The Czech Pharmaceutical Museum

History

Since the end of the last century, Czech pharmacists and pharmacy historiographers have endeavored to build a museum for their profession, but until the present moment have enjoyed only partial and provisional results. The collection which has been gathered now happens to be administered by the Pharmacy Faculty of Charles University, which is charged with the mission of establishing the central Czech Pharmaceutical Museum.

Since 1972, the Pharmacy Faculty has been trying to build this museum in the hospital of Kuks, a village to the northwest of the town of Jaromer. The hospital is a suitable place because of its health-service and pharmaceutical tradition. The Pharmaceutical Museum will link up with the beautiful, well-preserved baroque pharmacy dating from 1743, which ranks among the cultural, historical, artistic and pharmaceutical gems of Europe.

Collection

The collections are placed at Kuks near Dvůr Králové nad Labem. Address:

Státní zámek Kuks 81
CZ - 544 43 KUKS
Czech republic
tel. (+420) 437 6761

Visiting time at the expozition "FASCINATION OF THE APOTHECARY"

8 a.m. - 4 p.m. May-September, every day
April, October, Saturday, Sunday only
November-March, closed

The historical collection of the faculty includes a large number of widely varying items. There are various items, such as pharmaceuticals and preparations manufactured by both the inland and foreign pharmaceutical industries; apothecary jars and other wooden, glass, ceramic and metal vessels; as well as packaging materials such as bags, boxes and labels. There are also instruments for production, as well as various apparati, such as weights and balances, mortars, mills, presses, pill-manufacturing tools, tableting machines, and analytical and preparative chemical glassware. Several sets of furniture from pharmacies, as well as cupboards and dispensing counters, await display. The collection also includes photographs, posters, promotion materials, and nearly one thousand book plates of Czech and Slovak pharmacists. Statues, reliefs, pictures and diplomas of pharmacis arts are also included.

Museum items supplemented with large archives and about 15,000 volumes and periodicals, the largest historical pharmaceutical library in the Czech Republic. The collection, along with the archives and library, has therefore become the research base of pharmaceutical museology as a new historical discipline, and of the history of pharmacy, its elder sister. It is worth mentioning that, since 1972, the degree papers of undergraduate and postgraduate students have been using the materials collected here.

The items of the collection are also employed to supplement instruction at the Pharmacy Faculty, in lectures and seminars on the history of pharmacy, social pharmacy, and pharmaceutical service. In agreement with other departments of the faculty, the pedagogical use is to be gradually enlarged after the installation of the museum collection, which would be open to the public as well. Using the means typical of museums, the development of the whole field of pharmacy in the Czech lands in the context of general history will be shown. Pharmaceutical service will be represented in the most extensive and comprehensive manner, but there will also be exhibits concerning other branches, such as pharmaceutical research, industry, control, and wholesale, as well as on the informatics, educational system, and historiography of pharmacy. Attention will also be paid to the biographies of pharmacists, regardless of their nationalities.

Exhibitions

Selected parts of the collection have already been exhibited on the faculty premises and on the occassions of pharmaceutical congresses, both in this country (in 1966, 1976, and 1979) and abroad (Cottbus 1980). A large, one-year exhibition called "The Charm of the Apothocary´s" was installed in the Regional Museum in Hradec Kralove in 1982.

First part of the exposition was opened 18.5.1996 for a wide public.It shows the development of apothecaries from the 17th to the 20th century.

Sponsoring

The construction of the hospital in Kuks has gone on in fits and starts since 1972, and unfortunately very slowly. Only the rooms for the storage of collected items (depositories) have been completed, and they have been in use since 1986. At present there are seven rooms and a large corridor in the basement available for the installation of the first part of the museum. For very understandable reasons, however, the Pharmacy Faculty does not have sufficient funds to install the security system, nor to pay for the project, showcases, panels, possible restoration of exhibits, etc. Therefore, the Society for the Establishment of the Czech Pharmaceutical Museum was founded, which, within the framework of the law, and with the help and initiative of its members and patrons from the ranks of the profession and elsewhere, should help the Pharmacy Faculty obtain funds, and help in the realization of the museum and its expositions, which are under preparation.

The internal statutes of the society have been registered with the Czech (former Czechoslovak) Ministry of the Interior on October sixth, 1992, registry number VSC/1-15476/92-R. The Society has the identification number /IcO 48144428/ and a current account with the Investicní Banka, Hradec Kralove, No. 332590/5100. At present there are forty members; a contributing member pays a registration fee of Kc 20 and an annual contribution of Kc 100; an active member pays a registration fee of Kc 25 and an annual contribution of Kc 150; an individual founding member contributes a registration fee of Kc 100 and a one-time contribution of Kc 1,000; and an organizational founding member pays a registration fee of Kc 200 and a one-time contribution of Kc 20.000. It is also possible to present donations to the Society or to sponsor the establishment of expositions (restoration costs, showcases, etc.) or publications. Hitherto, the greatest patron has been Pierre Fabre Medicaments and Pharmaceutical Services (Lekarenska služba) in Chomutov and Šumperk, which donated a sum of Kc 100,000 from its reserve fund. Founding members and sponsors are entitled to use the exhibits and premises of the museum to publicize their activities, and all members have the right to participate with preference in all of the Society´s activities.

All surrounding states and other states in Europe have their representative pharmaceutical museums, and all pharmacists in these countries are proud of their museum and collaborate with it. They realize that such a museum helps create an image of tradition and trusworthiness in the public eye, and a feeling of pride in pharmacists. Therefore, we would be pleased if the professional honor of all Czech pharmacists and .pharmaceutical organizations, and the good will and favor of our foreign colleagues and institutions, led them to support the society by joining or sponsoring it, thus helping to establish the Czech Pharmaceutical Museum in Kuks.

Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, 1999
Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic
http://www.faf.cuni.cz/

Downloaded from:
http://www.faf.cuni.cz:6969/organization/sections/museum/

7. III. 2002