General view of chemist Ernest Arnold Congdon seated at a desk, presumably in his office at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry (later Drexel University) in Philadelphia. Born on August 9, 1866, Congdon earned his Bachelor of Philosophy from Columbia University in 1887 and subsequently studied chemistry at the University of Berlin. Upon returning to the United States, Congdon was an instructor at Lehigh University from 1889-1892 before assuming the position of professor and director of chemistry at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry. He remained at Drexel until 1906, when he assumed the position of chemist at the New York Board of Health. A fellow of the London Chemical Society and member of the American Chemical Society, Congdon was the author of Laboratory Instruction in General Chemistry (1901), as well as Brief Course in Qualitative Analysis (1898).