Chairman: Prof John W Nicholson, 52 Buckingham Road, Hampton Middlesex TW12 3JG, England. E-mail: jwnicholson01@gmail.com
Secretary: Dr Mike Leggett E-mail: leggett189@btinternet.com
Treasurer: Stanley Langer, 31 Hallswelle Way, Temple Fortune, London NW11 0DH, England. E-mail; stanley1910@yahoo.co.uk
Membership: Dr Alice Halman. E-mail: alicehalman@yahoo.com
Newsletter Editor: Dr Anna Simmons, Epsom Lodge, La Grande Route de St Jean, St John, Jersey, JE3 4FL a.simmons@ucl.ac.uk
The Historical Group exists to encourage an interest in the history of chemistry and chemical industry among members of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and others. Membership is open to non-members of the RSC and embraces a wide range from those whose interest in the history of chemistry is a hobby to teachers of chemistry at all levels and professional historians.
The Group holds twice yearly meetings when academic papers are read and discussed. Summaries of papers read at these meetings are included in the Historical Group Newsletter along with reviews of recent books in the subject and news of other meetings and forthcoming events. The Newsletter is published twice yearly. Contributions of around 2,500 words on topics of current interest in the history of chemistry are invited for inclusion at the discretion of the Editor. The Editor is very happy to discuss possible contributions prior to submission. The contents of the last issue, Summer 2023, are given below with a link to the PDF (0.9 MB).
The next meeting will be on Astrochemistry at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BA [Click here for a map of the location of Burlington House and Royal Society of Chemistry.
Details available in the Summer 2025 Newsletter
If you are a member of the RSC you should contact the Membership Department (membership@rsc.org or ring 01223 432141) quoting your name and membership number. If you have any problems or queries, please contact the RSCHG Membership Secretary, Dr Mike Leggett leggett189@btinternet.com. All members of the Group can download the Newsletter as a PDF on www.rsc.org/historical or https://rschg.qmul.ac.uk/; no password is needed.
The Group maintains contact with colleagues in the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society and the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences.
The Library & Information Centre, Historical Chemistry Information Service.
The Chemical Heritage Foundation.
The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry.
Details of Nobel Prize winners; portraits; and other details.
List of Nobel Prize winners for Chemistry.
The History of Chemical Engineering.
Historic samples and specimens from the Chemistry Department, Imperial College, London.
History of chemistry in Heidelberg
Science & Civilisation in China Project (Needham Research Institute).
There is a History of Chemistry Mail List or email chem-hist-request@mailman.uni-regensburg.de
To send messages email chem-hist@mailman.uni-regensburg.de
Short articles on the history of chemistry for the Newsletter are welcome and should be sent to the editor, Dr Anna Simmons, Epsom Lodge, La Grande Route de St Jean, St John, Jersey, JE3 4FL a.simmons@ucl.ac.uk. Please consult the Instructions for Authors.
For a PDF copy of the Newsletter (630 KB) click here
Contents
From the Editor (Anna Simmons)
RSC HISTORICAL GROUP NEWS
Secretary’s Report for 2024 (Peter Morris)
Message from the New Secretary of RSC Historical Group (Mike Leggett)
Message from the Membership Secretary Alice Halman
LinkedIn
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY HISTORICAL GROUP MEETINGS AND ONLINE LECTURES
Astrochemistry Meeting
Online Lectures
OBITUARY
Raymond G. Anderson (Peter Morris)
NEWS FROM THE RSC LIBRARY
The Historical Collection 2.0 (David Allen)
NEWS FROM THE DIVISION OF HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY
SHORT ESSAYS
Dr Ishbel Campbell (1905-1997) (John Nicholson) The Creation of the British Museum’s Research Laboratory (Vincent Daniels)
Magnetic Coatings and the Control Data Corporation (Kerry Pendergast)
Two Books That Led Me to History of Science and Technology (Michael Jewess)
New Gravestone for John Newlands Unveiled (Peter Morris)
RSC HISTORICAL GROUP MEETING REPORT
Chemistry, History and Medicine
REPORTS OF RSCHG WEBINARS
Tyrian Purple: New Ground-Breaking Insights (Zvi Koren)
New Insights into Lawrence’s Painting Materials and the Genesis of a British Art Masterpiece (Marta Melchiorre)
The Long Industrial Road to Synthetic Indigo (Matthijs de Keijzer and Maarten van Bommel)
Michael Faraday’s Chemical History of a Candle (Frank James)
MEMBERS’ PUBLICATIONS
PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST
SOCIETY NEWS
FUTURE CONFERENCES
PDFs of Newsletters (2010-2025)
PDFs of Occasional Papers 6-10
Biographies of Chemists including Confusing Names 1-3 from Newsletters 1998-9
Return to Royal Society of Chemistry home page.