The Boylston Chemical Club was founded by Theodore W. Richards and other chemistry students in 1885. Membership was at first open to any student of Harvard University who had taken a collegiate course in Chemistry, but later was opened to anyone interested in chemistry. The club offered its members an opportunity for personal contact with prominent men in various fields of industry and research, who were procured as speakers, and members automatically became members of the Society of Harvard Chemists upon graduation. In honor of its fiftieth anniversary in 1935, the club adopted a new motto: "S.M.D.R." or "Speakers, Movies, Discussion, and Refreshments."