American Institute of the History of Pharmacy

National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Becomes AIHP National Sponsor

AIHP is pleased to announce that the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) is the newest member of the Institute’s National Association Sponsorship program. NABP has chosen to support the Institute at the Contributor level with a $2,500 annual contribution.

Dennis Birke, AIHP’s Executive Director, welcomed NABP, stating: “NABP has supported AIHP as a loyal member for more than 30 years. We are very grateful for its increased support as one of our national sponsors.”

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy was founded in 1904 to assist state boards of pharmacy in creating uniform education and licensure standards. NABP’s focus today is promoting patient and prescription-drug safety through examinations that assess pharmacist competency, pharmacist licensure transfer, verification services, and various pharmacy accreditation programs.

NABP Solutions, an NABP subsidiary, provides consulting services focusng on regulatory compliance to pharmacies and to the drug supply chain. NABP’s members consist of the 50 United States state boards of pharmacy, as well as the boards in the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, 10 Canadian provinces, and the Bahamas.

The Drugstore Foundations of American Pharmacy

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 William A. Zellmer, AIHP Advisor for Pharmacy Outreach on February 12, 2021.

Drugstore Memories: American Pharmacists Recall Life Behind the Counter, 1824-1933, a remarkable book published by AIHP twenty years ago, offers a rich opportunity for pharmacy practitioners, educators, and students to deepen their awareness of the drugstore-foundations of the profession.

Drugstore Memories compiles first-person accounts from 59 practicing pharmacists about their experiences covering more than a century of American history. When AIHP sent the book to Institute members, Dr. Gregory Higby, then the Institute's Executive Director, described the significance of these sources:

"Life behind the counter has changed dramatically for American pharmacists during the past two centuries. Standard history books rarely convey the thoughts and opinions of practicing community pharmacists. Their voices have been almost entirely lost. The editors of Drugstore Memories have searched widely among reminiscences, diaries, memoirs, letters, and publications now rare, to bring together first-hand accounts of personal experiences. Collated in this book, they bring into better focus the special world of the American drugstore."

“The Environment was Just Ice”: Desegregating the University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy

This post is from Points, the joint blog of AIHP and the Alcohol and Drugs History Society. Points publishes original reflections about the history of drugs, medicines, alcohol, pharmacy, and their allied fields.

When thinking about school desegregation, many picture 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, flanked by federal marshals and ascending the steps of her New Orleans elementary school in 1960. Others may think of the Little Rock Nine, who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957 under the watchful eye of the 101st Airborne Division.

On the campuses of public colleges and universities around the South, many of the first Black students were graduate and professional students, but the history of the color line at Southern schools and colleges of pharmacy has not been particularly well studied.

Recognizing this gap in the research, we decided to investigate the history of our own institution, the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy. We recently began the UNC Pharmacy Desegregation Oral History Project (in partnership with the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy) to collect and record the experiences of the first Black students at the UNC School of Pharmacy. We hope to connect their stories to current pursuits of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the School and in the profession at large. To date, we have successfully interviewed two of the School’s earliest Black graduates, and we’re excited to share some of our preliminary findings.

Please click the read more button below to see the rest of this post by AIHP members Christian Brown and Ben Urick on Points.

Pharmacy in History Featured in JSTOR & Schomburg Center Open Library

AIHP is pleased to announce that four articles from Pharmacy in History have been included in the JSTOR & Schomburg Center Open Library—an open-access companion guide to the Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List. Librarians and archivists at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture curated the Black Liberation Reading List during the summer of 2020. The Schomburg Center explained that the list features 95 "essential" books that "we and the public turn to regularly as activists, students, archivists, and curators" to foster "a greater understanding of the Black experience."

To complement the Black Liberation Reading List, JSTOR has compiled the JSTOR and Schomburg Center Open Library, a free and unrestricted resource of articles that help readers better contextualize and understand the 95 titles on the Black Liberation Reading List.

Pharmacy in History is excited to make articles by AIHP member Metta Lou Henderson, AIHP member Richard Del Rio, AIHP Assistant Director Greg Bond, and Suzanne Poirier available for inclusion in the JSTOR and Schomburg Center Open Library. AIHP's partnership with JSTOR will help "meet the need for content related to racism, anti-racism, and Black voices."

Call for Applications for 2021 AIHP PhD Research Grants

Theme for 2021 Grants: "Barriers & Margins"

AIHP is now accepting applications for 2021 AIHP PhD Research Support Grants. The deadline for receipt of applications is March 1, 2021. The AIHP PhD Research Support Grant Program encourages academic research by doctoral candidates on topics related to the (broadly defined) history of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals. The Program provides grants of up to $2,000, and AIHP hopes to fund two PhD Research Support Grants in 2021.

The theme for the 2021 AIHP PhD Research Grant Program is "Barriers & Margins." The fields of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals have often witnessed social, economic, racial, gender, and other barriers that have marginalized certain segments of the population. Many of these stories remain untold. For this year’s grant competition, we particularly encourage applications from students pursuing historical projects that engage with race, colonialism, gender, or inequality as they relate to social or cultural reconfigurations in pharmacy, pharmaceutical fields, and the adjacent health disciplines.

2021 Glenn Sonnedecker Prize Competition

AIHP is pleased to announce the 2021 AIHP Glenn Sonnedecker Prize competition. Each year, the Sonnedecker Prize recognizes the author(s) of the best unpublished manuscript, on a topic within the field of the history of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals.

The Prize is aimed at graduate students and Early Career Scholars (ECRs). AIHP defines ECRs as holders of tenure-track positions who received the PhD within the previous three years or members of the academic precariat in limited term positions who received the PhD within the previous six years.

Co-authored papers are eligible for the Sonnedecker Prize competition—provided that all listed authors meet the necessary Early Career Researcher criteria listed below.

The recipient of the AIHP Glenn Sonnedecker Prize will also be awarded a $1,000 cash prize, and her/his manuscript will be published in AIHP’s journal History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals upon, and subject to, successful completion of peer- and editorial-review processes.

Instructions for Submissions

The deadline for submission of manuscripts for the 2021 competition is June 1, 2021. To be considered for the 2021 Sonnedecker Prize, please submit a copy of the unpublished manuscript in Microsoft Word format. Email the manuscript to aihp@aihp.org using the subject heading “Sonnedecker Prize Submission” for the message. Articles should be 8,000-10,000 words, and authors should consult the HoPP Author Guidelines when preparing submissions. Papers in languages other than English should be accompanied by a translation.