen, a "rediscovered" writer of the Harlem Renaissance, than as a physicist. Having devoted most of his life to teaching, studying, and research, upon moving to New York, Imes became actively involved in society for the first time. Larsen was the daughter of a white Danish mother and a black father. When her mother remarried and had another daughter, Larsen became alienated from her all-white family. She met Imes when she was working with the Circle for Negro War Relief, whose board of directors included some of his influential friends. The couple was married on May 3, 1919, in the chapel of New York's Union Theological Seminary, by Imes' brother William.

The Imeses lived first on Staten Island, then relocated to Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1921. They moved again to Harlem in 1927. Throughout these years they were at the center of the elite intellectual, artistic, and political society of Harlem that included individuals such as W. E. B. DuBois and Langston Hughes.

Although Larsen was a nurse by training, in 1921 she left her position with the New York Health Department to work as a librarian at the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library. Larsen's first publications, descriptions of Danish games in a magazine for black children, appeared in 1920 under the name Nella Larsen Imes. In 1926 she published her first two adult short stories under the pseudonym Allen Semi, an anagram of her name. Larsen's first semi-autobiographical novel, Quicksand, was published in 1928 under her maiden name. Her second novel, Passing, appeared the following year. Imes' work often took him away to Ann Arbor and Montreal and the couple grew estranged. By 1928 Larsen knew that Imes was seeing a white woman named Ethel Gilbert.

Returned to Fisk

Dissatisfied with his most recent industrial position, and with the onset of the Great Depression increasing his financial woes, Imes began negotiating with the University of Michigan and Fisk. There were few opportunities for a black scientist to advance in industry and academia would provide better access to equipment and research collaborations. Fisk was in the process of expanding its academic departments and in 1930 Imes returned to Nashville as professor and chairman of an essentially one-person physics department. He began to reorganize the undergraduate physics curriculum and to prepare for a full graduate physics program focused on infrared spectroscopy. In 1931 Imes was named one of the thirteen most gifted American blacks.

Several of Imes' Harlem compatriots joined him on the Fisk faculty or were otherwise closely connected with the university. Ethel Gilbert had become the director of public relations and managed the famous Fisk Jubilee Singers, who were an important source of revenue for the university. She and Imes became constant companions. Meanwhile, in 1930, Larsen became the first black woman to be awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and she spent the year in southern Europe. Upon Larsen's return, the Fisk administration, concerned about Imes' behavior, offered to build them a home on campus if Larsen would rejoin her husband. She agreed and moved to Nashville, into a lovely home complete with a cook and maid.

However, their marriage could not be saved. Larsen returned to New York after only a few months, divorcing Imes in 1933, in what became a nationally-publicized scandal. Ethel Gilbert was forced to resign her position at Fisk. The breakup of Larsen's marriage, allegations that she had plagiarized her short story "Sanctuary," and her publisher's rejections of her subsequent novels, threw Larsen into a depression that lasted several years. She got by on her alimony from Imes until about the time of his death, when she returned to a successful nursing career. She continued to call herself "Mrs. Nella L. Imes" until her death in 1964. Elmer Imes gave up his house following the divorce and moved with his ailing mother into Ethel Gilbert's former apartment. His salary had been cut by ten percent the previous year and he never recovered financially from the terms of the divorce settlement. It is unclear as to whether he married Ethel Gilbert and later divorced her.

Devoted Himself to Research and Teaching

Although he never published another scientific paper, Imes conducted research with his Fisk students, using x-rays and magnetism to study the detailed structure of the infrared rotational spectrum of acetylene and other materials. He spent several summers on infrared spectroscopy research at the University of Michigan and by 1939 he was experimenting with magnetic materials in the Physics Department of New York University. He engaged in extensive correspondence with other researchers, as well as with equipment designers and manufacturers. Several of his students went on to graduate studies in physics at the University of Michigan.

Imes was very active in both academics and campus social life. He developed a course called Cultural Physics, to introduce his friends and colleagues, as well as Fisk students, to general scientific topics, and he wrote a book-length manuscript on the history of science for use in the course. He also was instrumental in planning and designing the new Fisk science building. Imes operated the film equipment for various campus clubs, helped with the Annual Spring Arts Festival, and served on scholarship and disciplinary committees.

While at the University of Michigan, Imes was elected to Sigma Xi, the national honor society for scientific research. He was active in the American Physical Society, the American Society for Testing Materials, and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. However, Imes refused to attend national meetings held in segregated southern states.

Imes died of metastasized throat cancer at Memorial Hospital in New York City on September 11, 1941. His survivors included his mother and two younger brothers, Albert Lovejoy Imes and the Reverend William Lloyd Imes. The latter was pastor of St. James Presbyterian Church in New York City and held degrees from Fisk, Union Theological Seminary, and Columbia University. He had a distinguished career fighting segregation and racial discrimination with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Elmer Imes left the bulk of his estate to Ethel Gilbert. Imes' papers are in the Carl Van Vechten Personal Collection at the New York Public Library, in the James Weldon Johnson Collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, and in collections at Fisk University. His residence at Fisk became an historic building and the National Conference of Black Physics Students bestows the Elmer Imes Award.

As Imes' colleague, the research physicist and engineer W. F. G. Swann, wrote in his Science obituary: "his research laboratory was a mecca for those who sought an atmosphere of calm and contentment. Peacefully smoking his pipe, Imes could always be relied upon to bring to any discussion an atmosphere of philosophic soundness and levelheaded practicalness. Gifted, moreover, with a poetic disposition, he was widely read in literature, and a discriminating and ardent appreciator of music. He had a delightful sense of humor and a skill in repartee, which he always used, however, with the kindliness and consideration so characteristic of his sensitive nature."

Awards

University of Michigan, graduate fellowship, 1916-18.

Works

Selected writings

• "Measurements on the Near Infra-Red Absorption of Some Diatomic Gases," Astrophysical Journal, 1919.
• (With Harrison McAllister Randall) "The Fine-Structure of the Near Infra-Red Absorption Bands of the Gasses HCl, HBr, and HF," Physical Review, 1920.

Further Reading

Books

• The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen, Anchor Books, 2001, pp. xi-xxii.
• Davis, Thadious M., Nella Larsen: Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, Louisiana State University Press, 1994.
• Larson, Charles R., Invisible Darkness: Jean Toomer and Nella Larsen, University of Iowa Press, 1993.
• Mickens, Ronald E., ed. by Ronald E. Mickens, The African American Presence in Physics, National Society of Black Physicists, 1999, pp. 20-28.
• Spady, James G., ed. by Ivan Van Sertima, Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern, Transaction Books, 1984, pp. 258-265.

• LSA Magazine (University of Michigan), Fall 1988, pp. 10-16.
• Science, 1941, pp. 600-601.

• "Elmer Samuel Imes," Physicists of the African Diaspora, www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/imes_smuele.html (April 14, 2003).

— Margaret Alic