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Daniel B. Smith lectures and papers
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Held at: Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections [Contact Us]370 Lancaster Ave, Haverford, PA 19041
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
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Daniel B. Smith (1792-1883) was born in 1792. He was an educator and pharmacist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Smith was educated at Burlington Friends School under John Griscom, where he acquired an interest in scientific studies. He later was the apprentice to John Biddle in the apothecary business, and on completion he was admitted to partnership. In 1819, he opened a drug store in downtown Philadelphia, and in 1828, he entered into partnership with William Hodgson, renaming the firm "Smith Hodgson", and continued to be active in business until a few years before his death. At the age of 28, he was one of the founders of the Apprentices' Library of Philadelphia.
Smith was a member of a group of pharmacists that, in 1821, established the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (now University of the Sciences in Philadelphia), the first college of pharmacy in the country. He was elected vice-president in 1828, and from 1829 to 1854, served as president. He was one of the founders of Haverford School, later renamed Haverford College, and in 1834, he became a professor of moral philosophy, English literature, and chemistry there. He also served as the Principal of Haverford College from 1843 to 1846. In 1852, he became the first president of the American Pharmaceutical Association and was an original member of the Franklin Institute, and a member of the American Philosophical Society and of the Academy of the Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. he published two editions of "The Principles of Chemistry" in 1837 and 1842.
In 1824, Smith married Esther Morton, and the couple had three children: John, Benjamin, and Mary. Upon his death, the American Pharmacists Association started awarding a yearly award in his name for excellence in the practice of Pharmacy.
The collection consists of lecture notes for various ethics, history and geography classes taught by Daniel B. Smith at Haverford. These include the history of Christianity, history of the United States, general history, physical geography, descriptive geography, primary geography, and public school geography. Various papers associated with Smith's lectures and his involvement in the Penn Literary Society are also included.
Materials are arranged thematically and according to how Daniel B. Smith arranged them himself.
Processed by Alexandra Horkava; completed October, 2019.
- Publisher
- Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections
- Finding Aid Author
- Alexandra Horkava
- Finding Aid Date
- October, 2019
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).