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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.
Music to Your Eyes: Musical Notes in the Othmer Library
Music's inextricable ties to mathematics and engineering ushered images of melody and rhythm into books of the baroque period. |
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Carnival of curiosities: a parade of fantastical creatures
In the Othmer Library many unusual beasts populate the rare books, and they form a marvelous conga line in our slide show. |
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Old school: early education and encyclopedias
The practice of compiling knowledge into reference materials was born more than 2,000 years ago, when some ancient Romans and Greeks started to write down what they knew. |
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Of rhymes and recipes: chemistry in verse
Poets and playwrights, philosophers and chemists all found alchemy and chemistry to be subjects that provided a wealth of material for their writings. |
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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. |
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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.
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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.
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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. |  |
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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. |
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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. |
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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