Welcome to the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry Homepage
 
HIST Vision Statement
Inspiring chemistry's future by preserving its past.
For more information on the HIST strategic plan, click HERE
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You are invited to ChemHIST Talks, a HIST WebSeries bringing two talks from each National ACS meeting to you. The next ChemHIST Talks will be on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at 12 pm Pacific, 1 pm Mountain, 2 pm Central, 3 pm Eastern. We will have two presentations from the Spring 2025 National ACS Meeting in San Diego, CA.
We are pleased to host: Arwyn Smalley, (Chemistry, Saint Martin's University, Lacey, Washington) presenting "Mystery of the Coast Salish woolly dogs," and Nicolay V. Tsarevsky, (Department of Chemistry, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas) "Torbern Bergman (1735-1784): A life dedicated to science."
Register now for the April 23rd ChemHIST Talk: https://unr.zoom.us/meeting/register/0aa5HOE5RwOSaC7X-EvyCw
Please feel free to forward to your classes or other colleagues who might be interested. Only those who register can watch live. Anyone will be able to watch after the talks are posted to the HIST website.
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HIST has lost two more long-time friends and colleagues.
James J. Marshall died March 28, 2025. Jim and his wife Jenny (1945-2019) won the Joseph B. Lambert HIST Award in 2024 for their work on Rediscovery of the Elements. Jim was an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Texas, Denton, TX. Click HERE for his obituary. Jim's Memorial and Party will be on May 19th at 11am at DeBerry's Bill DeBerry Funeral Directors, 2025 W University Dr, Denton, TX 76201 with a luncheon at his favorite restaurant immediately afterwards. If you plan to come, please contact Pamela Marshall.
James "Jim" G. Traynham died last spring on March 24, 2024. Jim was a long-time faculty member at LSU, as well as serving as chair of the HIST division and participating and organizing many HIST symposia. Click HERE for his obituary and HERE for an In Memoriam at LSU.
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An Update from The Oesper Collections
As many of you are likely aware, the Oesper Collections are a premier collection of scientific instrumentation, books, journals, photos, and prints related to the history of chemistry located at the University of Cincinnati. These collections were founded by Ralph E. Oesper, first recipient of the Dexter Award and were curated, grown, and expertly nourished from 1986-2024 by our late friend and colleague William "Bill" Jensen, who received the Edelstein Award in 2005. The ACS recognized the Oesper Collections as a National Historic Chemical Landmark in March 2022.
I am writing to share that I am now the curator and primary contact for the Oesper Collections. My name is Mark Chalmers and I have been working with the Oesper Collections as a Science & Engineering Librarian at UC since 2018. As I have taken on a leadership role with the collections recently, I've been able to secure support to help extend my work bringing life to the museum by increasing visibility, awareness, tours, and partnerships with courses in different colleges and student organizations.
Thanks to the incredible Historic Landmark designation, I was able to secure more than 100 linear feet of display cases in a building on our campus that is undergoing renovations. These displays offer a great opportunity to bring the Oesper Collections out in front of students and engage them with rich and fascinating objects and narratives from the history of chemistry. This is an active project as the displays will be installed later this summer in ~July. In other good news, we are actively recruiting for a staff position to support dedicated open hours for the museum. I would also like to share that I have recently been able to digitally publish some of Bill's books. Favorites include his beloved caricatures and his Philosophers of Fire textbook, which was the subject of his Edelstein award paper.
I look forward to meeting you all in San Diego. I'm excited to work with you all to help bring the Oesper Collections into alignment with the new HIST vision statement and strategic plan. As many of these collections were developed to support Bill's research in the history of chemistry, I'm eager to be a conduit to these collections for the community of chemical historians. I welcome HIST members to reach out about research opportunities or to schedule visits to explore these valuable materials firsthand.
Submitted by Mark Chalmers, Email: Mark.Chalmers@uc.edu, Curator, Oesper Collections, University of Cincinnati
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The recipient of the 2025 Joseph B. Lambert HIST Award of the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society is Seth C. Rasmussen. 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 Professor Rasmussen at the fall national meeting of the American Chemical Society in August 2025 in Washington, DC.
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William B. Jensen, a long-time friend and colleague, died November 2, 2024. Bill won the Edelstein Award in 2005, served as HIST Secretary/Treasurer from 1986-1989 and HIST Chair in 1991. He was the founding Editor of the HIST journal, Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. Click HERE to access his obituary.
E. Thomas Strom, another long-time friend and colleague, died October 26, 2024. Tom served as HIST Chair from 2011-2012, and co-organized 6 HIST symposia that resulted in ACS Symposium volumes. He was a mentor to many of us who have served on the HIST Executive Committee and presented talks at HIST sessions at National meetings. Click HERE to access his obituary.
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The HIST award for the Paul R. Jones Outstanding Paper Award for 2023 has been awarded to Peter E. Childs (University of Limerick, Ireland) for the paper “Peter Woulfe (1727-1803): The Last of the Alchemists” ((Bull. Hist. Chem. 2023, 48 (2), 136-154). 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, 2021, 2022, 2023.
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Starting on September 1, 2024, the Youth Protection Policy will take effect, and it details the expectations for volunteers at ACS Youth Events. ACS has partnered with Sterling Volunteers to conduct all background checks. This policy applies to all adults volunteering at ACS Youth Events in the U.S. The email from ACS with links is found HERE.
With National Chemistry Week approaching, ACS asks all Divisions and Local Sections to share the ACS Background Check link with volunteers as soon as possible. Events scheduled before the end of September have a grace period and are exempt from the new policy. However, it is imperative for volunteers to familiarize themselves with the process and request a background check soon. All volunteers for ACS Youth Events after October 1 must comply with the Youth Protection Policy-no exceptions.
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Joseph B. Lambert HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS for the 2026 Joseph B. Lambert HIST Award
DEADLINE December 31, 2025. Please see the award's website for more information.
This award is sponsored by and administered by the Division of the History of Chemistry (HIST). The recipient chosen to receive the HIST Award is presented with an engraved plaque and the sum of $1500, usually at a symposium honoring the recipient at the Fall National Meeting of the ACS, which in 2026 will be held on August 25, 2026, in Chicago, IL. The award is international in scope, and nominations are welcome from anywhere in the world. Previous winners of the Dexter and Edelstein Awards include chemists and historians from the United States, Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Hungary, and the United Kingdom.
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The HIST Division recently offered members and others the opportunity to attend, via zoom, two talks recently presented at the Denver ACS meeting in August. If you would like to review these talks, click HERE.
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Bolton Society
The Bolton Society is a program for bibliophiles organized by the Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer Library of Chemical History at the Science History Institute. The Bolton Society encourages and promotes the individual love for and collection of all types of printed material devoted to chemistry and related sciences. It also supports the activities of the Othmer Library and encourages book donations from members. Established in April 2000, the Bolton Society is named after Henry Carrington Bolton (1843-1903), a chemist, historian, academic, bibliophile, and renowned bibliographer of chemistry. His Select Bibliography of Chemistry created the definitive list of chemical books published from 1492 to 1902. Anyone who believes in the Bolton Society's mission can join. Members include bibliophiles, academic and industrial chemists, chemical engineers, philatelists, librarians, historians, and booksellers. The Society meets on Zoom and attracts an international membership. To join please fill out the form. |
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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 Bulletin for the History of Chemistry v49(2), 2024, 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. 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.
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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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