Quaesita Cromwell Drake (August 29, 1889 – August 7, 1967) was an American chemist. She was a professor and chair of the chemistry department at the University of Delaware for 38 years, from 1917 until her retirement in 1955.^[1] She was elected president of the Delaware chapter of the American Association of University Women in 1924.^[2]

Drake was born in Camden, New Jersey and raised in Haddonfield, New Jersey,^[3] the daughter of Herbert Armitage Drake and Sacia Hersey Nye Drake. Her father was a lawyer.^[4][5] A graduate of the 1906 class of Haddonfield Memorial High School,^[6] she graduated from Vassar College in 1910,^[7] and earned a master's degree there in 1911.^[8] She completed doctoral studies in organic chemistry at the University of Chicago, with a dissertation advised by Julius Stieglitz, titled "An Investigation of the Possibility of Re-arranging an Acyl-β-alkyl-hodroxylamine" (1922).^[9] She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.^[1]

Drake was a member of the faculty at the University of Delaware beginning in 1917 at the Women's College of the university.^[10] She was promoted to full professor status in 1920, served as acting dean of the women's college in 1927,^[11] and was the college's first chemistry department chair. She was the most senior faculty member with 38 years of teaching when she retired from the university in 1955.^[1][12]

Drake was a charter member and president of the Delaware state chapter of the American Chemical Society,^[13] and associate editor of the chapter's publication, the Del-Chem Bulletin. She also served on the national council of the American Chemical Society.^[14] She was vice-president of the University of Delaware chapter of Phi Kappa Phi honor society,^[15] and president of the Pennsylvania-Delaware section of the American Association of University Women (AAUW).^[2][16][17]

Drake died in 1967, in Wilmington, Delaware, at the age of 77.^[14] The Quaesita Drake Scholarship Fund was endowed in her memory. In 1973, Quaesita Drake Hall, a chemistry teaching laboratory, was dedicated to the campus of the University of Delaware.^[18][19] Her papers are in the University of Delaware Archives.^[20]