e-Scripts – Spring Vol 1, 2024

Spring Vol 1, 2024 Newsletter

We are pleased to present the Spring 2024 Vol I issue of e-Scripts, the email newsletter of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. This issue of e-Scripts reports on Institute news and developments over the past few months. Please email us at aihp@aihp.org with your questions, feedback, and suggestions.

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New Issue of HoPP!

The brand new issue of History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals is now available. It is a Special Issue called “Regulating Reproduction in the History of Pharmaceuticals and Drugs,” and it was edited by Kelly O’Donnell and Lauren MacIvor Thompson. 

As they explain in the introduction, “we have brought together scholars writing on the management of fertility and pregnancy from a range of time periods and disciplinary approaches. All involve the use of drugs, broadly conceived.”

Articles range from early modern Europe to 1980s America, with the topics including drugstore regulation to the World Health Organization. Everyone at AIHP is proud to connect histories of the past with topical and important conversations in the present moment. We hope you enjoy the new issue. 

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Awards Season!

Edward Kremers Award Now Open

AIHP is now accepting nominations for the 2024 Edward Kremers Award. The deadline for receipt of nominations is May 15, 2024. The 2024 competition is limited to books, or a series of related articles, published within the past five years.

Originally established in 1961, the Edward Kremers Award honors Professor Edward Kremers (1865-1941), a pioneer of pharmacy education in the United States, distinguished historian of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals, and one of the founders of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy.

The American Institute of the History of Pharmacy awards the Edward Kremers Award to recognize the author(s) of a specific book, or a series of related articles, in the field of the history of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals that exhibits high standards of scholarship, superior quality, and distinguished merit. The Edward Kremers Award is awarded without regard to citizenship or nationality.

Learn more about the award.

Fischelis Nominations Now Open

The AIHP Robert P. Fischelis Award is conferred annually by AIHP’s Board of Directors to a person or organization whose work and actions have made significant and important contributions to the field of the history of pharmacy and medicines and to the mission or organizational well-being of the Institute. What distinguishes the Fischelis Award from other AIHP awards is its focus on extraordinary contributions to both the field of pharmacy history and the Institute.

The award is given in honor of the late Robert P. Fischelis, a gifted leader of the pharmacy profession and a generous benefactor of the Institute.

Nominations for the award are invited annually, The Board of Directors reviews nominations and determines whether to confer the award. Please send your nominations to aihp@aihp.org

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From the Collection

by Hannah Swan

New Acquisitions

Over the past eighteen months, archivist Hannah Swan has been working to process the collections of the Edward Kremers Research Library and Archive (EKRLA). Processing involves evaluating and organizing every piece in the collection—making sure it is properly categorized and rehousing it as necessary. Processing not only helps us serve our researchers better by providing better access points, it also helps us to understand what we have and what gaps there might be in the collection. We can then acquire new manuscripts, ephemera, and print items to represent a broader, more inclusive picture of the history of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals. The following items have been acquired by the Institute in recent months.

Rexall Ad-Vantages, Vol. 24, No. 11, January 1930

This magazine, published by the United Drug Company in 1930, shows off the many ways to display and promote Rexall products in retail pharmacies. The magazine complements other display and promotion materials in the EKRLA collections, which help us understand how consumers interacted with drugstores, how pharmacists interacted with wholesalers and manufacturers, and the print cultures that facilitated both. As the magazine was published right after the stock market crash of October 1929, it also serves as a window (pun intended!) into drugstores at the onset of the Great Depression. This issue of Rexall Ad-Vantages is held by only one other library in the United States, according to WorldCat, meaning that this fills not only a gap in our collections, but also in American pharmacy history collections more broadly.

John E. Taylor Advertising Circular, 1838

This advertisement was published by John E. Taylor, a druggist working in Philadelphia in the 1830s. It is a circular, meaning it was sent out to customers, which we know from the manuscript address on the back of this broadside. The majority of the EKRLA collections date to the second half of the nineteenth century and forward. This circular helps us trace the lineage of community pharmacy further back, connecting the medicines and products advertised by Taylor to their development over time. For example, his advertisement of “Mineral, Seltzer, Saratoga, and Balstown waters” connects to the long history of soda water and the pharmacy, from these early medicinal mineral waters through to the flourishing of the soda fountain during Prohibition.

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The Edward Kremers Seminar in the History of Pharmacy and Drugs – the AIHP “Kreminar” is Back

The Kreminar is returning! Our focus this cycle will be “Community Pharmacy.” 

 “Community pharmacy,” sometimes called retail pharmacy, is arguably the most common type of pharmacy that offers the public access to medications and a knowledgeable healthcare provider. A community pharmacy, or drug store, also acts as a healthcare facility that is responsible for the provision of pharmaceutical services. Many, if not all, community pharmacies provide medicinal goods only available with a prescription and those with that can be purchased over the counter. Community pharmacists are regularly considered to be the most accessible health professional to the public, as they are available to provide personalized advice about health and medicine on a walk-in basis, without the need for an appointment. 

In 2022-2024, pharmacy grabbed headlines in the United States. For instance, community pharmacy leaders and pharmacy organizations were forced to reckon with pharmacist mental health fatigue, strikes over pay and layoffs, tensions between doctors and pharmacists, pharmacy store closures, and ongoing opioid litigation related to pharmacy chains. 

Some of the topics will include:

• Community pharmacy and drug store space, their design, adaptation, and utility.
• The working lives of pharmacy and pharmaceutical staff, amid changing professional standards and responsibilities.
• Sources, documents, and evidence at the AIHP.
• The opioid crisis and pharmacy monitoring.

Unlike past years, the Kreminar will be held in final week of May. Please place a hold on your calendars for May 28-31. Please check out the website for more details on the talks themselves and also stay tuned for links to register for the individual Zoom sessions, which will all run from 12:00-1:30 pm Central.

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Remember to Renew! Be Sure to Join AIHP for the Future!

The AIHP has always had a dedicated and energetic base of of members and we continue to need your support. Please renew your membership and encourage other to renew, or even join the organization!

If you want to stay a member in 2024 and beyond, be sure to visit the AIHP website! 

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AIHP Returns to APhA!

History Trivia Challenge

AIHP returned to the American Pharmacists Association Annual Meeting and Exposition held in Orlando March 22 – 25^th, hosting the APhA-ASP Trivia Challenge on Saturday, March 23^rd. 

Trivia winners of the AIHP student members at the APhA Academy of Students gathering in Orlando: Samantha Bollman (UNC-CH), Olivia Carline (UNC-CH), and Lauren Gravert (U Iowa).

John Grabenstein, President of AIHP Board of Trustees, Karen Nagel-Edwards, AACP HoP-SIG chair, and Cynthia Boyle, Vice President of AIHP Board of Trustees, at the conference.

John Grabenstein, AIHP President, at the Trivia Challenge.

 AIHP delegates to the APhA House of Delegates Cynthia Boyle, AIHP Vice President, and John Clark, Board of Trustees Director.

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Featured Artifact from Fischelis Scholar Gregory J. Higby

Pill Silverer

One of pharmacy’s most elegant collectibles from the 1700s and 1800s is the Pill Silverer.  Usually carved from wood, the silverer had two hollowed out hemispheres producing a spherical interior used by apothecaries to coat pills with silver or gold leaf. (Pills are hand-rolled spheres of a mixture of drugs and excipients.)  A small amount of a sticky substance such as honey or an acacia gum mucilage would be added to the finished pills and they would be inserted into the Silverer with a small amount of leaf.  The apothecary would close and rotate around the silverer until the pills took on the metal. Unscrewing the two hemispheres would reveal lovely pills.  While the resulting product was elegant, the bioavailability of the leaf-coated pills probably suffered!  Stories abounded of gold-coated pills that travelled the entire GI tract unchanged….

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Pharmacy in the News

For this issue of E-Scripts, the Executive Director selected a series of headlines and opinion-editorials from the world of pharmacy. 

New Ohio Pharmacy rules to take effect in May: Requirements come in response to severe understaffing at some CVS stores: (April 1, 2024)

Over-the-counter birth control hits Fitchburg pharmacy shelves: (April 1, 2024)

‘Overdue for action’: Pharmacists press for financial help, changes to prevent closures: (April 2, 2024)

APhA and CDC select Community of Practice Teams to advance health equity and prevent heart disease and stroke: (April 4, 2024)