Edgar Fahs Smith (1854-1928), chemical researcher, administrator, educator, and student of chemistry’s history. Dr William P. Palmer Adjunct Research Associate (Curtin University) Abstract Edgar Fahs Smith was born in a log cabin on 23 rd May 1854. The start of his life was in very simple circumstances, yet he achieved a successful career in the complex field of chemical research. He completed his secondary education in 1872 and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1874. He continued his studies in Germany at the University of Göttingen, gaining a Ph. D degree in 1876. He returned to the University of Pennsylvania to start his academic career and was promoted to Professor of Chemistry at Muhlenberg College. He then moved to Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio before returning to the University of Pennsylvania. His research efforts mainly devoted to the complexities of electro-chemistry. He was a much-loved teacher who guided his students in their difficult chemical studies by building up a collection of historical chemical items to engage his students’ interests. Apart from his chemical career, he had great success as an administrator. In 1898, he was elected Vice-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, holding the office until 1911, when he was elected Provost; he resigned in 1920. One of the acts for which he will be remembered by historians of chemistry is founding the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society in 1920 with C. A. Browne. He will also be remembered for his collection of rare chemical books and chemical memorabilia which he left to the University of Pennsylvania. Edgar Fahs Smith died of pneumonia on 3 rd May 1928. Sources. There is no autobiography of Edgar Fahs Smith, though he evidently wrote a biography which was not published. His secretary, Eva Armstrong, later curator of the history of science museum which Smith founded at the University of Pennsylvania quotes from it stating that the quotations in the preface are from ‘an unpublished autobiography by Edgar F. Smith’ (Armstrong, 1937, p. 3). There is also an early partial biography of Dr. Edgar Fahs Smith from the The Wittenberger, published at Springfield, Ohio, which was a sketch written by Rev. L. A. Gotwald, D.D. as was reported in the local newspaper (Reporter 4, 1887, p. 1). Edgar Fahs Smith was well-liked by many colleagues (Parsons, 1932, pp. 621-622) and much admired (Rogers, 1932, pp. 627) for his virtues of simplicity, modesty and caring. Probably the source, nearest to a full biography, is provided by G. H. Meeker, (Meeker,1937, pp. 375-384). Personal stories about Smith when he was growing up are available through an article by his younger brother, Allen (Smith, 1932). Stories about his time with Wöhler obtaining his doctorate at Göttingen University are available through William McPherson (McPherson,1928). The Journal of Chemical Education of April 1932 which was a Memorial issue dedicated to Dr. Edgar Fahs Smith contains several important articles about him. Edgar Fahs Smith is frequently mentioned in American scientific biographies, for example, in American chemists and chemical engineers (Miles, 1976, pp. 445-446) or briefly in two lines by Clark A. Elliott (Elliott, 1979,