Editor’s Introduction

Welcome to the History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals. This issue, the first published in partnership with the University of Wisconsin Press, marks a significant transition for the journal. The change comes at an auspicious time. In 1941, the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy was established in Madison to advance knowledge and understanding of the history of pharmacy and medicines. The journal Pharmacy in History was then founded in 1959 to both communicate with members as well as present new historical research in such areas as pharmacy practice, materia medica and health, intoxicants, culture and policy, and so much more. As the Institute celebrates its eightieth anniversary, I feel that the UW Press is a splendid home for the journal and acts as an ideal venue to carry on the torch.

This first issue with the University of Wisconsin Press required a lot of thought and effort. With AIHP’s mission and intellectual founders in mind, we decided to modify the journal’s title to History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals. The idea behind the change, on the one hand, was to better reflect the original broad scope of the journal. On the other hand, we also intended the change to reflect the current focus of AIHP’s historical activities. Yet, other substantive changes are apparent in these pages. Over the course of 2020–2021, we reimagined the journal and redesigned it from the foundation upwards: fonts, rulers, footnote spacing, the covers, and everything in between. We reconsidered and discussed each element as a means to satisfy our readers, attract new ones, and more generally signal our intentions to offer the highest quality academic product in the years ahead. A project that was both collaborative and gratifying, I hope you enjoy the new look and feel of the journal.

Much of the content in this inaugural issue of HoPP arose out of AIHP and UW–Madison School of Pharmacy programming, specifically the New Social History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals Festival held virtually in Fall 2020. The Festival gathered together established and emerging scholars from across disciplines—as well as the wider world—to discuss new approaches and topics in the field. Over five days, the Festival cast floodlights on developing trends in the studies of pharmacy practice, pharmaceuticals, drugs, and alcohol more broadly. This first issue constitutes part of a larger dialogue within histories of pharmacy, medicine, and intoxicants. But it also forms part of a cooperative effort with the journals Social History of Alcohol and Drugs and Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, which will also feature papers delivered at the Festival in 2020. You will be able to access that scholarship in the future in those journals.

Articles in this issue represent well the breadth and diversity of pharmacy history eighty years after the founding of AIHP. Topics include pharmaceutical advertising in Britain, in-house compounding and pricing debates in The Netherlands, and medical cocaine in China. The recurring Conversations and Visual Pharmacy sections—now fixtures in the journal—showcase, respectively, significant ideas and figures in the intellectual landscape and provide shorter, image-based perspectives. Varied and stimulating, the content in this first HoPP reflects work from some of the leading lights in the field, as well as promising younger scholars.

As a final note, it’s crucial to acknowledge the labor carried out by the entire editorial team. And it is equally important to acknowledge additions to the editorial staff and the editorial board, both of which have grown in recent months and years. This intellectual service and labor make the journal—and the larger field—tick.