Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry

13/03/2026

The winter 2026 edition of Chemical Intelligence edited by Karoliina Pulkkinen is now available online for members to enjoy

Chemical Intelligence Winter 2026 issue - Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry

It includes details of the 2026 Award Scheme which is now open for applications and the SHAC Spring meeting, "Remembering Bill Brock: Chemistry and Culture," which will be held on 10 April in Oxford.

For queries regarding the content of Chemical Intelligence, or to suggest material for inclusion in future issues, please contact the newsletter editor via chemintel [AT] ambix.org. Chemical Intelligence (Winter 2026) Chemical Intelligence (Summer 2025) Chemical Intelligence (Winter 2025) Chemical I...

13/03/2026

The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Professor John C. Powers (Virginia Commonwealth University) who will present:

Defending the New Chemistry: The Columbian Chemical Society of Philadelphia, c. 1811-13

This will be live on Thursday, 26 March 2026, beginning at 5.00pm (London time). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour.
From this seminar we are changing the system for registering to attend the event. To register please e-mail [email protected] with ‘SHAC on-line seminar’ in the subject line. You will then be sent a Zoom link on the morning of the seminar.

The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at:
https://youtube.com/live/ImYxiaJiNOQ?feature=share

Most previous on-line seminars can be found on the SHAC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SocietyforHistoryofAlchemyandChemistry
Defending the New Chemistry: The Columbian Chemical Society of Philadelphia, c. 1811-13
John C. Powers
During the first decade of the 19th Century, several tenets of Lavoisier’s antiphlogistic chemistry had come under serious scrutiny through the work of Thomas Thomson, Humphry Davy and other British chemists. Details of this work quickly crossed the Atlantic and became a topic of discussion and debate among American chemists and physicians. In Philadelphia, two Professors of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, James Woodhouse (prof. 1795-1809) and John Redman Coxe (prof. 1809-18) embraced the British critiques of the new chemistry and exposed the new chemistry’s weaknesses to their students. Coxe, in fact, published a book, Observations on Combustion and Acidification (1811) in which, following suggestions from Davy, he advocated a return to a version of the phlogiston theory.
In a curious twist, many chemistry and medical students in Philadelphia did not support their professors’ critical approach to the new chemistry. In 1811 students founded the Columbian Chemical Society of Philadelphia, an organization which provided an outlet for them to present their own practical work in chemistry as well as refute claims which undermined Lavoisier’s views. This talk will examine some of the papers by these students, who went on to have careers as prominent chemists or physicians, such as Thomas D. Mitchell, Franklin Bache, and James Cutbush, and provide some context regarding the ongoing debate over the new chemistry in the United States.

The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, founded as the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry in 1935, holds meetings and a yearly Graduate Workshop, publishes the journal Ambix and a biennial newsletter Chemical Intelligence, and offers prizes and grants to scholars.

13/03/2026

Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry Award Scheme 2026

Opening date: 1 March 2026

Closing date for applications: 31 May 2026

The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry invites applications for its Award Scheme for 2026. SHAC offers two types of award: support for research into the history of chemistry or history of alchemy by both new and independent scholars and support for Subject Development of either history of chemistry or history of alchemy. It is expected that applicants will be advised of the outcome of their application by 31 July 2026.

More information and how to apply can be found on our website: https://www.ambix.org/grants/

09/01/2026

The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Dr Michael Bycroft (University of Warwick) who will present:

Gems and the Crafts in the Chemical Revolution

This will be live on Thursday, 22 January 2026, beginning at 5.00pm (London time). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour.

As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following Ticket Source link:
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/shac-on-line-seminar-dr-michael-bycroft-university-of-warwick/e-zkzlqg

The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at:
rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2
When booking please ensure that you provide the e-mail address where you would like your link to be sent. Both links will go live just before the seminar.

Most previous on-line seminars can be found on the SHAC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SocietyforHistoryofAlchemyandChemistry

Gems and the Crafts in the Chemical Revolution
Michael Bycroft
Chemistry is inseparable from the chemical crafts. This is a commonplace in the historiography of chemistry. But what about the relationship between the crafts themselves? How were chemical ideas shaped by the interaction between different arts, trades and industries? I answer this question with respect to gemstones in European chemistry in the latter part of the eighteenth century. In this period, and not before, chemists found general procedures for dividing gems into their component substances. Miners, apothecaries, glass-makers, and porcelain-makers were all involved in this process, as well as jewellers and diamond-cutters. These interactions between crafts were not just a matter of generalization or juxtaposition. New kinds of analysis emerged when two or more crafts interacted. Chemistry was greater than the sum of its crafts.

Tickets are now available for SHAC On-line Seminar - Dr Michael Bycroft (University of Warwick) at Online, Online on Thursday 22nd January 2026. Click the link for further information and to secure your tickets now!

04/11/2025

Announcing the 9th Notes and Records Essay Award
Notes and Records reports on current research and archival activities across the history of science, technology and medicine.
Our Essay Award is open to researchers from the above fields who have completed a postgraduate degree within the last five years.
Enter for your chance to win £500 and publication in the journal for the winning entry.
Submission deadline: 28 February 2026

Open to early career researchers in the history of science.

04/11/2025

The first Brock Award is given to Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent for her lifetime of outstanding work in the history of chemistry. For about four decades she has produced original and thought-provoking research in the history and philosophy of chemical and materials science, significantly shaping the historiography of chemistry. Her work stands as an inspiring example of how innovative approaches in these fields can not only illuminate significant historical and philosophical ideas in the chemical sciences, they can also meaningfully contribute to addressing contemporary societal challenges. Bensaude-Vincent has played a key role in establishing collaboration and building scholarly communities across Europe, and in nurturing new generations of scholars in history of chemistry, both formally and informally.
https://www.ambix.org/1st-brock-award-given-to-bernadette-bensaude-vincent/?doing_wp_cron=1762284246.3721959590911865234375

The Brock Award honours Professor William ‘Bill’ Hodson Brock (1936-2025), one of the leading historians of chemistry of the last fifty years, and is for outstanding contributions in the fields of the history of alchemy and chemistry.

The first Brock Award is given to Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent for her lifetime of outstanding work in the history of chemistry. For about four decades she has produced original and thought-provoking research in the history and philosophy of chemical and materials science, significantly shaping the h...

21/10/2025

Remembering Bill Brock
https://www.ambix.org/remembering-bill-brock-cfp-shac-meeting-10-april-2026/?doing_wp_cron=1762284175.1277201175689697265625

William ‘Bill’ Hodson Brock (1936-2025) was one of the leading historians of chemistry of the last fifty years. As Chair of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry and editor of Ambix he played a major role in the Society from the 1960s to the 2000s. He also wrote on the history of publishing, education and many other aspects of nineteenth-century science and culture, publishing in 1992 The Fontana/Norton History of Chemistry, a general history of chemistry from antiquity to the present.
To commemorate his life, work and legacy, SHAC is organising a one-day meeting to be held on Friday 10 April 2026 at the Maison Française d’Oxford. Offers of papers (including a short abstract) related in some way to Brock’s work should be sent to Frank James (frank.james[at]ucl.ac.uk) by 30 November 2025.

23/09/2025

The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Dr Francesca Antonelli (University of Bologna) who will present:
Family historians? Women and the construction of scientific memory, from Mme Lavoisier (1758-1836) to Lucie Laugier (1822-1900)

This will be live on Thursday, 25 September 2025, beginning at 5.00pm (London time). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour.
The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at
https://youtu.be/-IqrYQ3h9gg

As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following Ticket Source link:
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/shac-on-line-seminar-dr-francesca-antonelli-university-of-bologna/e-pbyeye

Most previous on-line seminars can be found on the SHAC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SocietyforHistoryofAlchemyandChemistry

Family historians? Women and the construction of scientific memory, from Mme Lavoisier (1758-1836) to Lucie Laugier (1822-1900)
Francesca Antonelli
Family history is widely recognized as one of the first domains where women engaged with modern historical writing, often being regarded as the “natural” custodians of family memory. But what about the history of science? This presentation focuses on how women between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries shaped the posthumous memory of scientists within their families, particularly through the curation of scientific and personal archives, the management of instruments and other objects, and biographical writing. Beginning with the well-documented case of Mme Lavoisier (1758-1836), who crafted her husband’s memory in the early nineteenth century, I turn to the largely overlooked figure of Lucie Laugier (1822-1900), François Arago’s niece and author of biographical accounts of her uncle (published only in the 1990s). Both women served as “secretaries” – as they would put it – to their relatives and managed extensive material and paper collections in radically different political contexts—from post-Revolutionary rehabilitation to Second Empire hostility. Significantly, both are commemorated in public monuments—Arago’s in 1879 and Lavoisier’s in 1900—depicted precisely in these roles. I will thus deal with their cases to raise some questions on women’s agency in constructing scientific memory and the complex negotiations between family and institutional narratives of scientific commemoration.

Family historians? Women and the construction of scientific memory, from Mme Lavoisier (1758-1836) to Lucie Laugier (1822-1900)Family history is widely recog...

17/09/2025

The Partington Prize, established by the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC) in memory of Professor James Riddick Partington, the Society’s first Chairman, is awarded every three years for an original and unpublished essay on any aspect of the history of alchemy or chemistry. The prize consists of five hundred pounds (£500) if awarded to a single essay. Alternatively, it may be divided, or not awarded at all.

https://www.ambix.org/partington-prize/?doing_wp_cron=1758139365.4480559825897216796875

The competition is open to anyone with a scholarly interest in the history of alchemy or chemistry who, by the closing date of 31 December 2025, has not reached 35 years of age, or if older is currently enrolled in a degree programme or has been awarded a master’s degree or PhD within the previous three years. No restriction is placed on the nationality or country of residence of competitors. Only one entry is permitted from any competitor.

The prize-winning essay will be published exclusively in the Society’s journal, Ambix. It must not have been submitted to any journal, including Ambix, at any time before 30 April 2026.

Essays must be submitted in English. Essays must be fully documented using the conventions used in the current issue of Ambix and include an abstract of no more than 200 words. Essays must not exceed 10,000 words in length, including the abstract, references and footnotes.

All entries should be sent to [email protected] in the form of two separate e-mail attachments in Microsoft Office Word (preferably 2013 or later). The first attachment should be headed “Partington Prize Entry 2026” and should give the author’s name, institution, postal address, e-mail address, date of birth (and, if relevant, the date of the award of the master’s degree or PhD), the title of the essay, and the word count. The second attachment should be the essay, which should not identify the author either by name or implicitly.

Entries must arrive before midnight GMT on 31 December 2025. The decision of the Society will be final on all matters. The result of the competition will be announced by 30 April 2026.

17/09/2025

The latest issue of Chemical Intelligence has been published and is available to read on our website via this link:

https://www.ambix.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Final_Final_10.9.2025_ChemIntelligence-2025S.pdf

Included in the edition is the programme for SHAC’s autumn/fall meeting which is being held jointly with the Science History Institute in Philadelphia 16-17 October 2025. Registration is now open.

09/09/2025

The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Dr Francesca Antonelli (University of Bologna) who will present:
Family historians? Women and the construction of scientific memory, from Mme Lavoisier (1758-1836) to Lucie Laugier (1822-1900)

This will be live on Thursday, 25 September 2025, beginning at 5.00pm (London time). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour.

As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following Ticket Source link:
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/shac-on-line-seminar-dr-francesca-antonelli-university-of-bologna/e-pbyeye

The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at
https://youtu.be/-IqrYQ3h9gg

Most previous on-line seminars can be found on the SHAC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SocietyforHistoryofAlchemyandChemistry

Family historians? Women and the construction of scientific memory, from Mme Lavoisier (1758-1836) to Lucie Laugier (1822-1900)
Francesca Antonelli
Family history is widely recognized as one of the first domains where women engaged with modern historical writing, often being regarded as the “natural” custodians of family memory. But what about the history of science? This presentation focuses on how women between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries shaped the posthumous memory of scientists within their families, particularly through the curation of scientific and personal archives, the management of instruments and other objects, and biographical writing. Beginning with the well-documented case of Mme Lavoisier (1758-1836), who crafted her husband’s memory in the early nineteenth century, I turn to the largely overlooked figure of Lucie Laugier (1822-1900), François Arago’s niece and author of biographical accounts of her uncle (published only in the 1990s). Both women served as “secretaries” – as they would put it – to their relatives and managed extensive material and paper collections in radically different political contexts—from post-Revolutionary rehabilitation to Second Empire hostility. Significantly, both are commemorated in public monuments—Arago’s in 1879 and Lavoisier’s in 1900—depicted precisely in these roles. I will thus deal with their cases to raise some questions on women’s agency in constructing scientific memory and the complex negotiations between family and institutional narratives of scientific commemoration.

The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, founded as the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry in 1935, holds meetings and a yearly Graduate Workshop, publishes the journal Ambix and a biennial newsletter Chemical Intelligence, and offers prizes and grants to scholars.