AIHP is pleased to announce that its website now features an online directory of museums of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals in the United States. AIHP is offering the directory to encourage members and others interested in the history of pharmacy to visit and support museums in their area.
The directory can be accessed through a “Pharmacy Museums and Exhibits” tab at the top of the home page of the Institute’s website. Hovering over the tab will cause a drop-down menu to appear, allowing the user to search by geographical regions. For each region, pharmacy museums and exhibits are listed by state, with a hyperlink to the museum’s website.
AIHP published a pharmacy museum directory in book form in 1999. The book, titled “A Guide to Pharmacy Museums and Historical Collections in the United States and Canada,” was authored by George Griffenhagen, Ernst W. Stieb and Beth D. Fisher. In 2021, AIHP’s Board of Directors made creating an updated online directory of pharmacy museums and archives one of the Institute’s strategic priorities. The action item is part of the Institute’s larger effort to increase public interest in pharmacy history and to increase AIHP’s outreach and collaboration with other pharmacy history organizations.
The project has been spearheaded AIHP Director Catherine Taglieri, Associate Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS). She has worked closely with AIHP Curator Beth Fisher and Editorial Assistant Mary Magnuson, with additional assistance from AIHP past presidents William Zellmer and W. Clarke Ridgeway.
“The current version of the online directory should be viewed as a work-in-progress,” says Professor Taglieri. At this stage, the directory provides hyperlinks to the websites of museums listed in the 1999 directory, where current information on exhibits, hours of operation, admission price, etc., can be easily accessed. In the next phase of work, the team will expand the directory with additional pharmacy museums and exhibits as they are discovered. Institute members who identify museum not included in the current directory are encouraged to email information to AIHP at aihp@aihp.org.
“We appreciate your patience and are excited to complete this resource for members and those interested in the history of pharmacy,” Professor Taglieri said.
Posted: May 15, 2023
The American Institute of the History of Pharmacy is documenting and preserving pharmacy stories and experiences during the COVID-19 global pandemic for the benefit of future historians and scholars. We seek to record the effects of this public health emergency on all types of pharmacy experiences. We invite you to share your pharmacy stories, photos, videos, artifacts, and other documentation of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.