The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is to open its doors between 1pm and 5pm on Saturday, June 3, for a Pharmacy history event organised by the Society's museum.
As well as giving the public the opportunity to see the museum displays without a prior appointment, the afternoon will offer a range of special events, including exhibitions, hands-on demonstrations, short talks and guided tours of the building.
Visitors will be able to see the two temporary exhibitions currently on show. One is "Healing science: pharmacy past, pharmacy future" (PJ, April 1, p508), which looks at how mankind's changing view of the human body and its workings has affected medicinal drugs over the past millennium and how the mapping of the human genome might influence the science of healing in the future. The other exhibition is "The quack doctor", a special display of 18th and 19th century caricatures of doctors (see below).
Hands-on activities will include a running demonstration of the 15th century apothecary's skills, with a range of crude drug materials and samples of made-up products available for visitors to handle and smell. The demonstration will be given by pharmacy historians Jo Castle and Peter Gregory, who have studied the how drugs were cultivated, traded and prepared in Tudor times and regularly give demonstrations at museums and historical sites.
In addition, museum staff and volunteers from the British Society for the History of Pharmacy will demonstrate the way in medicines were made up and packaged in the traditional Victorian pharmacy. Visitors will be encouraged to try their hand at pill rolling and powder folding.
Giving the first of two advice sessions on the care and repair of antiquities, Ms Caroline Reed (museum curator) will talk about handling, storing and displaying historical objects, photographs and memorabilia. Ms Sara Bunn (paper and book conservator) will then talk about books, their bindings and how to handle them and will demonstrate repair techniques.
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Jo Castle, in Tudor costume, gives a display of the 15th century "apothecary's art"
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A series of short talks will run throughout the afternoon. Topics will include local Lambeth industries, old patent remedies, medicines from plants, the apothecary in Shakespeare's England and issues in modern medicine.
Guided architectural tours of the building will take in the Council chamber and the river views from the roof terrace.
The open event is just one of a number of museum special events during 2000. Throughout May, June and July, the museum is opening for special guided tours, with no prebooking necessary, on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at 2.30pm. On Saturday, September 23, the Society is once more opening its 1970s headquarters building to the public for architectural tours as part of London Open House weekend. Again, there will be no need to book.
Further details of all events can be obtained from the Society's museum office (tel 020 7735 9141 ext 354). Information is also available on the Society's website (www.rpsgb.org.uk).
