Edgar Fahs Smith biographical materials

Edgar Fahs Smith was born in York, Pennsylvania on May 23, 1854. He studied at Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg and earned his Ph.D. under Friedrich Wohler in Gottingen, Germany. After his return to the United States, Smith taught at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He stayed at the university for the remainder of his career, serving as both professor of chemistry and as Provost. Smith's fields of expertise were electrochemistry, determination of atomic weights, and rare-earth elements. He had a life-long interest in the history of chemistry and served as the first president of the American Chemical Society's (ACS) History of Chemistry division. He served three times as the president of the ACS and was the president of the American Philosophical Society from 1902 to 1908. He was also elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1898) and was awarded the Priestly Medal (1926). Edgar Fahs Smith died in Philadelphia on May 3 1928.