Edward Kremers, son of Gerhard and Elise Kamper Kremers, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on February 23, 1865. He attended the Humboldt School in Milwaukee until the age of fourteen, and in the fall of 1879 entered the Mission House, a Reformed Church preparatory school, at Sheboygan. Following his graduation in 1882, Kremers served as an apprentice for two years at the Lotz Pharmacy in Milwaukee, and in 1884 he undertook two semesters of study at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. Having returned to Wisconsin in 1885, Kremers worked as an assistant pharmacist for Strohmeyer & Co., a drugstore in Milwaukee. In 1885, Kremers entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison, completing his undergraduate study in three years. During his first year, he was a senior in the Pharmacy course and earned his Ph.G. (Graduate in Pharmacy). The second year, he acted as laboratory assistant to Prof. Power, one of the world's leading researchers in volatile oils. The third year, he entered the General Science Course and graduated in June, 1888 with a Bachelor of Science degree.
In the fall of 1888 Kremers went abroad to study phytochemistry under Dr. Otto Wallach, first at Bonn and later at Goettingen. In Bonn, Kremers also attended the lectures on structural chemistry. Phytochemistry and structural chemistry would remain two main fields of Kremers' studies, and it was in those fields that he gained a world-wide reputation. The dissertation with which Kremers fulfilled the requirements for his doctoral degree at Goettingen in 1890 dealt with the isomerisms within the terpene group.
Returning to Madison, Kremers became an instructor in pharmacy from 1889 to 1892 and professor of pharmaceutical chemistry and director of the pharmacy course at the University of Wisconsin from 1892 to 1935. As course director, Kremers was a national leader in the development of pharmacy curricula. He introduced the first voluntary four-year course leading to a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy. (Since 1932, this four-year course has been obligatory in all accredited American schools of pharmacy.) Likewise, Kremers established the first graduate work in America leading to the degree of doctor of philosophy for research in plant chemistry or pharmacy. In 1913, Kremers also initiated the first pharmaceutical experiment station in the United States, whereby the medicinal plant garden was made an adjunct to the textbook and lecture room. As a result, practical pharmacognosy found a permanent place in the pharmaceutical curriculum. It is likewise very probable that the courses in the history of pharmacy and the history of chemistry announced by Kremers for the first time in 1907-1908, were the first of their kind to be recognized subjects of instruction at an American University.
Kremers' contributions to the history and development of pharmacy and organic chemistry are also numerous. In 1902 he initiated the organization of a historical section of the American Pharmaceutical Association and thereby created the first organized pharmaceutico-historical group in the world.
Moreover, Kremers' pharmaceutico-historical collections formed the basis for the Kremers-Urdang History of Pharmacy (1940), the first book containing a systematic survey on the development of American pharmacy. In addition, Kremers served as historian and chairman for the scientific section of the American Pharmaceutical Association and as chairman of the committee on volatile oils for the United States Pharmacopoeia from 1900 to 1910. He also published “The Classification of Carbon Compounds” (1912), and translated Gildemeister-Hoffmann's The Volatile Oils.
As an editor, Kremers worked on various scholarly journals on the local and national levels. In 1900, Kremers edited a volume entitled The Badger Pharmacist. On the occasion of the 1930 meeting of the Wisconsin Pharmaceutical Association Kremers used the same title five times for publications primarily devoted to local pharmaceutical history. The Badger Pharmacist was revived again in 1936 and grew into a pharmaceutico-historical journal of national importance. Appearing at irregular intervals, it was the first American periodical devoted exclusively to the history of pharmacy. In 1898, Kremers created the Pharmaceutical Archives. Although discontinued in 1903, it was revived in 1936. From 1896 to 1901 Kremers and Frederick Hoffmann, co-edited The Pharmaceutical Review. After Hoffmann's death in 1901, Kremers remained as editor until the Review merged with the Midwest Druggist.
In addition to editing, Kremers took an active role in numerous pharmaceutical organizations. He was president of the American Conference of Pharmaceutical Faculties in 1902 and of the Wisconsin Pharmaceutical Association in 1930. Similarly, Kremers was honorary president of the American Pharmaceutical Association, 1933-1934, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, 1939-1940, and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, 1941; an honorary member of the Société d'Histoire de la Pharmacie and the Deutsche Pharmazeutische Gesellschaft; and a corresponding member of the Gesellschaft fuer Geschichte der Pharmazie. He was also a member of the American Chemical Society; the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters; Phi Beta Kappa; Sigma Xi; Rho Chi; and Phi Lambda Upsilon. Edward Kremers also received many professional awards, including the Ebert Prize twice (first in 1887 and again in 1900), the Remington Medal (1930), and an honorary Sc.D.h.c. from the University of Michigan in 1913.
On July 6, 1892, Edward Kremers married Laura Haase of Milwaukee. They had four children: Roland, Elsa, Laura, and Karl. He died on July 9, 1941.
