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PHILADELPHIA — 8 April 2005 — In honor of National Poetry Month, the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) has created an exhibit of poetry by chemists and about chemistry. The poems are all from works in the Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library, a special collection in CHF’s Othmer Library of Chemical History. The exhibit is located in the Othmer Library, 315 Chestnut Street , Philadelphia, next to the Liberty Museum. CHF and its collections are open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
“Chemistry is one of the sciences most thoroughly represented in literature,” said Tanya Avakian, a member of CHF’s library staff and creator of the exhibit. “Literary chemists include such classic authors as Primo Levi, Mikhail Lomonosov, and Sir Thomas Browne. Chemistry also appears to lend itself to verse.”
One reason for the connection between chemistry and poetry is that two of the oldest practices known to humanity, cookery and alchemy, represent forms of chemistry that predate the modern scientific age. Recipes for both were often written in verse, committed to memory, and communicated orally. This had practical purposes: paper was scarce; books were tools of the privileged; and many recipe users were barely, if at all, literate.
In addition to the poetry exhibit, CHF currently has an exhibit on display about Joseph Priestley, discoverer of oxygen and Enlightenment intellectual. Joseph Priestley, Radical Thinker is open through 29 July. CHF also has permanent displays of art from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries depicting alchemy as well as scientific instruments. Please visit our Web site for additional information.
About the Chemical Heritage Foundation
The Chemical Heritage Foundation serves the community of the chemical and molecular sciences, and the wider public, by treasuring the past, educating the present, and inspiring the future. CHF carries out a program of outreach and interpretation in order to advance an understanding of the role of the chemical and molecular sciences, technologies, and industries in shaping society; maintains a world-class collection of materials that document the history and heritage of the chemical and molecular sciences, technologies, and industries; and encourages research in its collections.
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