Sponsored by the UW–Madison Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, the grant program is intended to “strengthen campus research capacities” and “to address critical and emerging collection needs.” AIHP will use the grant money to purchase pharmaceutical trade catalogs that fill gaps in the current collection.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy owns, and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy administers, this important collection of more than 400 historical pharmaceutical trade catalogs published between 1829 and the 2000s. Catalogs in the collection document the evolution and the growth of the pharmaceutical trade, drug manufacturing, and retail pharmacy in the United States. Over the years, though, many libraries, archives, and repositories have not retained these ephemeral annual catalogs, making the UW SoP/AIHP collection one of the largest pharmacy-related trade catalog collections in the country. Please visit the Pharmaceutical Trade Catalog Collection homepage to learn more about the collection.
The Principal Investigator on the Grant is Luc Richert, the George Urdang Chair in the History of Pharmacy at the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy and the AIHP Historical Director. The Co-Principal Investigator is Micaela Sullivan-Fowler, Distinguished Academic Librarian and Curator & History of the Health Sciences Librarian.
In the grant application, Richert wrote that:
These resources present unique research opportunities for scholars in many different fields. Business historians, for example, could chart the evolution of these early American entrepreneurs. Other parts of the collection will speak to those interested in drug history, the history of the pharmacy profession, the art of early American advertising, and mail order/commercial catalog culture.
Please enjoy some sample images from the Pharmaceutical Trade Catalog Collection:
Advertisement for Decorated Jars from the 1886 Van Schaack and Sons catalog
Advertisement for Sulphate of Morphine from the New York Quinine Company in the 1900 Era Blue Book
Advertisement for “The Celebrated Cocaine Compound” from the 1890 Noyes Brothers & Cutler catalog
Advertisement for “Dr. Scott’s Electric Hair Brush” from the 1884 Peter Van Schaack & Sons catalog
Actively engaged in preserving the documents of pharmacy's past and developing materials for understanding the future.
