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American Chemical Society

Division of the History of Chemistry

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Welcome to the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry Homepage

Mission Statement

The Division of the History of Chemistry (HIST) of the American Chemical Society (ACS) seeks to advance knowledge and appreciation of the history of the chemical sciences among chemists, students, historians of science, and the broader public by more


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The ACS Division of the History of Chemistry (HIST) is celebrating its hundredth birthday as an ACS Division in 2022. Parts of our celebration of HIST's Centennial Year are:


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The Division of the History of Chemistry (HIST) recognizes the value of supporting the organization of symposia, conferences, or meetings that benefit the study and promotion of the history of chemistry. If you are organizing such an event and would like to request financial support (typically, $500 per traditional half-day session), please submit THIS FORM to the Division's Secretary-Treasurer, Dr. Vera Mainz (mainz@illinois.edu) no later than two weeks before the HIST Executive Committee meets to consider such requests (i.e., during the national ACS meetings, usually in late March and late August). Most successful requests are submitted at least six months before the actual symposium or conference takes place. It should not be expected that late submissions will be considered.


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The HIST award for the Paul R. Jones Outstanding Paper Award for 2021 has been awarded to Dean F. Martin (University of South Florida), Dr. Vera V. Mainz and Professor Gregory S. Girolami (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) for the paper “St. Elmo Brady (1884-1966). The First African American Chemistry Doctorate Recipient” (Bull. Hist. Chem. 2021, 46 (1), 83–107). The award is presented to the author of the best paper published in the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry during the previous three years, 2019, 2020, 2021.

The HIST Award for the Paul R. Jones Outstanding Paper Award for 2022 has been awarded to Professor Charles S. Weinert for the paper "Die Chemie ist Schwierig: Winkler and the Discovery of Germanium” (Bull. Hist. Chem. 45 (1), 2020, 8-15). The award is presented to the author of the best paper published in the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry during the previous three years, 2020, 2021, 2022.


The Bulletin for the History of Chemistry v48(2), 2023, is now available to members. Check out the Table of Contents.
Please remember that the special HIST Centennial issue of the Bulletin, v47(1), 2022, is OPEN ACCESS. Please share a link with your friends!

NOTE: HIST is making individual articles from the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry OPEN ACCESS and searchable EXCEPT for the last three years. These articles are available in the Open Access Directory.

Articles from the last three years are available via links from the Table of Contents for those issues FOR HIST MEMBERS AND SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. If you try to access an article, you will be prompted for a login and password. The login username is the email address you provided to the American Chemical Society and the password is your ACS member number.

If you have any problems, please email mainz@illinois.edu.

If you are not a member and want to order an individual article, please check the membership/back-issue order form.



The HIST Division archives are at the Science History Institute (formerly known as the Chemical Heritage Foundation). The finding aid is available HERE.


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