The Oesper Collections in the History of Chemistry

Step into Chemistry's Past

The Oesper Collections in the History of Chemistry is a nationally recognized collection of scientific artifacts, books, journals, photos, and prints related to the history of chemistry.

The Oesper Collections are a joint venture of the Ralph E. Oesper Chemistry-Biology Library of the University of Cincinnati and of the Department of Chemistry of the University of Cincinnati. 

Learn more about the origins of the collections and our ACS National Historic Chemical Landmark status on the About Us page.

Questions on the collections and requests to visit may be made to Mark Chalmers (Curator, Science and Engineering Librarian) and Ted Baldwin (Chemistry Librarian and Director of the Science and Engineering Libraries). The Oesper Collections are located on the west side of the 5th floor of Rieveschl Hall.  Visit our Services page for more information about accessing and utilizing the Oesper Collections online and in person.

The collections consist of three components: The Apparatus Museum, the rare Books and Journals collection, and the historical Portraits and Prints collection. Learn more about the artifact collection and historical chemical techniques in the Museum Notes, Museum Booklets, and ebooks linked from the Digital Collections page and explore the digital collection of artifact photos from the museum collection on JSTOR. Selected apparatus photos from the digital collection are also displayed throughout this website.