It was founded in 1982 as a joint venture of the American Chemical Society and the University of Pennsylvania, as the Center for the History of Chemistry (CHOC).

It was renamed the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) in 1992, and moved two years later to the institution's current location, 315 Chestnut Street in Old City.

[8][9][10] In 1979, the ACS formed a task force chaired by Ned D. Heindel to look at creating a national center for the history of chemistry.

[8] 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.

[12] In 1982, its members included John C. Haas, historians Margaret W. Rossiter and Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. and at least three Nobel Prize winners, Christian B. Anfinsen, Herbert C. Brown, and Glenn T.

[15] As early as 1983, the Center for the History of Chemistry expressed an interest in "The Conservation of Historic American Chemical Instruments", in discussions of a possible joint project with the Smithsonian.

[16] The center did curate a number of traveling exhibitions by collaborating with other organizations, including "Joseph Priestley: Enlightened Chemist",[17] "Polymers and People",[18] "Scaling Up",[19][20] and "Chemical Education in the United States".

[22] Beckman challenged the center to define its mission more broadly, reaching out to academic, professional and trade organizations, and including biochemistry, materials science, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and instrumentation within its mandate.

[24] The renamed Beckman Center began a major capital campaign, listing as its needs "offices, an exhibit gallery, a reading room, library stacks, and archives and storage areas.

[26] With support from the American Chemical Society's "Campaign for Chemistry", the center was able to move to 3401 Walnut Street, on the University of Pennsylvania campus, as of March 9, 1988.

[41] In the early 1990s, inspired by John Ferraro, a committee was formed within the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS), to pursue the creation of an instrumentation museum.

Edward Brame and other members of that committee connected with Arnold Thackray and formed the nucleus of the institution's Chemical Instrumentation Museum Group (CIMG) in 1994.

[48][49][50] In 2002, the institution received another gift from Roy Eddleman, founder of Spectrum Laboratories, whose collection contained paintings from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

[46] The Chemical Heritage Foundation's collections include such pioneering and landmark instruments as a 1934 Beckman Model G pH Meter, a DuPont 900 Differential Thermal Analyzer, an early custom Electro-spray Ionization Mass Spectrometer used by John B. Fenn,[52] a 1947 Mettler B5 Single-Pan Balance, a 1963 Perkin-Elmer Model 125 Infrared Grating Spectrophotometer, and a c. 1980's Automated Peptide Synthesizer created by Bruce Merrifield.

In 2000, the CIMG was transformed into the Heritage Council Instruments and Artifacts Committee (HCIAC), which included staff and supporters and began meeting under founding chair W. Richard Howe.

[53] In 2002, the institution was given hundreds of instruments by Stephen P. DeFalco, president of PerkinElmer, after the company closed a plant in Überlingen, Germany.

[54][55] An interim exhibition of Revolutionary Tools was curated at the Chemical Heritage Foundation by David Brock, showing fifteen 20th-century instruments, including Arnold Beckman's pH meter.

[60][61] Thackray was succeeded by Thomas R. Tritton, under whose leadership (2008–2013) the history of science museum opened to the public in its present location, and the fellowship program expanded.

[62] [63] Following a global search, Carsten Reinhardt, a professor of the history of science from Bielefeld University, Germany, was chosen in August 2013 as president and CEO of the organization.

[83] The Roy G. Neville Prize in Bibliography or Biography recognizes a biographical work in the field of chemical or molecular science.