Othmer Library of Chemical History: Featured Books

Featured Books

Who knows what gems lie hidden between the CHF bookshelves? We do – and with CHF's Featured Book series, you can get a close-up view of rare and interesting books from our collections.

Each presentation tells a story about a book or selection of books, their place in history, and the authors. In taking this tour, you will not only learn about the books, authors, and eras, but also gain entry into the fascinating world of the history of chemistry.

Here Comes the Sun: Sunny Snapshots from CHF’s Book Collections A few hundred years ago, the sun was an evocative symbol with ancient roots and enduring mystique—a symbol that casts light on many items in CHF’s rare books collections.
Women and Children First: Females Featured in CHF's Book Collections Philosophers, working mothers, farmers' wives and lovely ladies: here are some women, children, and a few chickens that have been hiding in our rare-books collections for many centuries.

Secret Gardens: A Bouquet of Botanical Treasures from the CHF Collections Anything from individual flowers to fully grown designs of gardens appear on the frontispieces and title pages of books on botany and related items in CHF's collections. Taken together, these gardens invite us to step lively and observe closely.

Mellow Yellow and True Blue: Colorful Dye Books at CHF With the advent of synthetic dyes in the mid-nineteenth century, fashion exploded in color. Companies producing the wonderful hues published dozens of books for potential customers. The books are filled with brightly dyed feathers, fabrics and wool swatches.

Printer's devices: The art of early European printers Early printers distinguished their work from the competition by using a "printer's device": an identifying sign or symbol that was placed either on the title page or the last page in the book. These devices were often rich in symbolism and meaning, and give us insight into the time in which the books were produced.
Let it snow! Throughout history people across the world have pondered the mystery of the snowflake. The keenest insights have been granted to those men and women interested in snow from a chemical perspective. These books tell the story of snow and men across the millenia and spanning the globe.
Culinary chemistry and poisonous pickles: Friedrich Christian Accum German chemist Friedrich Christian Accum had a passion for food that extended well beyond the holiday season. Fascinated by the chemical processes involved in making food, Accum was also far ahead of his time with his concern about food additives and pollution.
Madame Lavoisier and the Traité élémentaire de chimie In his groundbreaking Traité élémentaire de chimie [Elements of chemistry] of 1789, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier laid the foundations of the “new chemistry.” In the book, fine engravings illustrate Lavoisier’s groundbreaking experiments on oxygen. These pictures were produced by the chemist’s wife, Marie-Anne Lavoisier.
Andreas Libavius’s Alchymia Libavius's 1606 work may be considered to be the first chemistry textbook. It meticulously details alchemical processes, with elaborate illustrations of substances, equipment. Libavius also planned a charming and intriguing "house of chemistry" that integrated the alchemist's life and work into society.