Jonathan W. White, Jr. papers, 1890-2000

About the Collection

The Jonathan W. White, Jr. Papers contains papers from Dr. White's sixty-year career in honey research. Dr. White also collected relevant research publications dating to the late 1890s. White's work can be characterized as a combination of pure and applied research on the chemical make-up and performance of apiary products (primarily honey) under a variety of conditions.

A large portion of White's papers concern the chemistry of honey. This includes a series of works on adulteration of honey throughout the world. In some cases folders include notes and findings on experiments he conducted. A separate series of papers examines topics concerning beeswax. The apiculture heading includes general items as well as specific topics such as honeydew, Africanized bees, and sterilized honey for bee feeding. Food and food industry covers a large number of topics, including food products, cooking/baking, and food storage. The Codex Alimentarius series contains correspondence and publications concerning the Codex Alimentarius, a directory of international standards for foods.

A partial collection of Dr. White's publications appears under the series, Publications. Dr. White kept a complete set of his publications, and copies may be available upon request. A list of his publications is included in his biographical file in the University Archives. This series also includes manuscript reviews by Dr. White for the major journals in his field.

Biographical Note

Dr. White was born on September 29, 1916 and passed away on September 2, 2001. A native of State College, Pennsylvania, and a Pennsylvania State University alumnus, he is recognized for his outstanding contributions to apiculture and honey research during his sixty-year career.

Dr. White attended State College schools and continued his education at Penn State, where he received a B.S. in Agricultural and Biological Chemistry in 1937. He completed M.S. work in Agricultural Chemistry at Purdue University in 1939, and received a Ph.D. in the same field in 1942, also at Purdue. In 1943 he married Rosalind Christman, who died in 1998. They had a daughter, Barbara W., and a son, Jonathan W. III.

Dr. White worked for the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) at its Eastern Regional Research Laboratory (Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania), from 1942 to 1978. He left the laboratory for a brief period in 1944-1945 to work at the U.S. Office of Censorship in Washington, D.C. From 1949 to 1964 and again from 1974 to 1978, White served as Head of Honey Investigations at the Eastern Regional Research Laboratory. From 1964 to 1974, he was Chief of the Plant Productions Laboratory of the Eastern Regional Research Lab.

White left the USDA in 1978 and the following year began work as an independent analyst and consultant on honey, first as president of Honeytech, Inc., and beginning in 1987, Honeydata Corporation.

Dr. White was a member of the American Chemical Society, Association of Official Analytical Chemists, Institute of Food Technologists, American Beekeeping Federation, and Honey Industry Council. He held the office of Executive Secretary of the Honey Industry Council from 1980 to 1985. He also served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Apicultural Research.

He has over 140 professional publications and numerous unpublished papers, and six patents to his credit.