Pharmacy Museum Opens
[For a complete listing see the AIHP Publication, A guide to Pharmacy Museums and Historical Collections in the United States and Canada (BKS 27).]
by George Griffenhagen
A
nineteenth-century Danish colonial pharmacy museum opened on 27 September
1996, in Christiansted on the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The restoration was installed by the St. Croix Landmarks Society in the
original building where the pharmacy was located from 1828 to 1970. The
opening ceremonies were supported by the Good Neighbor Pharmacy Association
of St. Croix to coincide with the 1996 National Pharmacy Week observance.
The Christiansted Pharmacy Museum will be open to the public weekdays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. A tape recording in Danish, English, and Spanish describes the pharmacy museum to visitors. The recorded message takes note of the fact that this is the only Danish pharmacy restoration in the entire Western Hemisphere, and the only pharmacy museum in the Caribbean that is located in its original location.
The pharmacy was established by Peder Eggert Benzon, a Danish pharmacist who arrived in St. Croix in 1816 to prepare medicines for the Danish military garrison in Christiansted, then capital of the Danish West Indies. Initially Benzon manufactured medicines for the Danish soldiers as well as the other physicians and pharmacists in the Danish West Indies.
In December 1826, Benzon opened his own pharmacy at No. 50 King's Street where he advertised leeches for blood-letting. One year later, the Danish government granted Benzon a royal monopoly to operate the only pharmacy in St. Croix, and on 8 January 1828, Benzon moved his pharmacy into the present building at the corner of Company and Queen's Cross Streets in Christiansted. The pharmacy eventually became known as "Apothecary Hall," an English translation of the Danish term Apoteksbygningen.
The pharmacy operated under Danish rule until 1917 when the United States purchased the islands, renaming them the U. S. Virgin Islands. During the century and a half of existence of this pharmacy, which continued in operation until 1970, medical sciences underwent an amazing evolution. As evidence of this, the labels on the glass bottles and porcelain jars on the shelves of this pharmacy museum reveal the drugs that were dispensed to the nineteenth-century islanders.
Unlike the addictive opium-containing medicines widely used in the U. S. A. at the time, the Danish pharmacists practiced what is known as "heroic medicine." This consisted of dispensing harshly-acting chemical compounds of antimony, lead, and mercury to treat ailments that they understood even less than the drugs they were administering to their patients.
The last owner of this pharmacy was Laurence C. Merrill who purchased it in 1946 from the final Danish owner. Merrill continued to operate this pharmacy until he retired in 1970 and donated his handsome antique drug jars and pharmaceutical equipment to the St. Croix Landmarks Society. The pharmacy was restored and exhibited for a time at the Whim Museum. Two years ago, it was decided that the proper location for this historic pharmacy was in its original location, hence the opening of the Christiansted Apothecary Museum.
A sixteen-page booklet describing the history of the Christiansted Apothecary Hall, authored by pharmaceutical historian George Griffenhagen, who served as consultant in the establishment of the museum, is available for $5.00 postpaid from the St. Croix Landmarks Society, 52 Estate Whim, Frederiksted, St. Croix, U. S. Virgin Islands 00841.
