Fall 2022 ACS Meeting Poster
The Chemical Bulletin by the Chicago Section ACS:
Engaging Chemists for Over One Hundred Years
20th Century Social NetWork
Amber K. Arzadon
ACS Local Sections and their newsletters serve as mechanisms through which for scientists connect over shared interests and experiences. The Chemical Bulletin has provided a social network for ACS members from Chicago and other cooperating sections in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisville, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Since the beginning, Bulletin readers celebrated life’s momentous occasions with their peers and friends. They chronicled their marriages, births of children, job changes, relocations, deaths, and even the occasional ailment!
The newsletter also served as a time capsule for social issues and current events. The Bulletin saw its members through numerous wars as well as social and political movements. While some past views are now archaic and even shocking, it is informative to view the world through the lens of a different time.
Like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram posts, provocative Bulletin material sometimes triggers vocal responses. Previous editors collected articles from numerous authors and presented them in a series. The contributors sometimes voiced controversial opinions that elicited numerous letters to the editor.
The Bulletin served as a bulletin board job postings, sales, and positions wanted. Before LinkedIn, indeed, ebay, and craiglist, our members needed a way to look for jobs and sell things on the secondary market. The newsletter was an easy way for the chemical industry to speak to their target audience.
Readers who needed their spirits lifted were entertained by crossword puzzles, crytograms, and humorous articles. They felt connected to other ACS members by reading their poetry, comics, book reviews, and even recipes!
What’s a social network without advertisements? Scroll through our archives to find ads for products that have stood the test of time as well as products that are now obsolete.
Over the years, it has presented readers with member news, meeting announcements, provocative articles, and entertaining material. In many ways, the newsletter was the 20th century’s version of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You will find that the more social networking changes, the more it stays the same.
To browse through our archives, please visit:
https://chicagoacs.org/Bulletin_Digitized
https://chicagoacs.org/news_arch.php
