Fire and Gold: The Art of Alchemy (1450-1850)

Fire and Gold: The Art of Alchemy (1450-1850) is now open at the Science History Institute in Old City Philadelphia. It's a permanent exhibition, so it's not going anywhere in a hurry—it opened with a celebration on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, and will stay on view in the Fisher Gallery.

The show pulls from the Institute's collection of European paintings and rare books to look back at the centuries when chemistry was called 'chymistry.' That's the era when alchemists were chasing healing elixirs, the legendary philosophers' stone, and the transformation of lead into gold. The exhibition walks you through underground mines, cluttered workshops, and fiery laboratories where distillation and other early chemical processes were developed. You'll see more than a dozen paintings of alchemical experimentation alongside rare books like Georg Agricola's De re metallica (1556) and Athanasius Kircher's Mundus subterraneus (1665).

It hangs in the newly reopened Fisher Gallery, an intimate space that looks out over the Institute's Othmer Library of Chemical History. Art historian Elisabeth Berry Drago, the Institute's former director of museum education, curated the show, and it was made possible with the support of Barry Arkles and Janine Black.

Admission is free, and the exhibition is located at 315 Chestnut Street in Old City. If you're looking for a bit more guidance, the Institute holds self-guided visits every other Saturday from 2 PM to 3 PM and every other Thursday from 1 PM to 2 PM.