The April 2025 Art In Medicine topic is about Apothecary Supplies.
Lucinda Bennett, the Medical Librarian at Ascension St Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, MD, publishes a regular series on Art in Medicine and The Health Humanities.
Apothecary Supplies
Before the modern pharmacy became the ubiquitous corner store and hospital institution it is today, there were the apothecaries. Specializing in the manufacturing of all manner of medicines, these tradesfolk were part of the medical landscape in both Europe and North America for several hundred years before the science of pharmaceuticals replaced them. This month we review their history and the unique tools they utilized, some of which are still recognizable today.
“The word 'apothecary' is derived from apotheca, meaning a place where wine, spices and herbs were stored. During the thirteenth century it came into use in this country to describe a person who kept a stock of these commodities, which he sold from his shop or street stall.” (Worshipful Society of Apothecaries)
The work of the apothecary was to mix and sell a variety of concoctions to all manner of customers as well as treat customers when needed. Symbols of the shop that can still be found today include the mortar and pestle of Rite Aid, a device used to pummel ingredients in the shop and then weighed for sale on scales - another common icon of the pharmacy nowadays.
“Apothecaries were a branch of the tripartite medical system of apothecary-surgeon-physician which arose in Europe in the early-modern period. Well established as a profession by the seventeenth century, the apothecaries were chemists, mixing and selling their own medicines. They sold drugs from a fixed shopfront, catering to other medical practitioners, such as surgeons, but also to lay customers walking in from the street. Their daily tasks- as distinct from those of a barber-surgeon or physician whose primary duties during this era involved related diagnosis and treatment- were thus defined by a focus on retail (sales to the public without performing other clinical roles).” (Who were the Apothecaries?)
In the American colonies, the means by which citizens could access an apothecary was far more spotty than in the mother country of England, simply due to the lack of equally expansive cities, training opportunities and (by 17th & 18th century standards) proper hospitals to engage with. However, after independence, the need to formalize the career and where the specialist would practice their trade became a necessity. “As the nation’s first hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital (PAH) was also the first to have an associated Apothecary shop for patients, which curbed the need for apothecaries to act as both doctor and pharmacist, as was required in more rural areas of the colonies and later the new states. As the hospital expanded and the realm of American pharmacy evolved, so too did the role of the apothecary.” (Penn Med)
The apothecary of Pennsylvania Hospital is well documented with ledgers of herbs and sale bills as well as photographs of how the ingredients were kept, an image of the typical shop would have looked to patients of the past. Beyond the aforementioned mortar and pestle, apothecary jars became the best known tool of the trade with an industry that grew up around their design and manufacture. So widespread were these jars that individual artistic styles can be traced to specific locations and artists around Europe and in the United States.
“Common glass apothecary containers for crude drugs, ointments and liquids were among the many functional products made by skilled glassblowers, who might also create windows, drinking vessels, beads, and laboratory apparatus. Glass drug jars were not considered to have great monetary value and were fragile; consequently, such jars for holding oils, tinctures, and syrups once prevalent in German apothecaries of the 18th and 19th centuries are now very rare.
Glass drug jars can be divided into three distinct groups. The first is composed of round or square-shaped jars with clear glass; these free-blown or mold-blown vessels are decorated with Baroque and Rococo motifs including shields, birds, festoons, ribbons, and crowns. The second includes jars such as the set of urn-shaped white or milk glass (milchglas in German) vessels meant to imitate more expensive porcelain ceramics. The third, of particular importance includes six 17th century wide- mouth blown vessels made from heavy green glass and probably used to store bulk products.” (Smithsonian) Today such jars are collectables that can be found in private collections and in museums dedicated to both the arts and medical history. So how were these all important tools fashioned? Glass making is no easy feat, no matter how common the use of the vessel turns out to be. On the Smithsonian’s dedicated page for the history of the apothecary jar, the process of crafting these containers is given in full and fascinating detail, with special attention to the decorative elements. “The ornamentation applied to the glass containers is of two types; baked enamel and cold-painted application. The more permanent of the two, enamel, uses pigments composed of finely ground glass that are fired to fuse the colored glass to the vessel. The simpler form of decoration is cold painting. Motifs are applied to the glass with paint and are not fired in a kiln. Once the paint dries, a thin layer of varnish is applied to prevent the paint from flaking and being scratched.” (Smithsonian) While the apothecary has been replaced with the pharmacist (chemist in some cases) the influence of the predecessors to the procession is clear. Even now when you walk into a CVS or Walgreens some stores will hang photos of the past, a glimpse into medical practices long since gone, and the shelves are more often than not lined with such artistic tools.
References:
Smithsonian - Glass Apothecary Containers
Penn Med - The Evolution of the Apothecary
The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries
Who were the Apothecaries?
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