<p>The experimental determination of molecular dipole moments as well as their theoretical prediction and interpretation have historically represented insightful tools in the study of molecular structures. On this basis, a historical account is carried out concerning the vectorial representation of the electric dipole moment in chemistry. This convention, which is the opposite of the one adopted in physics, has its origin in the works that Sidgwick published in the early 1930s, which was consolidated in the related research papers of the following decades. As a result, authors of chemistry textbooks adopted the chemical direction of this vector. However, at the end of the last century some authors of physical chemistry textbooks started to use the physics convention, but organic chemistry and general chemistry textbooks still mainly follow the historical tradition. Hence, as long as there is no unification between all these academic fields, those authors should warn students of the existing different convention.</p>