A UNIQUE CENTER FOR THE HISTORY OF PHARMACY by Elaine C. Stroud, Ph.D. The American Institute of the History was found-ed in 1941, in Madison, Wisconsin. Inspired by the pharmacists, educators, and researchers in Wisconsin the AIHP developed a program to preserve the rich heritage of pharmacy. This heritage finds a home in the 700 file drawers and multiple artifact cabinets of the Kremers Reference Files. One of the reasons for found-ing the AIHP at the University of Wisconsin was the extensive collection of pharmacy-related material at the library. This collection, as well as the School of Pharmacy’s early commit-ment to the scientific foundation of pharmacy, made Madison, Wisconsin, the ideal place to establish an American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. More than 60 years later, the AIHP continues the mission of the early founders to collect material for studying the history of pharmacy, to support research in the field, and to publish books, pamphlets, and a journal to disseminate information to the profession and the public. The Kremers Reference Files itself (which originated in the collection by Edward Kremers, the head of the School of Pharmacy from 1892-1935) houses paper documents, photographs, and artifacts documenting pharmacy’s history and often hosts researchers from around to world to study in this unique archive. Collections in the Kremers Reference Files Housed in 700 file drawers, the collection includes biographical information on pharma-cists in the United States, correspondence from leaders in pharmacy and the history of pharma-cy, promotional documents from pharmaceutical companies (some from the nineteenth century), research articles on materia medica, and impor-tant documents related to the development of drugs. 18 Fall 2014 | IACPRx.org These are the materia medica specimens shown here in detail. The shelves of trade catalogs in the Kremers Reference Files add another dimension for studying the history of pharmacy. These cata-logs— dating from the eighteenth century—pres-ent a historical picture of the “drug market” that is very difficult to document in a world where non-electronic documents are sometimes dis-carded because they take up too much space. The collection includes various kinds of artifacts, from drug product packages to tools of the phar-maceutical laboratory and samples of chemicals and other items used in pharmacy classes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Another feature of the Kremers Reference Files is a large collection of photographs documenting all aspects of the history of the practice and profes-sion of pharmacy. Telling the Story With a collection of photographs, artifacts, jour-nal articles, and personal memoirs in hand, the researcher can build a highly articulated history of various aspects of the history of pharmacy. One aspect of capturing the full story is linking the resources together. For example, a large wooden cabinet in the Kremers Files contains multiple small numbered containers of raw drug products. The University of Wisconsin 1902 catalog notes that the prime object of the School of Pharmacy is “to furnish a thoroughly scientific foundation for the pursuit of the profession of pharmacy.”
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