Honorable Mention
Prominent People Born (mostly) Before 1900
Alma Joslyn Whiffen-Barksdale (1916-1981), Mycologist, Study of Fungi (Photo from Smithsonian Files).
David Whiffen (1922 -2002), a Spectroscopist and Chemical Physicist (Photograph taken from David’s funeral handout).
Valerie Wiffen (born 1943 -80 years old in 2023) Portrait Artist. Known for portrait of Prince Phillp (Photo from her Facebook page, 2017).
Captain Thomas William Whiffen (1878 – 1922) Soldier and Explorer of the Amazon (Family photograph, 1902).
Alma Whiffen was the Mycologist who discovered Cycloheximide, which is used in biomedical research to inhibit protein synthesis. She studied at Maryville College and University of North Carolina and was both a Carnegie and Guggenheim Fellow. Outside of academia, she worked in the antibiotic lab of Upjohn Company and for the New York Botanical Garden. Her work at the Botanical Garden, established her as a seminal researcher of Achlya, which is virulent problem in aquaculture. Achlya is also studied for its unique reproductive process, which uses fermentation.
David Whiffen was a specialist in wave superposition and was a pioneer in ESR (Electron Spin Resonance) and later NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance), which is used to determine molecular structures. He studied at Oxford under Sir Harold Warris Thompson. In 1946-47 he worked the Bell Telephone Research Laboratories, where he developed a battery tolerant of a wide range of temperatures. He served as Dean of Science and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Newcastle University between 1968 and 1983. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1966.
Valerie Wiffen is known for portraiture. She was born in Danbury, Essex. She received training at the Walthamstow School of Art and at the Royal College of Art. Although her work is influenced by Vermeer and Coubert, Guiseppe Marasco praises her paintings, as “the act of performing. A rare example of painting vocalized [that…] looks at you, the public. Can you get more modern than that?” (Interview with Caroline Simpson. The Glass Magazine, June 2017). Her art is collected by museums, such as the National Portrait Gallery and Guildhall Art Gallery. She is known for a portrait of Prince Phillip.
Captain Whiffen is best known for Northwest Amazon: Notes of some Months spent along Cannibal Tribes, published in 1915. His book is controversial because his 1908-1909 expedition was facilitated by Rubber Trappers. In his statement before Parliament relating to abuses of native people, Captain Whiffen failed to criticize rubber companies to the extend modern scholarship believes was warranted. His book is still a valuable description of the Boro and Witoto tribes , including their homes, agriculture, food, weaponry, clothing, medicine, songs, and dances. Captain Whiffen was buried in Hong Kong.
Benjamin Barron Wiffen (1794-1867), A lettered Quaker, Businessman, and Abolitionist (Portrait by unknown artist).
Mrs. Thomas Whiffen (1845-1936), Broadway Actress born as Blanche Galton (Photograph found by Linda Applegate Brown).
Marcus Whiffen (1916-2002), Architectural Historian, Journalist and Photographer (Photo provided by Mark Parry Artisan Architecture).
Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen (1792-1836), Quaker, Author, Poet and Translator (Pen portrait by George Hayter).
Benjamin Wiffen was the younger brother of Jeremiah Wiffen. He attended Ackworth School in Yorkshire, after which he joined his father’s business in 1808 where he worked until 1838. He left the firm due to failing health. In 1840 he developed a fast friendship with Luis de Usoz of Madrid. In June of the same year, he attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention as a delegate. In 1841 he made his first trip to Spain. In Spain he published abolitionist material and became the biographer and translator of early Spanish abolitionists.
Blanche Galton Whiffen was born in London and educated in France. Her stage debut was at the Royalty Theatre in 1865. In 1868 she moved to the American stage. In 1879 she played Buttercup in the first product of Pinafore (Gilbert and Sullivan) in the USA. Between 1887 and 1899 she had more than 25 stage credits Trelawny of the Wells. Toward the end of her career, she replaced Mrs. GH Gilbert as the old lady character on Broadway. She was a crowd favorite into her seventies in plays such as The Great Divide, Cousin Kate, and Rosemary.
Marcus Whiffen was an Architectural Historian specializing in British and American buildings. He is the son of Thomas Joseph Whiffen and Jessie Anne Hardy. After graduating from Cambridge, he worked for The Architect and Building News and Architectural Review as a journalist and Assistant Editor. After 1954, lectured at MIT, University of Texas, and Colonial Williamsburg. He 1960 he began teaching at Arizona State University, where he remained until he died at age 85. He is remembered for his photographs, which are held at Conway Library in the Courtauld Gallery, London.
Jeremiah Wiffen was the eldest son of an Ironmonger. His father died young, leaving his wife to raise six children on her own. In 1806 (age 14) Jeremiah was apprenticed to Isaac Payne, a schoolmaster at Epping Essex. Five years later, he returned to his native Bedfordshire, where he opened a school in Leighton Road. He mastered Hebrew, French, Italian, Spanish and Welsh. Known as translator of Torquato Tasso, a well-regarded poet who died of mental illness when he was 22 years old. John Russell, 6th Duke of Beford, appointed Jeremiah to be the Librarian of Woburn Abbey In 1821. Jeremiah died suddenly in 1836, age 42.