Arnold and Mabel Beckman Exhibit
Update in progress
The Beckman Institute website is under construction! Things may not look quite right until our transition to a new site is complete. If you have an urgent issue related to the website, please contact communications@beckman.illinois.edu.
Learn about Arnold and Mabel Beckman
Inside Beckman's south entrance, find a full exhibit dedicated to the life of Arnold O. Beckman and his wife, Mabel. Arnold was an inventor, businessman and philanthropist whose work changed science and technology in the United States.
Learn about his childhood in Cullom, Illinois, remarkable career, and generous funding of scientific research.
Learn about Arnold and Mabel Beckman
Inside Beckman's south entrance, find a full exhibit dedicated to the life of Arnold O. Beckman and his wife, Mabel. Arnold was an inventor, businessman and philanthropist whose work changed science and technology in the United States.
Learn about his childhood in Cullom, Illinois, remarkable career, and generous funding of scientific research.
Items to notice
- Near the south entrance, see “Fourteen Weeks in Chemistry,” by Joel Dorman Steele, which sparked a young Arnold Beckman’s curiosity in science and more specifically, chemistry.
- On the northeast side of the exhibit, see the pH meter Arnold invented after a friend from his undergraduate days came to him seeking a way to evaluate when his citrus fruit was ripe for picking.
- On the east side of the exhibit, see a copy of Arnold’s 90th birthday card, signed by five consecutive former U.S. presidents.
- On the southeast side of the exhibit, find Beckman’s oxygen analyzer. It was originally used in aircraft and submarines, then later in hospitals. Being able to monitor oxygen being given to premature babies kept them from going blind.
Other display cases throughout the institute's first floor show more of Arnold's inventions and the history of the Beckman Institute.
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology