Stamps and Drugs

Tucson  Just a beautiful day. No rain.

First of all, thanks for your concern for my back. I had my massage so I'm sore but I can tell it's not as tight. Another appointment in two weeks. And NO lifting. 

I love finding small museums that aren't the usual type of historical museum. I found two of them that I thought could really be interesting.

Philately - noun definition - the collection and study of postage stamps

"The Postal History Foundation was established in 1960 by Bill Alexander. His idea was to establish an organization that studied and promoted research of Arizona and Western postal history." 

 

The museum has an 1890s postal station, a huge library (over 30,000 books), a stamp store, and it is also an operating post office. 

Libby wanted to be part of our tour.

One of the major goals of the Foundation is to teach K-12 students subjects like geography and history using stamps. The volunteers were really knowledgeable and very eager to share their love of stamps with us. 

I was never into stamp collecting. In fact, I've never really been a collector. So I found a place to sit and listen and let Pat and Marilyn do most of the looking and asking question. They always ask great questions. It's interesting to see how differently the three of us approach the places we stop. And I learn so much.

 

A glimpse into just a small portion of the library.

I've done it again (and I still don't know what it is) but everything is being centered. 

Now For The Drugs

Many years ago, when Jim and I were still full time RVers, we stopped at a Pharmacy Museum in Virginia, The Hugh Mercer Apothecary.   I really wanted to stop because Mercer is my maiden name. But the the people at the Apothecary were dressed in period costumes and the tour we had was really fun. So I found a Pharmacy Museum in Tucson. The Coit Museum located in the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy.

e museum

This museum has one of the world's leading collections of pharmaceutical artifacts. 

It took us awhile to find the museum. Most of the people we talked to weren't even sure that such a thing existed let alone how we could find it. But we persevered and finally success.

I always find an organization's Vision statement interesting. Coit's was no different.

"The Coit Museum aspires to create an authentic and engaging experience that broadens perspectives about the histories of pharmacy and health sciences for everyone."

I truly thought we would be the only people there but there was another group and we were told we could join their actual tour. But we decided to go it alone and we're glad we did. We found another docent who is a retired pharmacist and thoroughly enjoyed being a volunteer. I should have recorded some of his stories. The pictures show you some of the artifacts they have.

The museum began in 1966 with Jesse Hurlbut, a pharmacist and hobby historian. He collected all things pharmaceutical for decades and when he retired, he donated his collection to the University of Arizona Pharmacy College. For 55 years the museum had a highly unusual layout Exhibits were spread throughout the building in hallways and lobbies. In 2021 alumni R. Ken Coit donated the money for the space where the collection could be together in one space. Some of the older exhibits were left where they were because they would have been hard to move. 

Some of the items in the collection are the Upjohn Pharmacy collection that was located on Main Stret U.S.A. at Disneyland from 1955 to 1970, an Old Time Drugstore with a counter we could sit at, a large array of beauty products and so much more.

We asked our tour guide to recommend a place for lunch. He suggested we go to the Guadalajara Grill. It was busy but the food was really good. This woman comes over to your table to ask if you want her make your salsa for you. Now that was really good. Pat and Marilyn also had guacamole which they loved.

 

This post is long and we have two more stops that will be in the next blog post.