American Chemical Society

On April 6, 1876, thirty-five chemists gathered at the College of Pharmacy in New York City to establish the American Chemical Society (ACS). Just seven months later, John William Draper, the society's first president, presented his inaugural speech at Chickering Hall in New York. From the very beginning, the ACS aimed to communicate its scientific work to the public. In April 1879, it launched its main journal, the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS). In January 1907, abstracts that had been featured in JACS since 1897 were separated into their own publication called Chemical Abstracts.