The South African National Pharmacy Museum exhibits a wide collection of artifacts used by pharmacists before the advent of the Pharmaceutical Industries. It was established and is maintained by pharmacists in order to preserve the history and heritage of the profession.
These display windows invite you to discover more (The Heritage Portal)
Inside the Pharmacy Museum (The Heritage Portal)
On display is all the equipment, raw materials, and products which the pharmacists used to prepare the Doctors' prescriptions. The Johannesburg prescription books date back to 1886 when the first pharmacy opened after the gold rush.
A wonderful photograph on display at the museum
The curator, Ray Pogir, is a retired pharmacist with a passion for the profession. He demonstrates the techniques and hand skills which were needed to produce pills, cachets, powders, ointments and suppositories and mixtures in the dispensary.
Ray demonstrates all the old techniques (The Heritage Portal)
The oldest artifacts date back to the mid-16th and 17th centuries. These were donated to the museum from private collections. They serve as a reminder of the role played by the apothecaries, as the earliest pharmacists were then named, in producing medicine.
Also on display is a range of about 700 examples of the medicines used by Traditional Healers in South Africa.
A small part of the collection of medicines used by Traditional Healers (The Heritage Portal)
The museum collection is unique and is internationally considered to be one of the best of its kind!
Contact Ray to arrange a visit - raypogir@pssasg.co.za
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