Some time ago I came across a wonderful little book that summarized the state of the art in organic chemistry as of 1898. For anyone interested in
historical aspects of the science, this is a treasure.
The book is: "The Spirit of Organic Chemistry" by Arthur Lachman. It is available as a free download if you search the title and author on Google. It
would make a good addition to the SM library.
Still very much pertinent to today is the Introduction, particularly the last few sentences.
I hope that in reading this book you will enjoy it as much as I did. I actually found a copy of the book in near mint condition for my library.