Am.  Jour.  Pliarra.  1 
November,  1907..  / 
James  Thornton  Sliinn. 
531 
We  know  that  he  was  loyal  and  useful  to  his  Alma  Mater  and 
had  the  confidence  and  respect  of  his  colleagues  in  the  college. 
The  same  applied  in  the  other  organizations  with  which  he  was 
actively  identified. 
His  labors  of  love,  outside  of  pharmacy,  when  he  was  active  in 
that  business,  did  not  cause  him  to  neglect  the  duties  of  his  store. 
He  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  his  patrons  and  the  medical  pro- 
fession and  was  financially  successful. 
We  had  business  dealings  with  him  for  quite  a  number  of  years 
without  the  slightest  misunderstanding  in  a  single  case. 
In  his  conduct  of  business  he  was  above  the  tricks  of  trade. 
During  his  five  years  of  apprenticeship  with  the  then  well-known 
retail  and  wholesale  drug  firm  of  Charles  Ellis  &  Co.,  he  matriculated 
in  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  from  which  he  was  gradu- 
ated in  1854.  His  brother,  Samuel  E.,  was  graduated  from  the  same 
college  in  1850,  but  died  soon  after  entering  business,  at  the  north- 
east corner  of  Broad  and  Spruce  Streets.  After  his  death,  James  T. 
became  his  successor  (in  1855),  and  in  1863  removed  to  the  south- 
west corner  of  Broad  and  Spruce  Streets,  where  the  pharmacy  still 
exists  under  the  firm  name  of  Shinn  &  Kirk.  Mr.  Shinn  retired 
from  the  practice  of  pharmacy  several  years  ago. 
He  was  trained  under  the  old  regime,  but  when  pharmacy  began 
to  drift  toward  more  active  commercialism,  he  became  dissatisfied,  and 
being  financially  able  to  retire,  he  left  the  occupation  in  which  he 
had  manifested  the  greatest  interest  for  many  years.  He  always 
entertained  the  highest  ideals  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  status  of 
pharmacy,  on  which  subject  we  frequently  conversed. 
But  Friend  Shinn  could  not  be  idle,  therefore  he  sought  other 
employment. 
His  practical  eye  soon  found  objects  of  interest  in  which  he  might 
be  useful  and  still  have  sufficient  time  to  enjoy  the  comforts  of  his 
model  home.  In  his  beneficent  work  he  was  encouraged  by  his 
good  wife  and  daughter,  who  were  engaged  in  other  works  of  charity. 
We  remember,  on  our  last  visit  to  his  hospitable  home,  the 
interesting  account  he  gave  of  his  vacant  lots  enterprise,  in  which 
the  poor  were  assisted  in  their  effort  to  help  themselves,  by  the 
cultivation  of  vegetables  which  they  sold  to  the  people  of  Philadel- 
phia. In  this  work  he  and  Mrs.  Shinn  were  deeply  interested  and 
pleased  because  of  the  good  results.  In  relating  his  experiences  it 
was  a  modest  recital  of  facts,  devoid  of  vanity. 
