The evolution of the apothecary at the nation’s first chartered hospital

A long time ago in a public health era far away, there was a world where retail store pharmacy storefronts weren’t on every corner and the tinctures and treatments people consumed when they were ill were a far cry from today’s modern medicines. This was the time of apothecaries—those fascinating druggists who meticulously mixed herbs and minerals, adding a dash of animal fat here and a bit of earwax there, all with the intent of curing common ailments. Historically, the term “apothecary” referred to both the person who manufactured and dispensed medicines (lowercase “a” for our purposes), and the shop in which those medicines were created and dispensed (capitalized “A”). Though they remain staples of fantasy worlds, apothecaries were not mystical, magical beings or peddlers of expensive (and often useless) oils, but highly valued and esteemed medical professionals.

As the nation’s first chartered hospital, founded in Philadelphia in 1751, Pennsylvania Hospital was also the first to have an associated Apothecary facility preparing medicines for patients, which curbed the need for apothecaries to act as both doctor and pharmacist, as was required in more rural areas of the colonies and later the new states. As the hospital expanded and the realm of American pharmacy evolved, so too did the role of the apothecary.

Still, it took some time before the hospital’s apothecary had a dedicated, purpose-built space to work. Because the construction of the three sections of Pennsylvania Hospital’s original Pine Building structure was almost entirely dependent on the contributions of wealthy philanthropists, nearly 50 years passed between the completion of the east wing and the other two sections. The center building was mostly completed in 1801 (the dome of the surgical amphitheatre upstairs was finished in 1804), and while its primary purpose was to join the east wing housing the physically ill and the west wing housing the mentally ill, the building also provided residential and administrative spaces for employees and servants. And on the first floor—the Great Court—there was at last a designated area for the Apothecary.

When Pennsylvania Hospital opens the Pine Building as a public museum in May 2026 in honor of the 275th anniversary of the hospital’s founding, one of the highlighted exhibit rooms will be a restoration of this Apothecary space to emulate its original design.

While this long-term space was not assigned for decades, the pharmaceutical needs of the hospital’s 150-180 patients still needed to be addressed. In 1764, Pennsylvania Hospital co-founder Thomas Bond wrote to the hospital’s Board of Managers requesting that an apothecary be appointed.

According to the letter, which has been preserved in the Pennsylvania Hospital archives, Bond and his colleagues urged the managers to reach out to their contacts in England as it was “absolutely necessary that a person properly qualified ... should be procured as soon as you conveniently can.” These qualifications included that he “be so well skilled in the Affairs of Chymistry [sic], as to be able to manage a small Laboratory,” though they were clear to “obviate any fears of his having too great employment” by explaining that the candidate would not be required to diagnose illnesses or dress wounds like traditional one-man-band apothecaries.

The physicians’ request was fulfilled, and by the end of the eighteenth century, the hospital’s managers sought to expand the Apothecary even further to keep up with the increase in beds. An archived indenture contract from 1791 indicates that a man named William Gardiner was brought on board as an apothecary’s apprentice. Though some apothecaries attended medical school, most learned the trade through apprenticeships, as was customary of many career paths at the time. While Gardiner’s “Master” was expected to be an accomplished chemist, perhaps with experience pulling teeth or assisting with childbirth, the contract indicates that the rules of Gardiner’s indenture term were a bit more mundane: readily obey the apothecary and keep their secrets, faithfully use this experience to learn as much as possible about the “Trade or Mystery of an Apothecary,” and abstain from “Cards, Dice, or any unlawful Game” as well as “Ale-houses, Taverns, or Play-houses.”

In addition, the apothecary was eventually tasked to track the weather in meteorological records from 1824 until 1922. Although unknown as to why this would be the apothecary’s responsibility, the records were distributed in local newspapers to report the temperature, plants in bloom, and thriving crops. One of the longest standing apothecaries, John Conrad, who served for 30 years until the 1870s, treated the records similarly to a diary, keeping notes on daily happenings in the city like wartime efforts—providing what today stands as an unusual, and valuable cultural history of the city of Philadelphia.

In 1808, the Board of Managers once again received a letter from the hospital’s physicians, this time authored by Philip Syng Physick, the “father of American surgery,” and Benjamin Rush, the “father of American psychiatry” (and man with a penchant for bloodletting). The letter details that the surgeons required “the appointment of another apothecary” in addition to the man already employed due to the “late increase of patients.” Any subsequent correspondence no longer exists, but it’s likely their wish was granted given that the spacious Apothecary room had recently been completed—and that they had already done the groundwork for the managers by recommending John A. Gordon, a man of “talent, preparatory education, and character,” for the job.

From Apothecary to pharmacy

As Pennsylvania Hospital’s footprint continued to grow, the hospital management decided to relocate the Apothecary to a newer building. It remained a strictly inpatient dispensary, though it eventually began serving employees as well. By the early twentieth century, “apothecaries” were out of fashion, and “pharmacies” were the new modern concept to dispense drugs that were increasingly produced en masse in factories. William Procter, Jr., a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and the “father of American pharmacy,” worried that the relevance of the meticulously trained, scientifically minded pharmacist was swiftly waning, and instead “he relapsed into a simple shopkeeper.”

Perhaps Procter’s fears would have been assuaged had he lived to see the evolution of the modern pharmacy. While it’s true that a pharmacist may play the part of “shopkeeper” for a moment when ringing up a few boxes of tissues and a pint of ice cream alongside a prescription, this has always been the case. Apothecaries often sold household and personal items (soap, candles, tobacco), and that tradition continues at community drugstores and Penn Medicine’s retail pharmacies, located at hospitals and many multispecialty outpatient facilities across the region.

Though the role has expanded and (thankfully) involves less trial-and-error experimentation, the apothecary/pharmacist remains just as essential to patient care as ever.