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Manuscripts

San Francisco pharmacy album

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Description
A bound volume containing over 2,400 manuscript prescriptions filled by an unidentified San Francisco pharmacy. The dated and numbered prescriptions are mounted on both sides of each page, with approximately seven to nine prescriptions per page; the prescriptions are written on various billheads or plain paper issued by many different physicians. The prescriptions provide information about the doctors, surgeons, pharmacists, druggists, and patients in San Francisco during the latter part of the 19th century; among the drugs prescribed are cocaine, morphine, opium, and literally hundreds of other compounds and simples. There are a number of prescriptions written by women doctors, including Isabel Lowry, who studied medicine in Paris with her twin sister Agnes, and Tey Watanabe, who was a graduate of the University of California, San Francisco, the first Japanese physician licensed in California. With contemporary half morocco and cloth covered boards; the pages in the volume are heavily foxed with considerable oxidation on acid paper. The spine has perished, the rear cover is detached, and the front cover is mostly detached; the pages, however, remain bound and can be easily turned, although the binding is tight in several places.
Type
Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date
1888 July-1890 January.
Call number
mssHM 84058
Provenance
Purchased from Donald A. Heald Rare Books & Fine Art, August 2020. According to the dealer, the album was apparently found in an attic in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Restrictions
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.
Rights
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining permission rests with the researcher.
Dimensions
39 cm
Find out more
View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

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