Founding
The American Institute of the History of Pharmacy was founded in Madison, Wisconsin, on January 22, 1941 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy. Its six founders – Dr. Arthur H. Uhl, Dr. Edward Kremers, Dr. Louis W. Busse, Dr. Lloyd M. Parks, Dr. George Urdang, and Jennings Murphy – all had an interest in history and pharmacy. Diverse in their outlooks, they held a collective vision to preserve pharmacy’s heritage and foster historical understanding by acting as a resource for the wider pharmacy community.
Kremers & Urdang
AIHP grew out of a movement to integrate history into science education, championed by Dr. Edward Kremers, a reformer in pharmaceutical education who introduced the first history of pharmacy course in the U.S., and collaborated with Dr. George Urdang, an internationally recognized pharmacy historian, on the landmark textbook History of Pharmacy (1940). Urdang became AIHP’s first director, establishing its reputation as an international leader in historical scholarship.
For more than eight decades, AIHP has served as a resource for scholars, educators, and professional organizations, promoting research, teaching, and publications. We maintain extensive collections of manuscripts, artifacts, and reference materials, publish the peer-reviewed journal History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals, and sponsor programs, grants, and awards that advance research and teaching. Today, AIHP continues to illuminate pharmacy’s role in health, science, and society-past, present, and future.
