Pubdate: Sun, 23 Jun 2002
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2002 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Carrie Coppernoll

MUSEUM HELPS VISITORS APPRECIATE MODERN DRUGS

GUTHRIE -- Looking through the glass cases at the Oklahoma Frontier Drug 
Store Museum, the difference between modern medicines and 
turn-of-the-century tonics is stark. Small brown bottles with peeling 
labels line the shelves of the Drug Store Museum, along with boxes of hair 
tonic and baby oils. Patients today aren't likely to find ground cactus or 
Jamaican ginger root in their pharmacies, but they can find them at 214 W 
Oklahoma.

Museum curator Mark Ekiss has spent a decade collecting the 20,000 
artifacts, and he's inventoried and appraised every one of them. About 90 
percent are donated from Oklahoma drug stores, he said.

Many of the museum artifacts are rare, Ekiss said. Some antiques can't be 
found in modern pharmacies, including a delicate blue and white urn with 
gold lettering across the front: "Leeches."

"We have a lot of one-of-a-kind artifacts that you won't find any place 
else," Ekiss said. A box of "Arsenic Complexion Wafers," dated 1900, is the 
most unusual artifact in the museum, Ekiss said. Women would eat the toxic 
arsenic wafers to make their cheeks rosy.

Cocaine, morphine and laudanum (opium dissolved in alcohol) were sold to 
pharmacy customers without prescriptions before 1915, Ekiss said.

A "Poison Register" documented the men and women who bought these drugs. 
Patients listed their name, address, "poison" and purpose for buying the drug.

One woman listed her reason for buying cocaine as "medical." One man simply 
wrote "habit."

About 7,500 visitors come to the museum each year. Last year, tourists came 
from all 50 states and 34 foreign countries. Ekiss said he would often have 
"three-way conversations" -- non-English speaking visitors would speak 
through an interpreter to ask questions about the museum and the artifacts.

Most visitors leave the museum with a new perspective of their 
prescriptions, Ekiss said.

"They can get a better appreciation for modern medicine when they can see 
how far we've come in 100 years," he said. "It's amazing."

The museum is designed to resemble an early 1900s pharmacy. The soda 
fountain and cases lining the outer walls were typical characteristics of 
turn-of-the-century pharmacies.

Many artifacts are more than 100 years old. Most of the bottles in the 
collection have cork caps, an important dating tool, Ekiss said. Bottles 
with cork caps, called "corkers," were used until 1925, when screw-on metal 
caps became popular.

A cracked, black leather saddle bag designed to carry medicine is the 
oldest item in the museum, dating to 1865. A light brown bottle case on the 
saddle hugs a couple of glass medicine bottles.

A rusting suppository mold, dated to 1867, is another one of the older 
artifacts, Ekiss said.

Prescription slips dated 1904 are some of Ekiss' favorite artifacts. He 
donated them from the collection he had at Mark's Drug in Guthrie, a 
pharmacy Ekiss owned before retiring.

In addition to the donated bottles and boxes, a Guthrie artist made a 
one-of-a-kind donation of his own.

Fred Olds gave six original paintings to the museum, unpaid and 
unsolicited. Five of the oil paintings are of prairie scenes and one is of 
children at a soda fountain. Pam Ekiss, Don's daughter and the only paid 
museum employee, said Olds approached the museum about donating his work, 
and the paintings add to the atmosphere of the museum.

All the other workers at the museum are volunteers, usually Guthrie 
residents, pharmacy students or pharmacists, Don Ekiss said. He works about 
five hours a day, five to six days a week.

The museum opened Sept. 13, 1992, and is on the first floor of the 
two-story Gaffney Building, home of the first Oklahoma pharmacy, Lillie 
Drug Store. The owner, Foress B. Lillie, came to Oklahoma Territory as part 
of the land run in 1889.

After rushing from the outskirts, Lillie set up a tent and sold medical 
supplies to pioneers. Before the land run, he had sent boxes of drugs to 
the depot in Guthrie, so he was ready for business the day after the rush. 
The spot he chose -- next door to the land office -- proved a profitable 
location, and Lillie's Drug Store flourished. He later moved in to the 
Gaffney Building across the street from his make-shift tent pharmacy.

Lillie was a founder of the Oklahoma Pharmaceutical Association and the 
first Oklahoma pharmacist, receiving the No. 1 certificate from the newly 
formed association. His certificate is on display at the museum. Lillie was 
also the first secretary of the Oklahoma Board of Pharmacy. He died in 1927.

The museum is funded through grants and donations, and museum memberships 
account for much of the funding. About 300 pharmacists with lifetime 
memberships pledge $100 a year for 10 years.

"It's those pledges and the few grants we've got that have kept our heads 
above water," Ekiss said.

Ekiss is applying for additional grants to buy the parking lot next to the 
museum to make a tourist area with park benches, fountains and a gazebo.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom