Join our museum’s Gallery Guides for a “drop-in” tour highlighting the central role of women in shaping chemistry and the material sciences throughout history.

Our Women in Chemistry Tour profiles women chemists from antiquity to the present, sharing stories of innovation, resistance, and change.

On this tour, you can expect to:

  • learn about the legendary founding women of alchemy
  • explore the connections between domesticity and distillation
  • see how wartime changed the laboratory

You’ll also meet pioneering chemists and chemistry educators, from 17th-century French alchemist Marie Meurdrac to Marie Maynard Daly, the first Black woman in America to receive a PhD in chemistry, and the uncredited women who labor in the chemical and technological industries.


Drop-in tours are free and no reservations are necessary.

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August 11, 2026
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From Nature to Nylons: A Touch-Based History of Textiles

This private learning experience combines a personally guided exploration of select gallery exhibits and a hands-on study of objects.

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Othmer Library Tour

Curious about the other half of the Science History Institute? Step into the Othmer Library of Chemical History!

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August 15, 2026
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Stories of Science: Revolutionary Ideas with Thomas Paine!

Join us as we welcome Thomas Paine—patriot, pamphleteer, AND SCIENTIST—as presented by reenactor Dean Howarth.

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