The Chemists' Club Emblem

The Emblem of the Chemists’ Club encompasses the history of chemistry and the processes, theoretical and applied, of scientific discovery in three powerful symbols: the benzene structural formula, the distillation retort, and the salamander.

After the grand opening of the new Clubhouse in 1911, Morris Loeb and Chemists’ Club’s historian D. D. Berolzheimer created the emblem with the help of a commercial artist, H. Schumacher. They chose elements of the history and psyche of chemistry that would resonate with scientists then and in the years to come. The crossed retorts, tools of distillation, represent centuries of applied scientific exploration that frequently culminate in overarching discoveries such as the hexagonal benzene structural formula. That discovery, as well many others of the late 19th/early 20th centuries, enabled a rebirth and new appreciation of chemistry, envisioned by the fire-dwelling salamander of the Chemists’ Club emblem.