On this date in 1876, the same year America was celebrating its centennial, a group of chemists came together to create the nation’s first chemical society. The goal of the American Chemical Society was to promote the public’s understanding of the chemical sciences. The first president was John William Draper, who helped organize the University of the City of New York’s medical school and became its professor of chemistry and physiology and later its president. Today, the American Chemical Society consists of 161,000 members from many disciplines, including research, engineering and other chemical sciences.

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