Collection Guide
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New York City Pharmacist account book
Biomed.0641
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: New York City pharmacist account book
source:
Palinurus Antiquarian Books
Identifier/Call Number: Biomed.0641
Physical Description:
1 unknown
(1 account book)
Date (inclusive): 1826-1838
Physical Location: Held at UCLA Library Special Collections. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access
special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Palinurus Antiquarian Books, 24 October 2013.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
7311304
[Identification of item], New York City pharmacist account book (Collection 641). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History
and Special Collections for the Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.
Manuscript account book of purchases of wholesale medical goods, oddments, and accessories by a New York City pharmacist.
The account book records purchases "bot [i.e., bought] of" named suppliers of materia medica, extracts, chemicals, dyes, glassware,
corks, paper, pill boxes, and other clearly-identified materials, from 1826 to 1838. Nearly all of the record is in plain
English, omitting chemical notations or shorthand in favor of common names. Some goods include their places of origin; e.g.,
Egyptian opium, gum Senegal, English rose water, Barbadoes Tar, and Bengal Indigo. Purchases are clearly dated and delineated
with respect to the item, quantity, and charges.The record book is not a set up as an accounts register or ledger (for cost/profit)
but as a record of purchases, quantities, price, and buyer. The supplier list is varied but certain names and firms repeat
throughout; for example, H H Schiefflin, a wholesale pharmacy founded in New York in the late 18th century, appears throughout.
On 10 February 1833, the business was the subject of a 16-page inventory, from "sign over the door" and "marble slab on counter"
to tinctures, oils, ointments, and powders, with each entry assigned a monetary value.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Palinurus Antiquarian Books