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PHILADELPHIA, PA—7 March 2006—The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) has named Ronald S. Brashear director of the Othmer Library of Chemical History. Brashear will be responsible for the oversight and growth of CHF's published collections, including the identification and acquisition of significant new additions. He will lead efforts to promote the prestige of CHF's collections and expand their usage and impact.
Brashear comes to CHF from the special collections department of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, where he was head of Special Collections and curator of Science & Technology Rare Books. While at the Smithsonian, he worked extensively with the Dibner Library of the History of Science and oversaw the opening of the new Joseph F. Cullman Library of Natural History. He previously worked in the history of science collections at the Huntington Library.
About the Othmer Library of Chemical History
The Othmer Library of Chemical History houses more than 100,000 print volumes and more than 37,000 volumes in microform equivalents that form an unrivaled resource for the history of the chemical and molecular sciences, technologies, and industries. The collection contains primary sources from the 15th century through the 20th century. The core of the collection is the 30,000 volumes donated by The Chemists' Club in 1988, now supplemented by materials from many other sources received through gifts in kind. The library houses approximately 1,800 journal titles, totaling 59,000 volumes. Several titles span nearly 200 years.
In 2004 the Othmer Library became the steward of the Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library, a collection of roughly 6,000 rare volumes dating from 1478 onward.
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 maintains a world-class collection of materials that document the history and heritage of the chemical and molecular sciences, technologies, and industries; encourages research in its collections; and 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.
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