This year we continue to experiment with our annual business meeting format. After a few years, we have found the webinar/teleconference mode to work well and we are open to ideas to increase member participation.
As is traditional, I begin my report by reminding us all that the mission of the Institute “is to contribute to the understanding of the development of civilization by fostering the creation, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge concerning the history and related humanistic aspects of the pharmaceutical field.” We invite all interested to join in our efforts.
Publications
1. Three issues of Pharmacy in History have been published since the last Executive Director’s report and we are nearly caught up and on schedule. The transition to a slightly smaller size of Pharmacy in History to save paper costs has gone smoothly with volume 57. We continue to develop new columns and to revive former departments from Apothecary’s Cabinet.
As a reminder, JSTOR provides downloadable articles on demand for $10 ($6 to AIHP; $4 to JSTOR). In addition, we give regular members the opportunity to access back issues of PH via JSTOR for a fee of $10 per year. (Contributing members may receive an access code by providing the AIHP office with their email address.) Please note that PH is available to certain libraries that purchase their History & Science packages. Most significantly, our participation in JSTOR yielded approximately $3000 in royalties last fiscal year.
2. One issue of the A.I.H.P. Notes (no. 106) was produced and distributed to the membership. We remind members to submit the biographical questionnaire in A.I.H.P. Notes #97. Please fill it out and send it in to Madison so that we may place it in our reference collection for future historical researchers. This form is also available at www.aihp.org.
3. The 2017 calendar has been printed and will soon arrive at the mailboxes of members. In contrast to the themed issues of previous years, this calendar contains a miscellany of images.
4. A reprint of our leather-bound facsimile edition of the first Pharmacopeia of the United States of 1820 was added to our publication catalog at a list price of $50. See aihp.org for more details.
Web
Please become a friend of AIHP on Facebook! In addition to managing our own Facebook page, the Executive Director is an administrator of the Facebook page of the International Society for the History of Pharmacy.
Working with the IT staff of the UW School of Pharmacy, the AIHP staff continues to update our web page including significant content for teachers of the history of pharmacy. We also host a companion web site, www.pharmacyinhistory.com, which allows for easier subscribing to our journal.
Most importantly, we have been working with Edgimo.com to update our web presence concentrating on our unique domain, aihp.org. Keep an eye out for announcements coming soon about our revamped website.
Speaking of digitizing, the Executive Director continues to serve on the Advisory Board to the Medical Heritage Library project, which aims to digitize all health science and professional literature published in the US before 1900.
Representation at Historical Meetings
At the 2016 APhA Annual convention, the Executive Director served as a session moderator and as a delegate on behalf of AIHP. I also represented AIHP at the Annual meeting of the American Association for the History of medicine in May in Minneapolis, MN. In July, I travelled to Anaheim, California, and represented AIHP at the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, specifically the History of Pharmacy Special Interest Group (HoPSIG).
Outreach Activities
In January, the Institute celebrated its 75th anniversary with a cake and coffee reception at the UW School of Pharmacy. In March the celebration continued with a campus-wide lecture by Prof. Matthew Crawford on the history of the Atlantic cinchona trade. Also in March, I gave an introduction on the history of pharmacist leadership as part of a symposium on that topic at the APhA annual convention, and in April 2016, the Institute co-sponsored with Joseph Gabriel, Urdang Chair in the History of Pharmacy, a workshop in Madison on Pharmacopeias in the Early Modern World.
At the AACP in July, the Executive Director participated in several activities including a poster from the AIHP Historical Studies Committee describing results of a survey on teaching history of pharmacy in the USA, a roundtable on teaching history throughout the pharmacy curriculum, and a symposium. At the symposium, the Executive Director presented a paper on the Millis Commission Report, “Pharmacists for the Future.”
In August, I travelled to the Washington, DC, area to visit the headquarters of the United States Pharmacopeia to discuss future collaborations and to chair a meeting of the steering committee charged with organizing the 2019 International Congress for the History of Pharmacy. In addition, I accompanied board-member-elect Angela Long on a visit to the headquarters of the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia and met with CHF’s interim director.
Future Outreach
At the upcoming ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting in Las Vegas, I will participate in a session on “Advocating Effectively for Pharmacy’s Public Policy Agenda” giving a presentation on “Advocating for Provider Status: Lessons from Pharmacy’s Reform Campaigns.”
AIHP staff is working in conjunction with the UW School of Nursing to develop a new exhibit case at the UW Health Sciences Learning Center.
Most importantly, our bid to host the 2019 International Congress for the History of Pharmacy was approved by the International Society for the History of Pharmacy. Planning is underway for this event to take place in the Washington, DC, area in September 2019.
Awards and Grants
Eleven certificates were awarded this year to students who completed a project or some other achievement in the history of pharmacy at schools of pharmacy across the USA.
A Thesis Support Grant was awarded to Lauren Klaffke of the University of Minnesota for her project, “Medicating the Corporate Soul: Employee Relations, Public Relations, and Philanthropy in the Pharmaceutical Industry, 1930-2000.”
Miscellany
The Institute’s Historical Studies Committee, ably chaired by Prof. David Baker, has developed a set of “Guidelines to Meet ACPE History of Pharmacy Education Accreditation Standard” that will be released soon.
In June the Executive Director and board-member-elect Angela Long met with Wisconsin State Archivist Matthew Blessing and Ellsworth Brown, head of the Wisconsin Historical Society, to discuss future collaborations. We agree to develop a Memorandum of Understanding in this regard by year’s end.
In order to gain better service, the AIHP staff moved our banking to the UW Credit Union.
Professor Joseph Gabriel, the first George Urdang Chair in the History of Pharmacy at the UW-Madison decided to return to Florida State University in July. The search for his successor will begin at the start of 2017.
Through the efforts of Prof. David Baker, a student group at Western New England University College of Pharmacy affiliated with the Institute continues to thrive.
Thanks go out to Dennis Worthen for his contribution of small “time capsule” history pieces for state pharmacy journals via the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations.
Prof. Sonnedecker Meets Visitors
I am often asked by AIHP members about Prof. Glenn Sonnedecker. In October, I had the pleasure of taking visiting scholars, Drs. Holger Goetzendorff and Andrea Ludwig of Germany, to meet Glenn at his home. Glenn will turn 99 in December.
UW-Madison and the School of Pharmacy
Lastly, I want to briefly describe some of my involvement with the UW School of Pharmacy. As a senior lecturer at UW I teach a 2-hour elective survey course on the History of Pharmacy attended by about 30 students. I also deliver two lectures annually in required courses – one a general history of pharmacy lecture and the other a more focused lecture on the socialization of American pharmacists since colonial times. Lastly, I give a lecture on changing roles of pharmacists in an elective course attending by virtually the entire first-year class. In addition to teaching, I continue to serve on committees including the Health Sciences Library committee and the School of Pharmacy’s Awards and Citations committee. Informally, I act as the curator of the Kremers Reference Files as well as other artifact collections housed in the School of Pharmacy.
Appreciation
I wish to thank the Institute staff, Beth Fisher, Greg Bond, and Assistant Director Elaine Stroud, for their dedication to the mission of the Institute. I continue to be impressed with their efforts to cut costs and improve efficiency. Things will change significantly with the retirement of Assistant Director Stroud at the end of 2016. For decades she has been the creative force behind our publishing program and a strong advocate for historical rigor in all that we do at the Institute.
Special thanks go out to all the members of the AIHP Board of Directors and to various committee members for their efforts throughout the year. The members of the Historical Studies Committee deserve high praise for their dedication. I want to especially thank outgoing board member Jole Shackelford for his insightful service. Incoming board member Angela Long has brought new energy and organizational skills to AIHP, which we appreciate greatly. And I must call attention to how President Zellmer has worked hard in 2016 to connect the Institute with the greater pharmacy community nationally.
As always, thanks go out to the membership of AIHP for their support and interest.
Here at the School of Pharmacy, the mission of the Institute has been helped by the efforts of David Mott and Kristen Huset of the Social and Administrative Sciences Division. Lastly, I extend my appreciation to Dean Swanson and the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy for their hospitality.
The Urdang Aim
In keeping with tradition, I once again close with the inspiring words of our founding director, George Urdang:
The aim of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy is to equip pharmacists for citizenship in the world of intellectual and moral responsibility by making them familiar with the non-technical aspects and humanistic ramifications of the profession, and to do pharmacy’s share in the cooperative endeavor for making the historical record of world civilization as complete as possible.