Figure 14. — This early exhibit on osteopathy was renovated several times prior to the 

 early ig4o's. (Smithsonian photo 19250.) 



for it. The offer was accepted, but the Association 

 finally found it difficult to spare the needed space for 

 the collection and decided to take up the matter with 

 the U.S. National Museum. 



At this point, it should be stated that since 1883 

 the members of the American Pharmaceutical Asso- 

 ciation have been keenly interested in having the 

 National Museum serve as the custodian for all col- 

 lected objects and records of historical interest to 

 pharmacy. In 1944. the Association officially offered 

 to deposit on permanent loan, the Squibb's pharmacy 

 collection in the Smithsonian Institution with the 

 understanding that a suitable place would be pro- 

 \ ided for prompt and permanent display. The offer 

 was accepted, and during April and May of 1945. the 

 entire collection was transferred to the Smithsonian 

 Institution, and construction to recreate the original 

 two rooms for the old. 18th-century, European 

 "Apotheke" was underway. 



By August 1946, the exhibit was completed. In tin- 

 large room where the pharmacist met his customers, 

 the shelves were filled with 15th- to 19th-century, 



European pharmaceutical antiques. These included 

 Renaissance mortars; 16th- and 17th-century nested 

 weights; beautiful Italian, French, Swiss, and German 

 majolica and faience drug jars; Dutch and English 

 delft; drug containers made of flint or opal glass with 

 fused-enamel labels with alchemical symbols; rare, 

 16th-century, wooden drug containers, each with the 

 coat of arms of the city in which each was made; and 

 two glass-topped, display tables contained franchises 

 issued and signed by Popes or state rulers, medical 

 edicts, dispensatories, herbals, pharmacopoeias, and 

 pharmaceutical utensils. 



On the walls in the small laboratory room, which 

 also had been used as a workshop and a study, were a 

 stuffed crocodile, shark's head, tortoise, fish, and sala- 

 mander, parts of which were utilized as remedial 

 agents. Their presence provided tangible evidence 

 that the pharmacy dispensed genuine drugs and not 

 substitutes. 



The pharmaceutical profession in this country hailed 

 the outstanding exhibition, and the November 1946 

 issue of the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Asso- 



286 



BULLETIN 240: CONTRIBUTIONS EROM THE MUSEUM OE HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



