The digitization of the trade catalog collection is the result of a Memorandum of Agreement that AIHP, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy, and UWDCC entered into in 2019. Under the agreement, UWDCC will digitize the entire trade catalog collection (comprising about 120,000 individual pages), and more than 12,000 images from the AIHP’s Drug Topics photo collection. UWDCC will digitize the resources and host the online collection on its website. AIHP and the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy staff will write the descriptive metadata that describes and contextualizes the items.
The Pharmaceutical Trade Catalog Collection documents the development of the American pharmaceutical trade and contain advertisements for the varied pharmaceutical preparations and consumer products sold in drugstores. The catalogs feature lengthy lists of medications and prices, as well as color lithographs and other product illustrations. The first phase of the project digitized the oldest catalogs in the collection.
The AIHP Drug Topics Photograph Collection, donated to AIHP by Drug Topics magazine in 1974, contains approximately 17,200 photographs taken or commissioned by the Drug Topics staff between 1945 and 1970. These photographs mostly document the American retail druggist and corner drugstore in the post-World War Two-era, as well as druggists’ interrelations with their community, with the profession at large, and with business and commerce.
UWDCC is currently digitizing additional trade catalogs and the first batch of photographs.
Posted: December 6, 2022
Actively engaged in preserving the documents of pharmacy's past and developing materials for understanding the future.
AIHP Wants to Document Your COVID-19 Stories and Experiences
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.
You can participate in the AIHP COVID-19 Pandemic Pharmacy Historical Documentation Project either (1) by immediately sharing your thoughts/experiences and/or submitting digital materials or (2) by signifying your to intention to submit materials in the future. Please comply with all applicable local or state stay-at-home orders while self-documenting.
Please click the link below to learn more about participating in the AIHP COVID-19 Pandemic Pharmacy Historical Documentation Project.
Upcoming events of interest to historians of pharmacy, pharmaceuticals, medicines, science, and related fields. (Event information current when posted. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, please double-check the status of all events):
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.