The collection documents Parke, Davis and Company, one of the largest and oldest pharmaceutical firms in America.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents Parke, Davis and Company, one of America's oldest and largest drug makers. Parke, Davis had the first research laboratory in the American pharmaceutical industry. The company played a major role in the development of some of the principle new drugs of the twentieth century and pioneered the field of drug standardization. They were one of the first American firms to produce antitoxins, hormones, and other biologicals. They introduced new and important drugs such as adrenalin, dilantin, chlorenpleniol, and other antibiotics. They also did important research on vitamins, disinfectants, and pencillin.
The collection contains complete documentaion of all the research activities done, including research laboratory notes, correspondence, and published papers. The collection also contains corporate, financial, advertising and sales materials, photographs, and audiovisual materials. The collection is important for those researchers interested in the history of public health, the history of biologicals, pharmaceutical manufacturing and business history.
Arrangement:
Collection is divided into 13 series.
Series 1: Corporate Materials, 1887-1951
Series 2: Financial Materials, 1880-1970
Series 3: Employee/Personnel Materials, 1900-1989
Series 4: Advertising/Sales Materials, 1868-1980
Series 5: Photographs, 1866-1992
Series 6: Notebooks, 1908-1968
Series 7: Control Department Records, 1884-1931
Series 8: Formulas, 1882-1967
Series 9: Equipment Data Files, 1922-1978
Series 10: Publications, 1968-1988
Series 11: Research Materials, 1920-1978
Series 12: Drawings, 1911-1971
Series 13: Addenda, 1867-1970
Series 14: Audio Materials, 1956-1957
Historical:
Parke, Davis and Company traces it's origins to Samuel Pearce Duffield (1833-1916), a physician and pharmacist. Duffield was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and his family moved to Detroit when he was an infant. Duffield graduated from the University of Michigan in 1854 and he attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, latter leaving for Germany where he studied chemistry and sought treatment for his eyesight. He subsequently earned a Doctor of Philosophy from Ludwig University at Giessen in Germany. Duffield returned to Detroit in 1858 and established a retail drugstore with a strong interest in manufacturing pharmaceuticals. Duffield sought financial partners for his retail and manufacturing venture with A.L. Patrick and Francis C. Conant. Both men retracted their investments and Duffield met Hervey Coke Parke (1927-1899), a native of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Duffield and Parke formed a formal partnership in 1866. George S. Davis, a third partner and traveling salesman previously with Farrand, Sheley and Company, was added 1867. Augustus F. Jennings joined the company as a partner to head manufacturing. The company became known as Duffield, Parke, Davis, & Jennings Company. Duffield withdrew in 1869 and the name Parke, Davis & Company was adopted in 1871. The company incorporated in 1875 and began planning world-wide scientific expeditions to discover new vegetable drugs such as Guarana, Bearsfoot, Eucalyptus Globulus, and Coca. The company first showed a profit in 1876, and the first dividend paid to shareholders in 1878 and dividends paid until mid-1960s. Research was a major activity of the company.
In 1907, Parke, Davis and Company bought 340 acres in northeast Avon Township, Michigan, and called it Parkedale Farm. The farm was dedicated on October 8, 1908, and included sterilization rooms and a vaccine propagating building. By 1909 the farm included 200 horses, 25 to 50 cattle, 150 sheep, and employed 20 men. The horses produced the antitoxin for diphtheria and tetanus, the cattle produced a vaccine for smallpox preventatives, and the sheep made serum. Only the healthiest animals were used and all were well cared for. Exotic plants were also grown on the site and used for drugs. Parke-Davis' chief products were antitoxins and vaccines as well as farm crops for feeding the animals. The farm continued to produce vaccines for diphtheria, scarlet fever, tetanus, smallpox, anthrax, and in the 1950s, the Salk polio vaccine.
Due to a weakening financial position, the company became susceptible to take-over, and was purchased by Warner-Lambert in 1970. Warner Lambert, was then acquired by Pfizer in 2000. In 2007, Pfizer closed its research facilities in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Source
Rochester Hills Museum at Voon Hoosen Farm (last accessed on September 29, 2021 https://www.rochesterhills.org/Museum/LocalHistory/ParkeDavisFarm.pdf)
Parke, Davis and Company. Parke-Davis At 100...progress in the past...promise for the future. Detroit, Michigan, 1966.
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Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History
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Cover Girl Advertising Oral History Documentation Project (NMAH.AC.0374)
Garfield and Company Records (NMAH.AC.0820)
Albert W. Hampson Commercial Artwork Collection (NMAH.AC.0561)
Ivory Soap Advertising Collection (NMAH.AC.0791)
Kiehl's Pharmacy Records (NMAH.AC.0819)
Alan and Elaine Levitt Advertisement Collection (NMAH.AC.0303)
Medical Sciences Film Collection (NMAH.AC.0222)
Norwich Eaton Pharmaceutical, Inc. Collection (NMAH.AC.0395)
Procter & Gamble Company Product Packaging Collection (NMAH.AC.0836)
Sterling Drug Company Records (NMAH.AC.772)
Syntex Collection of Pharmaceutical Advertising (NMAH.AC.0821)
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Medicine (NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Medicine)
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Patent Medicines (NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.PatentMedicines)
Materials at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collection
Trade catalogs related to Parke, Davis & Co.; Warner-Lambert; Pfizer Pharmaceuticals; and Pfizer, Inc.
Materials at Other Organizations
Detroit Public Library, Special Collections
Parke, Davis & Company records, 1892-1959
Scrapbook of clippings, 1929-44; Excursions & Announcements, 1892-1902; and company newsletters.
University of California San Francisco
Drug Industry Documents was created by the University of California San Francisco Library in collaboration with faculty members C. Seth Landefeld, MD and Michael Steinman, MD. Originally established to house documents from an off-label marketing lawsuit against Parke-Davis (United States of America ex rel. David Franklin vs. Parke-Davis), the archive has grown to include documents from additional sources illustrating how the pharmaceutical industry, academic journals and institutions, continuing medical education organizations and regulatory/funding agencies operate in ways that are detrimental to public health.
Separated Materials:
Division of Medicine and Science, National Museum of American History
The division holds objects related to Parke, Davis that primarily include containers (boxes and glass bottles) that held phamrmaceuticals, biologicals (vaccines), crude drugs, and herb packages. See accessions: 1978.0882; 1982.0043; 1982.0043; 1984.0351; 1985.0475; 1988.3152; 1991.0415; 1992.3127; 2001.3066; 2012.0165; and 2018.5001.
Provenance:
The initial collection of approximately 185 cubic feet was donated by the Warner-Lambert Company, through Jerry A. Weisbach, Vice-President and President of the Pharmaceutical Research Division, on February 3, 1982.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
The collection consists of formulas and prescriptions for Morse Laboratories and Kiehl's Pharmacy products.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents formulas and prescriptions for Morse Laboratories and Kiehl's Phramacy products.
Series 1, Formulas, 1954-1973, consists of specific formulas developed by Kiehl's Pharmacy and Morse Laboratories, Inc. Individual files are loosely arranged by lot number order. The information includes drug name, date and form (e.g. cream, tablet). In some instances, the ingredients and quantity are provided. In addition to formula cards, there are requests for pharmaceutical certification, penicillin certificates, invoices, and some correspondence.
Series 2, Prescriptions, 1920-1922, 1935-1936, contains written prescriptions from local doctors, primarily the New York City metropolitan area, that were filled at Kiehl's Pharmacy between 1920-1922. These materials also contain order forms for opium and other-habit forming drugs, an envelope that once contained a packet of medicinal herbal tea, and cancelled prescription blank forms that were produced in accordance with the National Prohibition Act.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into two series.
Series 1, Formulas, 1954-1973
Series 2, prescriptions, 1920-1922, 1935-1936
Biographical / Historical:
Kiehl's Pharmacy, located on the corner of Third Avenue and East 13th Street, New York, New York, was originally owned by German immigrant Louis Brunswick, who sold herbs and oils at his Brunswick Apotheke in 1851. About thirty years later, Brunswick sold the store to apothecaries Englehardt and Huber. When John Kiehl (born 1868) was around twenty years old, he began working at the Englehardt & Huber Apothecary, eventually taking ownership of the company. Kiehl was known for his unique tonics and remedies inspired by old-world, botanical recipes, including virility creams, medicinal salves, curative oils, baldness cures, and exotic concoctions like Attraction Powder, Life Everlasting, Money Drawing Oil, and Love Oil. Beginning in 1921, Kiehl's offered a variety of essences that were blended by hand for customers, including Musk Oil, Grapefruit, Amber, Gardenia, Cucumber, and Pour Homme.
The Morse family immigrated to the United States from Russia before World War One, and son Irving A. Morse, or "Doc Morse," (died 1980) worked as an apprentice to John Kiehl while also serving in the U.S. Army during World War One and earning a pharmacology degree from Columbia University. In 1921, Morse bought the company from Kiehl, continuing his tradition of providing homeopathic cures and herbal remedies from the old country while expanding the company into a full-service, modern pharmacy. Like Kiehl, Morse valued the personal relationships he had with his customers and encouraged them to experiment with the products before choosing which would best suit their needs. "Try before you buy" became the company motto, and this principle of personalized customer service established by Irving Morse continues to this day.
Irving Morse's son Aaron (1923-1996) followed in his father's footsteps in business, studying pharmacology at the Columbia University School of Pharmacy and joining the army as a pilot during World War Two. After graduation, Aaron began Morse Laboratories Inc. in Hoboken, New Jersey to develop manufactured products for Kiehl's Pharmacy. Morse Laboratories operated from the late 1940s until 1961, and its first product was Ostrocal, a fluoride therapy product sold at Kiehl's. Starting in 1948, Morse expanded the company's product line to include a variety of penicillin and antibiotic products. Morse Laboratories Inc. supplied the New York City Hospital System and sanatoriums throughout New York State with paramino salicylic acid for the treatment of tuberculosis and supplied the U.S. government with aloe vera cream "for use against radiation burns."
In 1961, Aaron Morse took over Kiehl's Pharmacy from his father and sold Morse Laboratories Inc. in 1964. Pharmacy operations moved to Paterson, New Jersey, and were renamed Biocraft Laboratories. Aaron Morse shifted the purpose of Kiehl's Pharmacy from providing homeopathic cures and chemicals to developing and selling natural skin and hair care products. In 1988, after having been diagnosed with cancer, Aaron Morse gave ownership of the company to his daughter, Jami Morse Heidegger. Jami and her husband Klaus modernized the company and computerized the mail-order business, in addition to developing marketing strategies, including brochures and newsletters. Like her father, Jami Morse also expanded the product line, introducing baby, equine, and athletic products to the company's inventory.
Berger, Meyer, "About New York; 3d Ave. Apothecary Shop Does Big Business in Love Philters and Conjure Medicines," New York Times, January 7, 1959, 30.
"Brunswick Apotheke, Englehardt & Huber, Kiehl's Since 1851," Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, http://gvshp.org/blog/2011/03/11/brunswick-apotheke-englehardt-huber-kiehl%E2%80%99s-since-1851/ (accessed July 8, 2011).
Frank, Deborah, "Shopping at the Original Kiehl's," Departures.com, http://www.departures.com/articles/shopping-at-the-original-kiehls, last accessed July 8, 2011.
"Her Hair Turned Green," New York Times, December 25, 1900.
"Kiehl's," BlueMercury.com, http://www.bluemercury.com/brandFC.asp?qid=4&brand=50, last accessed July 8, 2011.
"Kiehl's Since 1851, Inc.," FundingUniverse.com, http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Kiehls-Since-1851-Inc-Company-History.html, last accessed July 8, 2011.
"Our Story," Keihl's.com, http://www.kiehls.com/Our-Story/history,default,pg.html, last accessed July 8, 2011.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
Parke, Davis Research Laboratory Records (AC0001)
Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Records (AC0329)
Syntex Collection of Pharmaceutical Advertisements (AC0821)
Materials in the Division of Medicine and Science
Artifacts related to this collection include glassware and a homeopathic medicine chest (Accession #1981.0589).
Provenance:
Donated by Aaron Morse of Kiehl's Pharmacy on November 19, 1989.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Copyright status unknown. The collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
This collection consists of chemical formulae developed by Lawrence Saint for use in his stained glass work at the Washington National Cathedral. There are supporting samples, records, and notes.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 976 formulae developed by Lawrence Saint for making stained glass. A shoe box contains 3" x 5" index cards of the formulae. Included are duplicate formulae and some miscellaneous notes. There are also over eight hundred samples of glass for various formulae. Some of the formulae were missing when the collection was donated to the National Museum of American History. These are noted in the container list.
Arrangement:
This collection is divided into three series.
Series 1, Formulae, 1927-1933
Series 2, Notes and Records, 1926-1936
Series 3, Glass Samples, 1927-1933
Biographical / Historical:
Lawrence B. Saint was born in Pittsburgh in 1885. The work he did with stained glass, especially filming (the process of making a work of stained glass, old or new, look as if it is from the Middle Ages), influenced glassmakers everywhere. At thirteen, Saint was employed in Goeddel's wallpaper store. While at Goeddel's, Saint made sketches which impressed J. Horace Ruby, a former Goeddel's employee. Saint then began working under Ruby at Ruby Brothers Stained Glass Company. Saint's chores in the studio were to grind paint, trace patterns, sweep the floors, and build fires in the pot-bellied stove. Saint worked in this studio for four years. He saved enough money to put himself through the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
After art school, Saint was employed by the H. F. Petgen Company of Pittsburgh to design a large rose window for the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in East Liberty, Pennsylvania. It was a mosaic of color with symbols of the four evangelists of Christ. During his last year in art school, Saint met his future wife, Katherine Wright. Their honeymoon in Europe provided Saint time to study and copy medieval stained glass. Saint made at least three visits to Europe and collected sample glass from Chartres and other cathedrals.
When Saint returned to the United States he designed and painted windows for eleven years under the direction of Raymond Pitcairn, promoter of medieval arts at Bryn Athyn Cathedral in Pennsylvania. During this period, Saint started to portray figures from life to record the faces of his generation. Between visits to Europe, Saint completed six windows in eleven years. Three were figure windows, three were two small roses, and one was a grisaille window. Grisaille is a style of monochromatic painting in shades of gray, used especially for the representation of relief sculpture, or to simulate one. After his work at Bryn Athyn, Saint worked out of his own stained glass studio.
He then went to work for the Washington National Cathedral as head of its stained glass studio. He designed and executed fourteen windows for the Cathedral: the North Rose Window, nine choir aisle windows, and four others in the north transept aisles. Saint experimented with recapturing the reds, blues, and other vibrant colors achieved by medieval glass makers using formulae based on spectroscopic analyses of scraps of 13th century glass. While working for the Cathedral, a fire broke out in Saint's studio. Many windows and materials were destroyed including a window depicting Moses. Saint's most famous work for the Cathedral was the North Rose Window entitled, "The Last Judgment." This window cost $22,687 and took twelve men to create. Saint made his own glass and applied his own process for filming it. Upon completion, Saint's work was displayed at the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1957 and in other cities. Saint said, 'I trust that my material, made public, will lead others to improve on my work...".
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the National Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History) by the Washington National Cathedral, through Richard T. Feller in 1977.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: reproduction fees may apply.
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Science, Medicine, and Society Search this
Extent:
350 Cubic feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Business records
Prescriptions
Cashbooks
Invoices
Formulae, chemical
Daybooks
Letterpress copybooks
Ledgers (account books)
Place:
South Carolina
Charleston (S.C.)
Date:
1864-1972
Scope and Contents note:
The day-to-day business records of a Charleston, South Carolina pharmacy, including day books, ledger books, cash books, prescription books, invoices, letterpress copybooks, and formula books.
Arrangement:
Divided into 8 series.
Biographical/Historical note:
A pharmacy established in 1852 which operated in Charleston, South Carolina for over 100 years. During the Civil War the store served as an official dispensary for the Confederate States of America, and the top three floors were converted to a hospital. The store remained in the family and in business until 1978.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Harold and George W. Aimar.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
