 An agreement to create the Center for the History of Chemistry was signed by officers of the American Chemical Society and the University of Pennsylvania on January 22 and 26, 1982.A policy council was appointed by the sponsoring institutions to oversee routine operations of the center, and Arnold Thackray was appointed part-time director of the center on April 29, 1982.The center was inaugurated on March 11, 1983, in several vacant basement rooms on the University of Pennsylvania campus.