This guide has two closely related parts. The first part describes the development of history of chemistry as an academic discipline. The paper also analyses the most important books written by the first chemists-historians during the eighteenth and nine- teenth Centuries and particular attention is paid to the encyclopaedic work of Hermann Kopp. The early twentieth-century embryo- nic institucionalization is discussed in another section, in which the influential contributions made by Helene Metzger and Aldo Mieli are analysed. The last section offers a brief overview of current trends in history of chemistry. The second part of this guide will offer a list of bibliographic and electronic resources for historians of chemistry.