Machine Age (1850 - 1945)
A hand drops liquid from a dropper into a sugar lump on a spoon while a child sits in the background.

Book Club: The Story of the Polio Vaccine

Distillations Blog
Closeup of a penicillin fermentation jug

Distilled #8: Penicillin Jug

Distillations Video
Still from Where Are My Children: At the end of the film the Waltons are visited by the spectral images of their offspring, first as children and then as young adults.

Where Are My Children? Public Health in the Movies

Distillations Blog
19th century breast reliever

Distilled #7: Bicycle Horn or Breast Pump?

Distillations Video
Jennifer Doudna gives the 2018 Ullyot lecture.

What We’re Talking About

Distillations Blog

Baking up a Storm

Distillations Magazine

Family Practice

Distillations Magazine

Exhuming the Flu

Distillations Magazine

Saving Old Movies

Distillations Magazine
Panamanian postage stamp commemorating Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize

What We’re Talking About

Distillations Blog
An early 20th century porcelain painting kit

Distilled #5: Porcelain Painting

Distillations Video
stereoscope with stereograph

Distilled #4: Virtual Reality in the 19th Century

Distillations Video
Plate No. 20 Poisonous Reptiles and Insects

What We’re Talking About

Distillations Blog

Opioids’ Devastating Return

Distillations Magazine
Closeup of telegraph sent by Eleanor Roosevelt

Distilled #3: Water Fit for a King

Distillations Video

Probing the Mysteries of Human Digestion

Distillations Magazine

Book Club: Simultaneous Discovery and Darwin’s Ghosts

Distillations Blog

If You Smell Something, Say Something

Distillations Magazine

Distilled #2: An Early (Gold-Plated!) Not-Quite-IUD

Distillations Video

Brown Bag Lecture: The Recognition of Pseudomorphism: Mineral Chemistry as a Historical Science

Event

Serious Fun

Distillations Magazine

Hard Work and Happenstance

Distillations Magazine

From Barbers and Butchers to Modern Surgeons

Distillations Magazine

Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès’s Recipe for Margarine

Distillations Video

Brown Bag Lecture: Ways of Seeing: Gray’s Anatomy and the Making of a Modern Textbook

Event

Choose Your Own Adventure

Event

Braving the Elements: Why Mendeleev Left Russian Soil for American Oil

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Our Mutual Friend

Distillations Magazine

The Birds, the Bees, and the Froggies

Distillations Magazine

The Age of Scurvy

Distillations Magazine

Fellow in Focus: Fresh Air, Foul Odors, and the Growth of American Cities

Event

The Appeal of Hot Air

Distillations Blog
Rebecca Ortenberg, a program associate in the Institute's Institute for Research. Photo by Emma Lee, WHYY.

NewsWorks: Audio tour highlights historic preservation flash points in Philly's Old City
Media Coverage

The Chemical Heritage Foundation Presents New Exhibition and Walking Tour—Things Fall Apart
Press Release

Things Fall Apart: An Interview with Exhibition Curator Elisabeth Berry Drago

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A Killer of a Cure

Distillations Magazine

A Recipe for Good Health

Distillations Magazine

A Forgotten Star

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Women’s Work

Distillations Magazine

A Tear Gas Tale

Distillations Blog

No Real Distinction

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Waging War on Immigration and Science

Distillations Blog
Amputation

Auld Medicine

Distillations Magazine
LZR Racer

Winning Skin

Distillations Magazine
Figues de Solliès by Mon Œil

The Joy of Cooking

Distillations Blog

Speaking Scientific Internationalism

Event
Crocidolite asbestos, Pomfret Mine, Vryburg, South Africa.

Flexible Meaning
Research
Lee Berry with Ambler interviewee Victor Romano.

Tips for Recording Your Family History

Distillations Blog

Still Life

Distillations Blog

Bendix RGA-1A Time-of-Flight Residual Gas Analyzer with female model
Collections
Filippo Marinetti, 1934

Food Fight

Distillations Magazine
Illustration of a Pasteur-Chamberland filter

The Filter of Life

Distillations Magazine

Hercules Powder Company employee at Kenvil plant
Collections
Walter Potter's Monkey Riding a Goat

Death and Taxidermy

Distillations Video

Yarn inspection at Du Pont
Collections
a French shampoo ad from 1907

Beauty Marks

Distillations Blog

Home Away from Home

Distillations Magazine
Maximilian Ringelman Smoke Charts, 1897. The Institute Collections.

Ringelmann Smoke Charts
Research
Munsell Book of Color, 1940s. The Institute Collections. Photo by Gregory Tobias

Munsell Color Charts
Research
Millipore portable water-testing kit. The Institute Collections. Photo by Conrad Erb

Field Water Testing and Analysis Instruments
Research