3-053-574 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Dr. Lyon Playfair, M. P., the new Postmaster-General, 1873. Engraving from a photograph by Mr. Caldesi. 'He was educated at St. Andrew's, subsequently studied chemistry at Glasgow, and eventually became a pupil of the late illustrious chemist Liebig. He has been successively Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution, a Commissioner on the subject of the sanitary condition of our chief towns, chemist to the Museum of Practical Geology, joint secretary of the Department of Science and Art, Inspector-General of Government Museums and Schools of Science, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, and a member of the Board of Manufacturers of the Board of Fisheries in Scotland. He was one of the committee most actively employed in the early organisation of the first Great Exhibition of 1851...he organised the department of jurors in the second Great Exhibition of 1862. Dr. Lyon Playfair is a member of very many learned societies and foreign orders of distinction; and he was chosen the first member for the combined Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrew's at the last general election'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.