Access to the College Green area of campus will be restricted until further notice. Current students, faculty and staff with a valid Penn card may enter and exit Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center through the Rosengarten Undergraduate Study Center on the ground floor, and may enter and exit the Fisher Fine Arts Library through the 34th Street entrance to Meyerson Hall

During reading period, April 30 to May 14: Access to both Van Pelt and Fisher Fine Arts Library is limited. Find more information.

History and Sociology of Science Special Collections

Arabic manuscript with circular diagrams.

[note: revisions to this webpage are in progress.]

Holdings in the History of Science in the Kislak Center cover many topics and stretch across all time periods. They include printed volumes and archival collections in biomedicine, chemistry, veterinary medicine, engineering, and math, physics, and astronomy. Manuscript collections include works of medieval and Renaissance science; the Edgar Fahs Smith Collection devoted to the history of chemistry, comprising early and modern works on chemistry, alchemy, early medicine and pharmacology, dyeing, metallurgy, mineralogy, and pyrotechnics; biographies of chemists; works on the chemical industry; and the history of chemical education. Other collections relate to science, technology, industry; and the history of computing. The Walter Lear collections document social activism and modern American medicine.

Holding Location

Contact