Memorial for Pompejus Bolley
ETH main building

As an authority on textile dye chemistry, Professor Pompejus Bolley co-founded the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in 1855 and served as its director from 1859–1865. During his tenure, he published on topics such as the red dye brazilin. Prior to this, he was a professor of chemistry at the Aarau Cantonal School. It is in Aarau, where he built strong ties to the influential Frey family, who maintained commercial business with Brazil.

His son Pompejus Georg Bolley (1853–1882) served as a Swiss consul in Pernambuco, Brazil where he worked for the Aarau trading company Cramer-Frey & Cie. The company was directed by National Councilor Conrad Cramer-Frey (1834–1900) and his son-in-law Edwin Frey-Bolley. With branches in Bahia, Pernambuco, and Rio de Janeiro, the company primarily exported textiles to Brazil.

In this web of relations, it is worth mentioning that Switzerland’s first Federal Councilor, Friedrich Frey-Herosé, owned one of the first Swiss chemistry factories in Aarau, producing photographic chemicals. The extended Bolley and Frey family circle exemplifies how deeply interconnected global trade, nation-building, politics, and scientific research were in the formative years of modern Switzerland.