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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

HIST Vision Statement

Inspiring chemistry's future by preserving its past.

For more information on the HIST strategic plan, click HERE


HIST 2024 Election Results! Congratulations to all the winners and to all those members who voted.


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.


Joseph B. Lambert HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS for the 2025 Joseph B. Lambert HIST Award
DEADLINE December 31, 2024
. 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 2024 will be held on August 20, 2024, in Denver, CO. 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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The HIST Division has been asked to share the updated ACS Volunteer and Participant Code of Conduct Policy with our members. The email can be found HERE.


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.



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 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 was presented to Prof. Marshall at the fall national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver, August 2024.


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.


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.



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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Previous Announcements on this page.