About AIHP

The documentation and preservation of pharmacy’s heritage is the primary aim of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy.  We do this by making available a wide variety of materials related to scholarly, professional, and popular history of pharmacy.  We provide financial support for research designed to illuminate the history of the profession, the history of drug research and manufacturing, and the history of the uses of medicines in society.

WHAT WE DO?

AIHP serves as a resource and consultant to professional associations, teachers, libraries, museums, pharmacy schools, communications media, and scholars in the field. The Institute has cooperated with the agencies and associations of American pharmacy to promote professional development by providing historical research, information, and insight on the issues affecting pharmacy both past and present. The Institute sponsors symposia and workshops, often collaborating with groups like the American Pharmaceutical Association and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, to foster research and publishing on ethics, technology, and other issues of importance to the field.

The Institute is committed to fostering the teaching of the history of pharmacy in schools and colleges of pharmacy in the United States. We provide grants to help schools purchase needed resource and reference materials. Several Institute publications have become staples in history of pharmacy courses.

AIHP supports both public and private collections of manuscript material and artifacts related to the profession. We collect and preserve the published and unpublished records of American pharmacy, and we serve as a clearinghouse for accurate information about pharmacy’s past.

FOUNDERS

The American Institute of the History of Pharmacy was founded in Madison, Wisconsin on January 22, 1941 at the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy. The six founders of AIHP were:

• Dr. Arthur H. Uhl, Director of the UW School of Pharmacy
• Dr. Edward Kremers, Director Emeritus of the UW School of Pharmacy
• Dr. Louis W. Busse, Professor at the UW School of Pharmacy
• Dr. Lloyd M. Parks, Professor at the UW School of Pharmacy
• Jennings Murphy, Secretary of the Wisconsin Pharmaceutical Association
• Dr. George Urdang, former Director of the German Society of the History of Pharmacy

LOCATION & HOURS

Since its founding in 1941, the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy has been located at the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy in Madison, Wisconsin. Throughout its history, AIHP has enjoyed a close working relationship with the UW School of Pharmacy, and the Dean of the School of Pharmacy is an ex officio member of the AIHP Board of Directors.

In 2001, AIHP moved with the rest of the UW School of Pharmacy to its present location in Rennebohm Hall at 777 Highland Avenue on the UW Health Sciences Campus. AIHP’s headquarters is located in room 1404 on the north side of Rennebohm Hall facing Marsh Drive across from lot 76. AIHP offices in Rennebohm Hall also house the Kremers Reference Files, AIHP’s primary on-site research collection, as well as AIHP’s historical artifact collection, trade catalog collection, school catalog collection, and other historical material.

AIHP’s headquarters is generally open from 10:00-4:30 Monday-Thursday, but please contact the main office at aihp@aihp.org to confirm availability. All researchers seeking to access AIHP’s historical collections must contact AIHP beforehand to arrange a visit.

LEARN MORE

Read the AIHP bylaws.

Meet the staff and the Board of Directors of the AIHP.

“The history of pharmacy… is a curious and interesting study, even to the non-professional inquirer… The records of the past are full of teaching to those who consult them earnestly.” –William Procter, Jr., “Father of American Pharmacy”