Sitting between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, Philadelphia has long been a nexus of medicine-making traditions. The two freshwater rivers sustained life, provided potable water, and facilitated transportation and trade. The rivers were thus vital to the city’s rapid growth in industry and government—a convergence that would enable Philadelphia to become the birthplace of American pharmacy.
Healing traditions and household remedies were practiced and shared among Philadelphia’s communities, which included free settlers, those enslaved, and Indigenous peoples. Some were midwives and mothers, some were medicine-makers, and others were apothecaries and traveling doctors. In 1752, an Irish immigrant by the name of Christopher Marshall opened the first recorded U.S. pharmacy, marking a trend toward more formal pharmacy practice.
Sixty-nine years later, this shift was accelerated by the founding of the Philadelphia College of Apothecaries at Carpenter’s Hall. The founding group of sixty-eight apothecaries, most of Quaker faith, aimed to improve safety and standards in the industry and practice of pharmacy by training practitioners in a science-based curriculum with a commitment to public health. A year later in 1822, the school was incorporated as the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (PCP).
Like the city, PCP is an ever evolving landscape. Between Two Rivers: 250 Years of Pharmacy in Philadelphia explores Philadelphia and PCP’s long and intertwined histories by tracing geographies of pharmacy through time and across the city. Reimagined as an abstracted map of Philadelphia, the gallery holds a shifting multiplicity of stories as varied and far-reaching as the city itself.
We invite you to contribute to the evolving history presented in the exhibition. Bring an item to add to the Pharmacy in 2026 time capsule, share a personal account at our story station, or get in touch to record an oral history or submit artwork.
Image to the left courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Are you an undergrad or recently graduated artist?
Please submit an application to illustrate a map of Philadelphia's independent pharmacies! Selected artists will receive a $500 cash prize upon project completion. Original artwork will be displayed in the exhibition, Between Two Rivers: 250 Years on Pharmacy in Philadelphia, at the Marvin Samson Museum for the History of Pharmacy. Applications close at midnight on July 5, 2026.
The Philadelphia College of Pharmacy's extensive collection of medicinal products and prescriptions from the Philadelphia region showcases the city's rich history of independent pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Click here to explore a selection of medicines that were sold by Philadelphia-based pharmacists or manufactured in local plants and laboratories over the last two centuries.