Biographical Sketch of Samuel P. SADTLER, Ph. D. LL. D. (b. 1847); Philadelphia Co., PA Contributed to the PAGenWeb Archives by Diana Smith [christillavalley@comcast.net] Copyright. All Rights Reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ********************************************************* "Philadelphia, A History of the City and its People; A Record of 225 Years" Publisher: S. H. Clark; Philadelphia; 1912. Vol. 3, page 286 Author, Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer SAMUEL P. SADTLER, PH. D., LL. D. Dr. Samuel P. Sadtler, whose authorship includes many contributions to pharmaceutical and chemical literature and who is now professor of chemistry in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and an eminent consulting chemical expert of Philadelphia, was born at Pine Grove, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, July 18, 1847. His grandfather, the Rev. Dr. S. S. Schmucker, was the founder of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and for nearly forty years served as chairman of the faculty of that institution. His father, the Rev. Dr. Benjamin S. Sadtler, was a Lutheran minister and for ten years occupied the presidency of Muhlenberg College at Allentown, Pennsylvania. Samuel Philip Sadtler's lines of life have been cast in harmony with those of a distinguished and honorable ancestry. In the acquirement of his early education he attended the public schools of eastern Pennsylvania until graduated from the Easton high school at Easton, Pennsylvania, with the class of 1862. In the fall of the same year he matriculated in Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, where he was graduated in 1867, his course having been interrupted during 1863, when all college work was suspended on account of the encroachment of the Confederate army culminating in the battle of Gettysburg. His attention was largely given to classical work until his senior year in college, when he concentrated his energies upon distinctively scientific subjects, determining that his life work should be in that field. In this he had the suggestion of and was perhaps largely influenced by Professor Alfred M. Mayer, of the Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken, New Jersey, who at that time was professor of chemistry and physics in Pennsylvania College. In the fall of 1867, Dr. Sadtler entered the newly established Lehigh University to begin his professional studies in chemistry, this choice being largely determined by the fact that his friend, Dr. Mayer, had been called to that institute to become professor of physics. In the ensuing year he pursued the study of chemistry, physics and mineralogy, and in the fall of 1868 entered the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University as an advanced student under Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, then the most distinguished chemist in America. For a year and a half he continued his studies in chemistry under Professor Gibbs and in mineralogy under Josiah P. Cooke, and after successfully passing his examinations for the degree of Bachelor of Science in January, 1870, he sailed in February for Germany to continue his education under the direction of eminent scientists of the old world. Professor Sadtler spent a year in the University of Gottingen and won the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1871. He added to his general knowledge by several months spent in travel, and in the summer of 1871 returned to America to enter upon his life work as a teacher of chemistry, filling the professorship of chemistry and physics in Pennsylvania College, where he remained until 1874. In the fall of that year he came to Philadelphia as professor of general and organic chemistry of the University of Pennsylvania, and while occupying that professorship in 1878 he was asked to relieve Professor Robert Bridges, professor of chemistry in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, whose advanced years made his work somewhat burdensome. Dr. Sadtler relieved him by taking upon himself some of the lecture work of the professorship and was elected the successor of Dr. Bridges when, in the spring of 1879, the latter was made emeritus professor of chemistry. From that time to the present his interest in pharmacy has had a continuous growth as indicated by his work as a teacher and his contributions to the literature of the profession. In 1891 he resigned his professorship in the University of Pennsylvania after seventeen years of service and since that time has maintained an office in Philadelphia as consulting chemical expert. He has devoted much attention to the study of the modern chemical processes of manufacture and the newer chemical products, giving especial attention to petroleum and its products and becoming widely known and consulted as an authority thereon. He is today recognized as one of the eminent chemists of America, and his reputation is causing him to be engaged as chemical expert in many of the most important patent suits. He was one of the two experts selected by the Citizens Municipal Association and the trades League of Philadelphia to investigate the subject of asphalts for street paving. Professor Sadtler has always been an interested and active supporter of Pennsylvania College of Gettysburg, which in 1902 honored him on the thirty- fifth anniversary of his graduation by conferring upon him the honorary degree of LL. D. In 1879 he was made active member of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and the following year was elected a trustee, in which position he has since remained. He has served on many important committees of the college, being now chairman of the committee on announcement and of the committee on library. He has likewise been chairman of the committee on publication of the American Journal of Pharmacy since 1884. The board of trustees having decided to further extend the instruction of the college into the field of technical education as applied to the arts and manufactures, and particularly in preparation for analyses demanded by the industries by food and drug laws, Professor Sadtler was selected as dean of this department, a position for which he is well qualified by reason of his special studies and investigations. His writings have covered a wide range in chemical and pharmaceutical literature and have not only received the favorable attention of distinguished representatives of those fields, but are largely regarded as authority upon the subjects treated. His first literary work, published in 1877, was a Handbook of Chemical Experimentation for lecturers and teachers. He was chosen the American editor of the eighth edition of Attfield's Chemistry, a text-book especially prepared for students of pharmacy in the United States and England. In 1880, as the associate of Dr. H. C. Wood and Professor Joseph P. Remington, he was engaged for the revision of the United States Dispensatory, a most valuable reference book, of which he still continues as chemical editor. In 1891 he published the first edition of his Industrial Organic Chemistry, which has since gone through three editions, having a wide circulation in this country and England and has appeared abroad in authorized German and Russian translations. In collaboration with Professor Henry Trimble in 1895 he published the first edition of Sadtler and Trimble's Pharmaceutical and Medical Chemistry, which has run through four editions and since the death of Professor Trimble has been known as Sadtler and Coblentz's Text-book. Dr. Sadtler attended the national conventions of 1890 and 1900 for the revision of the United States Pharmacopoeia as a delegate from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and was elected by the convention of 1900 a member of the standing committee on revision, in which capacity he is serving at present. His writings also include many scientific papers published in chemical and pharmaceutical journals, and he has delivered many public addresses on chemical and technical subjects. Professor Sadtler is a prominent and active member of numerous scientific societies, belonging to the American Pharmaceutical Association and the Pennsylvania State Pharmaceutical Association; the American Philosophical Society, of which he was secretary from 1898 until 1902; the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and the American Chemical Society, of which he served as a member of the council for a number of years. He is likewise connected with the American Electro-Chemical Society, of which he was vice president, and in 1910, was elected to the next succeeding revision committee, the term being for ten years; is a member of the Chemical Societies of London and Berlin; and the Society of Chemical Industry and the Franklin Institute. Of the last named he was manager for a number of years and he is now emeritus professor of chemistry. As professor of chemistry in the latter institution, he delivered for a number of years the chemical lectures in the popular course and likewise presented to the members numerous advances in chemistry in special lectures. In New York he had been accorded membership in the Chemists Club and he was one of the original members of the University Club of Philadelphia. In 1909, upon the establishment of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, he was elected its first president and continues actively in the management of the institute. His investigations have been carried far and wide into the realm of knowledge to which he has directed his attention and have brought to light many valuable truths which bear upon the subject of chemistry, constituting an important element in the world's progress. This file is located at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/philadelphia/bios/history/sadtler-sp.txt