Accessing the History of Health, Pharmacy, and Medicines at UWSoP/AIHP
FAIN: PW-285080-22
University of Wisconsin, Madison (Madison, WI 53715-1218)
Lucas Richert (Project Director: July 2021 to present)
The arrangement and
description of 1,000 linear feet and digitization of 2,000 artifacts and ephemera
documenting the history of pharmacy, pharmaceuticals, medicines, and public
health in the U.S. from 1850 to the late twentieth century.
The goal of this three-year project is to improve the ability of researchers to discover, use, and access important historical and archival collections held by the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy (AIHP) and the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy (UWSoP). The collections sit at the intersection of the humanities and the health sciences and provide valuable historical context about a range of contemporary issues related to pharmacy, pharmaceuticals, drugs, and public health. The project will (1) create a comprehensive and detailed finding aid for the Kremers Reference files, a deep, diverse, and uncataloged topical archival collection of about 1,000 cubic feet; (2) begin inventorying the significant and uncataloged AIHP and UWSoP ephemera and artifact collections that document the material culture of pharmacy; and (3) create an online freely accessible digital library populated by about 1,000 artifacts and 1,000 pieces of ephemera from the collections.
Media Coverage
UW-Madison pharmacy archive fills the prescription for curiosity (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Neal Patten
Publication: The Capitol Times
Date: 5/7/2023
Abstract: What do frogs riding bicycles, instructions for turning a diaper into a homemade gas mask, century-old opium, and decades-old laxatives have in common? They are all items you can find in the collections at the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy (AIHP), an archival library located in the basement of Rennebohm Hall, which houses the School of Pharmacy at UW-Madison.
URL: https://captimes.com/news/uw-madison-pharmacy-archive-fills-the-prescription-for-curiosity/article_dd128cd4-e9aa-5ec3-bbe9-cdae7a8a2046.html
Digitizing Centuries of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacy History (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Ben Cadigan
Publication: UW-Madison School of Pharmacy blog
Date: 12/6/2022
Abstract: Where would you look to find a Martian-themed booklet advertising products from the Arlington Chemical Company, or a fan printed with the Goddess Diana advertising 666 Cold Preparation?
There’s just one answer: the Kremers Reference Files, housed within the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy (AIHP) and the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy.
URL: http://https://pharmacy.wisc.edu/digitizing-centuries-of-pharmaceutical-and-pharmacy-history/
Associated Products
Accessing the History of Health, Pharmacy, and Medicines in Madison (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Accessing the History of Health, Pharmacy, and Medicines in Madison
Abstract: Recent events as diverse as America’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid crisis, the anti-vaccine movement, the debate over the legalization and regulation of marijuana and other personal use drugs, struggles over drug prices and accessibility, among others, all have roots in the history of pharmacy, pharmaceuticals, drugs, medicines, and healthcare. The wide-ranging public debates about these topics vividly demonstrate the vital importance of grounding contemporary public health discussions in a clear understanding of their relevant histories — and in evidence.
This talk, the first part of the Summer 2023 Kreminar series, will showcase ongoing collections activities at the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy and UW-Madison SoP, including NEH and UW funded projects. The talk will also introduce important smaller collections and recent initiatives that will be featured in future episodes of the 2023 Kreminar.
Author: Lucas Richert
Date: 06/01/2023
Location: Madison, WI
Primary URL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oduBkWsLjM&t=1288sFrom the Collections: Supporting Student Research (Blog Post)Title: From the Collections: Supporting Student Research
Author: Susie Seefelt Lesieutre
Abstract: From the Collections is a recurring feature at aihp.org that highlights articles, artifacts, images, and other items of interest from AIHP publications and collections. This post is contributed by Susie Seefelt Lesieutre, AIHP’s Collections Associate.
As work begins on the National Endowment for the Humanities grant awarded earlier this year, the historical collections in the AIHP Kremers Reference Files continue to support and inform other critical projects as well, such as student-led inquiry and research. One such project is being conducted by JJ Strange, a PhD student in the University of Wisconsin-Madison History of Science, Medicine and Technology program. Strange is studying the work of Chinese students that attended the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy in the early 20th century.
Date: 11/16/2022
Primary URL:
http://https://aihp.org/from-the-collections-supporting-student-research/Blog Title: "From the Collections"
Website:
https://aihp.org/How the history of pharmacy resonates today (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: How the history of pharmacy resonates today
Director: Lee Rayburn
Producer: Mackenzie Krumme
Abstract: More than 80 years ago, the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy was founded at UW-Madison. Today, the organization supports pharmacy education around the country. We speak with the institute director and an archivist on how the history of pharmaceuticals resonates today.
Date: 07/11/2023
Primary URL:
http://https://www.wpr.org/shows/how-history-pharmacy-resonates-todayPrimary URL Description: Website of WPR/NPR radio show.
Secondary URL:
http://https://www.wpr.org/listen/2116711Secondary URL Description: Link to the WPR Morning Show
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Pharmacy History in the Twenty-First Century: Modernizing the Edward Kremers Research Library and Archive (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Pharmacy History in the Twenty-First Century: Modernizing the Edward Kremers Research Library and Archive
Author: Hannah Swan
Author: Lucas Richert
Abstract: This presentation will summarize the activities and findings of a 3-year National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)-funded project, “Accessing the History of Health, Pharmacy, and Medicines,” which focuses on the archival collections of the Edward Kremers Research Library and Archive, held jointly by the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy (AIHP) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy. The collection was begun in the 1890s by Edward Kremers, who served as the second director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy and pioneered the four-year curriculum for pharmacy schools, and continued to grow throughout the twentieth century under the auspices of the AIHP. The archive documents pharmacy and pharmaceutical history through photographs, advertisements, trade catalogs, correspondence, and more. The current grant project centers on increasing the accessibility of the collections through the processing of five hundred file drawers of print and archival materials, the digitization of historical pharmacy artifacts and ephemera and accompanying implementation of a digital library, and the creation of online exhibitions featuring materials from the collection. This talk will feature highlights from the collections that are being processed, illustrated richly with images of pharmacy history from the mid-nineteenth century forward, while also touching on the complexities of reclassifying and digitizing an ephemera-based collection. We will conclude with a look ahead at the third and final year of the grant work and what the future holds for these collections.
Date: 05/03/2024
Conference Name: CHSMT working group on Collections and Collecting
Archiving the Histories of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Archiving the Histories of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals
Author: Lucas Richert
Abstract: Historians and numerous other multidisciplinary scholars create knowledge from archives. Archival material forms the building blocks of our narratives, the inspiration for our research questions, the evidence in support of our arguments, and the substance of the grain we read against. By highlighting a few of the numerous new archives related to the history of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals, this presentation will discuss two important phenomena about the ways in which these new archival materials will be useful to scholars and the public. First, it will reflect on the current practices of archiving and collecting materials related to social pharmacy, based on activities undertaken during a National Endowment of the Humanities grant (2022‐2025), and discuss how these resources are being made more available for researchers, community stakeholders, and the general public. Second, the paper will also discuss several new pharmacy archives, the benefits they might offer to researchers, and ideas on how new historical questions, analyses, and narratives might be shaped by their findings. To explore these issues around creation, preservation, and access, this presentation uses experiences gathered during an NEH funded grant.
Date: 07/10/2024
Conference Name: International Social Pharmacy Workshop
“‘Conscientious Guardian” Vs. Commercialized Jungle’: Pharmacists and Pharmacy Design in the Postwar United States (Article)Title: “‘Conscientious Guardian” Vs. Commercialized Jungle’: Pharmacists and Pharmacy Design in the Postwar United States
Author: Gabriel Lake Carter
Author: Lucas Richert
Abstract: Pharmacists and pharmacies are key drivers in the American marketplace. They serve as an endpoint of the pharmaceutical supply chain and are the dispensers of a range of consumer goods, some nonthreatening and others potentially harmful to public health. In adding pharmacies to the roster of consumerist locales in the postwar period, scholars might draw even deeper connections about the transformation of health, corporate medicine, and American economic power. To understand the interface of consumerism, corporatism, and health in postwar America, this article holds the postwar pharmacy as a key site of commodity exchange and business and positions it within the larger American firmament, paying attention to the design of pharmacies. In particular, the article will add to the knowledge about the tangible ways that medical and health care spaces are constructed, organized, and designed to best generate profits. Besides prescription medications, alcohol, tobacco, and sugar-rich products were also vital elements of the postwar pharmacy and will be featured in this article. What is more, this article focuses on a central debate between pharmacists during the postwar period about how pharmacies were shifting from the role of healer to that of a retailer — from a “conscientious guardian” to a “commercialized jungle” — in order to highlight how the public health role of pharmacies was undermined by industry pressures for profit. Based on unused corporate guides and manuals, company records, photographs, and management documents, this article will spotlight the underexplored interiority of pharmacies – the store’s insides, processes of organization, and design features related to potentially habit-changing substances.
Year: 2024
Primary URL:
https://academic.oup.com/jhmas/article-abstract/79/1/39/7476674?redirectedFrom=fulltextFormat: Journal
Periodical Title: Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Accessing the History of Health, Pharmacy, and Medicines at UWSoP/AIHP (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Accessing the History of Health, Pharmacy, and Medicines at UWSoP/AIHP
Author: Lucas Richert
Abstract: Alcohol and drug historians create knowledge from archives. Archival material forms the building blocks of our narratives, the inspiration for our research questions, the evidence in support of our arguments, and the substance of the grain we read against. By highlighting a few of the numerous new archives related to the history of alcohol and drugs, this panel will discuss two important phenomena about the ways in which these new archival materials will be useful to scholars and the public. First, it will reflect on the current shifting practices of archiving and collecting materials related to intoxicants and treatments of substance use/misuse, and discuss how these resources are being made more available for community stakeholders and the general public. Second, panelists will also discuss several new archives, the benefits they might offer to researchers, and ideas on how new historical questions, analyses, and narratives might be shaped by their findings. To explore these issues, this panel brings together five alcohol and drug historians who have been involved in issues of archival creation, preservation, and access related to the institutional histories of pharmacy; the industrial and legal history of the opioid epidemic; the history of the controversial California commune Synanon and its influence on the abstinence-based addiction treatment industry; and the hidden history of LAAM (levo-alpha-acetyl-methadol) medication for opioid use disorder.
Date: 06/28/2024
Conference Name: Alcohol and Drug History Conference