In 1894, as a mark of their respect and appreciation, twenty-one chemistry and pharmacy students, at the Brisbane Technical College presented their lecturer, Dr Wilton Love, with an album of photographs. Fifty years later, US Naval Servicemen Borivoj Franko-Filipašiċ was browsing through a Brisbane bookstore and his attention was captured by the sentiment and beauty of the album’s commemorative bookplate. A chemistry graduate himself, Franko-Filipašiċ purchased the album for £5 in 1944 as a memento of a pivotal year spent in the city. Another fifty years march by and in 1995, Franko-Filipašiċ rediscovers the album when packing up his house in Morrisville, Pennsylvana. Still impressed by the students’ gift, Franko-Filipašiċ locates and donates the album to the Brisbane Technical College’s successor educational institution, the Queensland University of Technology. At the heart of this story are the lives of two extraordinary men who, though they lived in different eras and hemispheres, are linked through this album by their love of chemistry, photography, and by a place, Brisbane. This exhibition pays tribute to Dr Wilton W.R. Love and Dr Borivoj (Bori) Franko-Filipašiċ.

Dr Bori Franko describes himself as being an ‘overly bookish’ intellectual, with an interest in the sea, sea stories, and photography; a confirmed Gilbert and Sullivan man, and Rolls Royce owner. In this story he is a remarkable and patient protagonist. Professionally Franko was a chemist. He graduated top of his class with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Mathematics from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA, in 1943. Continuing the seafaring heritage of his family he joined the navy and studied at Northwestern University in the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. Graduating in 1943 as a commissioned officer he commenced duty on the destroyer USS Stockton as a Torpedo Officer. In April 1944, while serving in the Pacific, he was invalided to the US Navy Hospital in Camp Hill, Brisbane. At the end of the war he resumed his studies, graduating in 1952 with a PhD in Organic Chemistry and Geology. He spent much of his career as a research scientist at Princeton University and holds 17 chemistry invention patents and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Now retired and 94 years old Bori Franko lives in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

Dr Wilton Love was a prominent Brisbane medical practitioner for over forty years. In 1900, he was aptly described as being ‘of studious inclinations and not satisfied with ordinary achievements.’ His Queensland medical career began in 1886, on his return from Scotland where he had graduated with honours. Though termed a ‘general practitioner’ Love was a pioneer in bacteriology, pathology, and the use of diathermy and X-rays, and a consulting surgeon to the Brisbane Children's Hospital, the Lady Lamington Hospital for Women, and the Lady Bowen maternity hospital. He contributed extensively to the medical journal Lancet and served as president of Queensland Medical Society. As a foundation member of the University of Queensland Senate (1910-16), Love would have been a regular visitor here at Old Government House, the university’s inaugural building. Chemistry was his favoured scientific subject, and for almost a decade he presented lectures on the topic at the Brisbane Technical and Pharmacy colleges. His favoured pastimes were sailing, gardening, natural history and photography.

An unfolding story now 122 years in the making

Dr Wilton Wood Russell Love (1861-1933) Dr Borivoj Richard Franko-Filipašiċ (1922 –

Dr Wilton Love ca. 1900 Photograph by Poul C. Poulsen. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

Lieutenant Bori Franko, Brisbane 1944.