HIST is 100 this year, and CHOC under its successive names, including Science History Institute, is 40. In January 1982 the ACS and the University of Pennsylvania signed an agreement that created CHOC.Two years later the American Institute of Chemical Engineers joined CHOC as a founding member. That SHI exists today owes a lot to HIST, which served as a progenitor of CHOC by promoting to the ACS the idea of a center for the history of chemistry.<br/><br/>In September 1979 HIST proposed such a center to the ACS's Board of Directors. In 1981 ACS President Gardner Stacy appointed a task force made up of HIST and ACS Board members to study the desirability and feasibility of such a center. Ned Heindel served as chairman, and John Wotiz played a key advocacy role. In developing their ideas members of HIST approached Arnold Thackray, founder of the department of history and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and honorary curator of the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection. Thackray set to work drafting proposals and budgets. Charles Price, an ex-president of the ACS, joined him in these efforts and in gathering support from a number of chemical manufacturers. Thackray and Price needed their support to convince the ACS and the University of Pennsylvania of the center's economic viability.<br/><br/>Over the years HIST and CHOC developed further beneficial relationships including Thackray's recruiting from HIST the first three editors of the center's periodical publication: Jeff Sturchio, Ted Benfey, and Mary Virginia Orna. Stalwart HIST member Sidney Edelstein was responsible  for significant book donations to the center's library and he founded the first fellowships to bring in outside scholars to do their research and writing. Several more such relationships will be profiled in this talk.

HIST and the Center for the History of Chemistry (now Science History Institute): Lasting bonds

ACS Spring 2022

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