Edgar Fahs Smith

Edgar Fahs Smith (May 23, 1854 – May 3, 1928) was an American scientist who is best known today for his interests in the history of chemistry. He served as provost of the University of Pennsylvania from 1911 to 1920, was deeply involved in the American Chemical Society and other organizations, and was awarded the Priestley Medal in 1926.

He accumulated a large collection of pictures, books, and papers related to the history of chemistry, which today forms the nucleus of the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection at the University of Pennsylvania. The collection was designated as a National Historic Chemical Landmark on March 16, 2000.

Life and work

Edgar Fahs Smith was born in York, Pennsylvania on May 23, 1854, to Gibson Smith and Elizabeth Fahs (Smith). He was raised in the Moravian faith. His younger brother Allen John Smith was born in 1863. He attended York County Academy, a college preparatory school, from 1867 to 1872.

Smith had planned to attend Yale University, but changed to Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg (now Gettysburg College) when he was given the opportunity to enter as a junior in 1872, due to his advanced knowledge and education. He majored in chemistry and mineralogy with Samuel Philip Sadtler. Smith earned his college degree from Pennsylvania College in 1874. He received his Ph.D. under Friedrich Wöhler at the University of Göttingen in 1876. Smith then returned to the United States and married Margie Alice Gruel in 1876.

In 1876, Fahs was appointed Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught for five years. He then took two short-term appointments in Allentown, Pennsylvania and Springfield, Ohio. He returned to the University of Pennsylvania as Professor of Analytical Chemistry in 1888, and succeeded Sadtler as head of the chemistry department in 1892. He was the doctoral advisor of the first woman to receive a doctorate in Philosophy of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, Fanny R. M. Hitchcock. He also became director of the John Harrison Laboratory, which was created at the University of Pennsylvania in 1894. He was associated with the University as a professor of chemistry (1888-1911), as vice-provost (1899-1911) and then as provost (1911-1920). Smith was an active advocate for the education of women, accepting and mentoring women students, and working to open both graduate and undergraduate programs to women. He was also the founder of the Pennsylvania Iota chapter of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at Penn. He retired from the university in 1920.