Historic Remedies
9 October 2026 - 15 January 2027
Knowledge Center, Hammer Health Sciences Center, Lobby
Sponsored by Archives and Special Collections, Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library

In recognition of National Pharmacy Week and American Pharmacists Month (October), the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library's Archives & Special Collections is pleased to announce the exhibit, Historic Remedies, now on display in the Knowledge Center lobby. This exhibition highlights the materia medica used by Western practitioners in the recent past that led to the development of modern pharmaceuticals.

Materials on display held by the Library include 19th-century drug bottles and apparatus from two medicine chests, 20th-century pharmacopoeias and formularies from the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and student notes from a Materia Medica course taught at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Representing only a portion of this history, these remedies inform how medical knowledge is built over time through worldwide human experimentation, observation, and innovation. 

The exhibit was curated by Jennifer Ulrich, Archivist and Special Collections librarian. The medicine chests’ bottles have previously been inspected by Columbia University Environmental Health & Safety.