The Chemical Heritage Foundation will host a conference, "Composition to Commerce: Chemistry, History, and the Wider World," on 12–13 June 2009.

Conference highlights
The conference will commence on Friday, 12 June, with two back-to-back sessions on

• "Chemistry as Technoscience" and
• "Material Culture of the Chemical Laboratory."

Friday's sessions will be followed by a reception for all participants.

Saturday, 13 June, will feature sessions on

• "Alchemical/Chemical Practices in the Study and the Classroom,"
• "Chemists and Society in the 18th Century," and
• "Chemistry in a Broader Context."

The conference will close with a final keynote address from the conference’s organizer, Seymour Mauskopf of Duke University.

Attending the conference
There is no fee to attend the conference, but registration is required. You can register to attend just the Friday sessions, just the Saturday sessions, or the entire conference.

Background
The history of chemistry has a long and distinguished lineage of chemist/historian practitioners. The professionalization of the history of science in the second half of the 20th century brought a concomitant broadening of historical purview and, today, historians of chemistry pursue a rich array of research topics ranging from medieval and early-modern chymistry to contemporary nanotechnology and from laboratory and industrial practice to the functions and challenges of chemistry in the public sphere.

Prospectus
"Composition to Commerce: Chemistry, History, and the Wider World" is intended to bring together some of the leading scholars of the history of chemistry both to present the fruits of their current research and to reflect on how their work relates to general themes in the recent historiography of chemistry and science.

Conference details
Program | Abstracts | Register

Contact information

For further information on conference content, please contact:

Ronald Brashear
Arnold Thackray Director
Othmer Library and Special Collections of Chemical History
Chemical Heritage Foundation
Phone: 215-873-8284
Fax: 215-629-5284
rbrashear@chemheritage.org

For logistical information on attending the conference, please contact:

Nancy Vonada
Manager of Events and Stewardship
Chemical Heritage Foundation
Phone: 215-873-8226
Fax: 215-629-5226
nvonada@chemheritage.org