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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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HIST Division symposia and papers to be given at the 269th American Chemical Society National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, Hybrid, March 17-21, 2024.



HIST and Substantia announce the first winner of the HIST-Substantia Outstanding Paper Award. Alexander Kraft has won for his paper "Animal Oil, Wound Balm, Prussian Blue, the Fire and Light Principium and the Philosophers' Stone Made from Phosphorus: on the 350th Birthday of the Chymist Johann Conrad Dippel (1673-1734)," Substantia 2023, 7(2), 137-159.





The call for nomination for the Franklin-Lavoisier prize is open until March 31, 2024.
The Franklin-Lavoisier Prize is a prize jointly awarded by the Fondation de l Maison de la Chimie and Science History Institute's first international award. Named for Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and Benjamin Franklin, two of the 18th century's greatest minds, this prize recognizes unusually meritorious efforts in the preservation or promotion of the entwined scientific heritage of France and the United States. You may find the nomination form on the Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie website (https://actions.maisondelachimie.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/Candidature.pdf).

More on the Franklin-Lavoisier Prize, former laureates and guidelines to be found on https://actions.maisondelachimie.com/les-prix-de-la-fondation/prix-franklin-lavoisier/.


The recipients of the 2024 Joseph B. Lambert HIST Award of the Division of the History of Chemistry (HIST) of the American Chemical Society are James L. and Virginia R. Marshall. James Marshall is an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Texas, Denton, TX. Virginia Marshall, although not a chemist by training, was Jim's partner in their work on the history of the chemical elements. This award is the successor to the Dexter Award (1956-2001) and the Sydney M. Edelstein Award (2002-2009), also administered by the Division of the History of Chemistry. The HIST Award will be presented to Prof. Marshall at the fall national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver, August 2024.


2024 Morris Award: Call for Nominations

The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry solicits nominations for the 2024 John and Martha Morris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Modern Chemistry or the History of the Chemical Industry. This award honours the memory of John and Martha Morris, the late parents of Peter Morris, the former editor of Ambix, who has contributed the endowment for this award. Click HERE for more information.


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. 2020, 45 (1), 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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