was visited by many interested in
pharmacy, ceramics, and art. Charles H. LaWall, who was originally
engaged to prepare a descriptive catalog on the exhibit, gave it the
title "The Squibb Ancient Pharmacy."

Late in 1943, E. R. Squibb and Sons offered the collection as a gift to
the American Pharmaceutical Association if the latter would provide
museum space for it. The offer was accepted, but the Association
finally found it difficult to spare the needed space for the collection
and decided to take up the matter with the U.S. National Museum.

[Illustration: Figure 14.--THIS EARLY EXHIBIT ON OSTEOPATHY was
renovated several times prior to the early 1940's. (Smithsonian photo
19250.)]

At this point, it should be stated that since 1883 the members of the
American Pharmaceutical Association have been keenly interested in
having the National Museum serve as the custodian for all collected
objects and records of historical interest to pharmacy. In 1944, the
Association officially offered to deposit on permanent loan, the
Squibb's pharmacy collection in the Smithsonian Institution with the
understanding that a suitable place would be provided for prompt and
permanent display. The offer was accepted, and during April and May of
1945, the entire collection was transferred to the Smithsonian
Institution, and construction to recreate the original two rooms for the
old, 18th-century, European "Apotheke" was underway.

By August 1946, the exhibit was completed. In the large room where the
pharmacist met his customers, the shelves were filled with 15th-to
19th-century, European pharmaceutical antiques. These included
Renaissance mortars; 16th-and 17th-century nested weights; beautiful
Italian, French, Swiss, and German majolica and faience drug jars; Dutch
and English delft; drug containers made of flint or opal glass with
fused-enamel labels with alchemical symbols; rare, 16th-century, wooden
drug containers, each with the coat of arms of the city in which each
was made; and two glass-topped, display tables contained franchises
issued and signed by Popes or state rulers, medical edicts,
dispensatories, herbals, pharmacopoeias, and pharmaceutical utensils.

On the walls in the small laboratory room, which also had been used as a
workshop and a study, were a stuffed crocodile, shark's head, tortoise,
fish, and salamander, parts of which were utilized as remedial agents.
Their presence provided tangible evidence that the pharm