Alchemy
Engraved portrait of man

Paracelsus, the Alchemist Who Wed Medicine to Magic

Distillations Article
The Alchymist (1775), an engraving

Hennig Brandt and the Discovery of Phosphorus

Distillations Article
Science history photo collage

Love, Hate, and Sex from the History of Science

Distillations Podcast

Snakes and Letters

Distillations Article

Object Explorer
Museum

The Masters of Nature

Distillations Article
Portrait of alchemist in his lab

Interview: Curator Elisabeth Berry Drago

Distillations Article
The Alchemist and His Wife, ca. 1928, by Jacques Hammerer, after 17th-century original by David Ryckaert III.

Age of Alchemy
Museum

Megan Piorko

People
The Alchemist in His Study with a Woman Making Lace

The Art Detective

Distillations Article
A 16th-century engraving of an alchemist adding a scorpion to a mixture. (Wellcome Library)

The Language of Alchemy

Distillations Article
Ute Frietsch

Ute Frietsch

People

Learn
Learn

Behind the Beaker
Research
Hiro Hirai

Hiro Hirai

People

Philadelphia Science Festival
Visit
Isaac Newton alchemical manuscript

Isaac Newton and the American Alchemist

Distillations Article

Bruce Moran

People
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev

Historical Biographies
Learn

The Alchemical Quest
Museum

Rare Books
Collections
James R. Voelkel headshot

James R. Voelkel

People

Elisabeth Berry Drago

People

Painting Like It’s 1699

Distillations Video
Recherches Chimiques

Materials Matter

Distillations Article

Trial by Fire

Distillations Article
Deborah Harkness

Facts and Fictions

Distillations Article
Detail from An Alchemist’s Laboratory

Gold, Secrecy, and Prestige

Distillations Article
The Shannon Portrait of the Hon. Robert Boyle F. R. S., by Johann Kerseboom, 1689. Science History Institute/Will Brown

Robert Boyle
Historical Profile
Petrus Bonus, Pretiosa margarita novella [The Precious New Pearl], ca. 1450.

Books of Secrets: Writing and Reading Alchemy
Museum

Add to Our Collections
Give

Fine Art
Collections

The Whole of Nature and the Mirror of Art
Museum

Synthesis Book Series
Research

The Bolton Society
Research
Our library collections span nearly six miles of shelves

Othmer Library
Research

Transmutations: Alchemy in Art
Museum

Fellow in Focus
Visit
Research fellow Roger Eardley-Pryor.

Research Activities
Research

Collections
Collections
17th-century scientists in the lab

Science and the Supernatural in the 17th Century

Distillations Podcast

The Alchemist in His Laboratory

Distillations Video
the number 200

Distillations Podcast Turns 200

Distillations Podcast
Mark of Pierre Viart

Of Woodcuts and Metalcuts

Distillations Article
In the Middle Ages, St. Thomas Aquinas helped create the Western model of university education. Aquinas’s teacher Albertus Magnus wrote on alchemy and was so famous that many books he didn’t write were attributed to him, including the Liber secretorum. (R

Albertus Magnus, Mineralogy, and the Secrets of Women

Distillations Article
alchemical painting

Alchemy’s Rainbow: Pigment Science and the Art of Conservation

Distillations Podcast
Recipes and Extracts on Alchemy, Medicine, Metal-Working, Cosmetics, Veterinary Science, Agriculture, Wine-Making, and Other Subjects

The Philosophers’ Stove

Distillations Article

Double Vision

Distillations Article
Natural Magick

Laws of Attraction

Distillations Article

Party Spirits

Distillations Article

Alchemy After Dark

Distillations Podcast
The Unsuccessful Alchemists - Trying to Make Political Gold for Blaine out of Anti-Cleveland Dross (1882)

Political Potions

Distillations Article

The Secrets of Alchemy

Distillations Article
A depiction of Jābir ibn Hayyan, after a 15th century portrait.

What’s in a Name?

Distillations Article

The Alchemical Quest

Distillations Podcast
Title page of Boyle’s Sceptical Chymist

Alchemists, Unite!

Distillations Article
Query 31 in Opticks

Last Words

Distillations Article

Playing It Safe?

Distillations Article
Novum Organum

Roads to Revolution

Distillations Article
Pandora, That Is, the Noblest Gift of God

Pandora’s Secrets

Distillations Article
Ptolemaic armillary sphere

Out of Obscurity

Distillations Article
Atalanta fugiens by Michael Maier

Maidens and Other Marvels

Distillations Article

Alchemical Reflection

Distillations Article
Making Modernity exhibition at the Museum at CHF.

Images of Modernity

Distillations Article

Alchemy

Distillations Podcast
Tyrocinium chymicum

Liar, Liar, Lead on Fire

Distillations Article
Detail of frontispiece from The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes

London Calling

Distillations Article
Arabic astronomers

Seek Knowledge as Far as China

Distillations Article
Woodcut of Abu Mūsā Jābir ibn Hayyān

A Revolution in the Scientific Revolution

Distillations Article
Paracelsus Portrait

Paracelsus, Healer of the German Reformation

Distillations Article
Ibn Butlan’s Risalat da`wat al-atibba

Al-Kimiya: Notes on Arabic Alchemy

Distillations Article