William Edwards Henderson

Born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1870, he studied at the College of Wooster, earning a B.A. in 1891, and later completed a Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in 1897. He went on to teach chemistry at Ohio State University from 1899 to 1941.

He is best remembered as the co-author, with William McPherson, of widely used chemistry textbooks and laboratory manuals including An Elementary Study of Chemistry. These books were written for high school and early college students and were praised for presenting chemistry as a hands-on, experimental science.

His published work also included more specialized scientific writing, but his lasting reputation comes from helping make chemistry easier to learn for a very large audience of students in the early twentieth century.