The Early Modern Pharmacy: Drugs, Recipes, and Apothecaries, 1500-1800
April 2 - July 5, 2018
Rotunda of the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library
What did a pharmacy look like in Europe, between 1500 and 1800? What kind of activities took place within its walls? Who were the pharmacists? What kind of drugs did they make, and where did the ingredients come from? This exhibit, organized by the students in Professor Paola Bertucci’s undergraduate seminar Collecting Nature and Art, with the collaboration of Sarah Pickman, engages with these questions. It shows that, in the early modern period, collecting recipes and making medicines were common household activities carried out by women, while apothecaries often became targets of satire. The exhibit focuses also on a number of American ingredients initially regarded as cure-alls, like coffee, cocoa, tobacco and chocolate - and on the mythical mandrake.
Opening reception April 2nd at 5:15 in the Historical Library, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library.