100 years of the Pharmacy Museum: “Physicality, illness and healing affect us all”

Mr. Wanner, do you remember the first time you visited the Pharmacy Museum?

Yes, it was during my studies, on a Basel Museums Night, when I wanted to check out what was on offer with some friends. All I remember is that there were an impressive number of people in the Pharmacy Museum and that I was fascinated by the museum. I don’t remember any details.

By now, I’m sure you know the collection inside and out. What is your favorite object today?

Even after more than ten years at the museum, I am still far from knowing all the objects. At the moment it is the “Eingangsbuch” (the Book of Entries), a large-format volume in which thousands of objects recorded from the museum’s founding until 1992 are listed. For almost every individual object, there are notes about where and how it came to the museum. The volume is an exciting source on our own history, which we have now presented in a special exhibition. It is also informative to see how the objects were described at the time, what value they constituted for the collection and what role they play in the narrative of the exhibition.

The collection gives the impression that it is a patchwork of old pharmacy vessels, expired medicines and disused scales and weights. How did that result in a museum?

The Basel pharmacist and university lecturer Josef Anton Häfliger had put together a collection on the history of pharmacy in his own home. He held lectures on the history of pharmacy at the Pharmazeutische Anstalt [Pharmaceutical Institute], the predecessor of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, which had already been located in the same building complex as the museum since 1917, although the latter was founded a little later. Häfliger often lacked material for practical demonstrations in his classes.

In 1925 he donated his collection to the university in order to preserve the objects for teaching. In addition, the industrialization of drug production had brought about a radical change in the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmacies were no longer the only ones producing tablets and ointments, but increasingly the big factories. The idea was the objects would preserve the craftsmanship and scientific knowledge of the manufacture of remedies in pharmacies.

The museum has hardly changed for decades. Has anything been missed?

Since the 1930s, only a little has been exchanged or replaced. The permanent exhibition has retained its original character, which is unique far and wide. We see ourselves as a “museum within a museum”, as one that is in itself a museum exhibit. The museum’s founder wanted to show off a history of pharmacy’s progress – the path from an old craft to a scientific discipline. Today, we try to put this linear thinking into perspective and place it in a new context. We want to present the historical collection in a contemporary setting.

How do you do that?

In addition to the permanent exhibition, we regularly display special exhibitions and present the collection in public tours, audio guides, workshops and publications. We also conduct research – on historical medicines, for example – and examine the exhibits using interdisciplinary methods. Filling the collection with screens and loudspeakers would be wrong – it would destroy its charm.

What have been the highlights and times of crisis for the museum?

The fact that the museum came into being in the first place was certainly an initial success for Häfliger, the pharmacist community and the academic discipline of pharmacy. Immediately after its founding, a highly regarded international congress took place, which also gave impetus to pharmaceutical historical research and other museums. A crisis arose in the 1970s, when the Department of Pharmacy was temporarily threatened with closure. Around the year 2000, the decision was made to move away from a purely academic collection and open things up to a wider public. The original furniture of the old Barfüsser Pharmacy from 1900 was set up in its entirety in the museum’s entrance area and repurposed into a shop and cashier area.

The history of medicine and pharmacy seems to attract a larger audience. Why is that?

Yes, the museum is currently experiencing increasing numbers of visitors. Physicality, illness and healing affect us all throughout our lives. The vast majority of people have taken medicine at some point. The effects of medications and natural remedies are discussed, although here and there we come across ideas that seem less modern. Such as with Paracelsus in the 16th century, who said that certain plants have a healing effect because they have the shape and color of the sick part of the body, such as eyebright. By the way, his view was controversial even in his time.

The museum also exhibits amulets and healing crystals, and even an entire alchemist’s laboratory. Does this include the “philosopher’s stone” with wisdom on how a contemporary museum should present itself?

This stone, which stirred the alchemists, is not necessarily to be understood materially, but rather as a mode, a movement of knowledge. With this in mind, we want to tell the public exciting histories from the world of pharmacy as vividly as possible through our objects and research. If we manage to astonish people in the process, then we’ve found our philosopher’s stone.