A show globe is a glass vessel of various shapes and sizes containing a colorful liquid. It has been a symbol of pharmacy

Pharmacy

Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...

 from the 17th century England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to the early 20th century in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It marked the drugstore or apothecary

Apothecary

Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....

 in much the same way as the barber's pole

Barber's pole

A barber's pole is a type of sign used by barbers to signify the place or shop where they perform their craft. The trade sign is, by a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, a staff or pole with a helix of colored stripes...

 marked tonsorial establishments in some countries. People who were illiterate needed such symbols to locate these medical practitioners.

While the mortar and pestle

Mortar and pestle

A mortar and pestle is a tool used to crush, grind, and mix solid substances . The pestle is a heavy bat-shaped object, the end of which is used for crushing and grinding. The mortar is a bowl, typically made of hard wood, ceramic or stone...

 are still considered a symbol of pharmacy, show globes were displayed almost exclusively in English-speaking countries. The pestle was a stone grinder, used to grind bone and medicine. The mortar was a stone bowl. They almost always go together.

Origins and history

The most dramatic story of their origin goes back to the time of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 100-44 BC. When the Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 invaded Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, according to this report, Caesar's forces found an ideal landing site opposite a pharmacy window which displayed large containers of colored liquids. Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

's forces guaranteed the pharmacist that he would be safe from the invading forces as long as he kept lighted lanterns in his windows which would serve as a beacon for the landing forces. As a token of his appreciation, Caesar "decreed that henceforth all apothecaries would be permitted to exhibit containers of colored liquids in their windows as a symbol of their calling."

The main problem with this theory is that this would have occurred at least twelve centuries before there was any recognizable profession of pharmacy. This story was reported in The Pharmaceutical Journal

The Pharmaceutical Journal

The Pharmaceutical Journal is the official journal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, and before that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain....

(the journal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain) in 1931. As the columnist wrote, "Surely further research in needed."

Another theory says that show globes had their origins in the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

 during the period of Islamic domination. Shops were outdoors and pharmacists may have placed their material in elaborate jars or containers which could be the forerunners of show globes. Travelers from Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

 admired these urns and took the idea back home. There are two reasons why this is probably false; there is no evidence that show globes were popular as a symbol in the Middle East, and instead of show globes appearing throughout Europe they are almost exclusively Anglo-American

Anglosphere

Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...

.

Another hypothesis says that show globes may have been maceration vessels, which were used to steep organic material in sunlight. The trouble with this explanation is that "England is not famous for its sunny days."

Another theory makes the show globe a kind of first aid

First aid

First aid is the provision of initial care for an illness or injury. It is usually performed by non-expert, but trained personnel to a sick or injured person until definitive medical treatment can be accessed. Certain self-limiting illnesses or minor injuries may not require further medical care...

 beacon. Apothecary shops in coastal regions filled vessels with red and green liquids to show sailors where to obtain medical attention.

Apothecaries in England had been competing with physicians since an act passed in 1542 permitted them to practice medicine along with anyone else. According to another theory which puts pharmacists in a good light, during the Great Plague of London

Great Plague of London

The Great Plague was a massive outbreak of disease in the Kingdom of England that killed an estimated 100,000 people, 20% of London's population. The disease is identified as bubonic plague, an infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted through a flea vector...

 (1665–66), while many physicians were fleeing the city, apothecaries placed containers of colored liquids in their windows "to assure the threatened citizenry that they were still there ready to provide needed help." Apothecaries may have seen this as a chance to expand their medical activities, as well as acting altruistically.

George Griffenhagen, pharmacist and acting curator of the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

, did extensive research into the evolution of the show globe and laid to rest many of the more unusual stories about the origin of the show globe. He thought that the show globe appeared when the apothecaries and alchemist

Alchemist

An alchemist is a person who practices alchemy. Alchemist may also refer to:-People and groups:*The Alchemist , a hip hop music producer and rapper*Alchemist , an Australian progressive metal band...

s merged their professions during the mid 16th to mid 17th century. In England in the mid 1550s, just as physicians competed against apothecaries, the apothecaries, who delivered surgical services along with compounding and dispensing herbal medicines, competed with chemists and druggists. Druggists bought drugs in bulk and sold them as merchants (not as medical practitioners like the apothecaries); while chemists, who were derived from alchemists, prepared and sold chemical preparations used for medicinal purposes, like mercurials.
To attract attention to themselves and to symbolize the mystery and art of their profession these chemists displayed show globes with solutions of colored chemicals. Apothecaries and physicians were usually considered more conservative in their practice before the 18th century and often restricted themselves to non-chemical drugs using material of largely botanical origins. Most historians today feel the show globe began as a symbol of the chemist

Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

's shop. Eventually the apothecaries began to use chemical remedies, and also adopted the globe as their symbol.

For a largely illiterate public the show globe was a welcoming symbol. Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 once declared they were the only "bright and cheery spot in a London street on a dark and wet night."

Coming to America

According to Charles Richardson, a collector of pharmaceutical artifacts, two apothecaries arrived in Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...

 (1607) shortly after it was founded, and the colonists asked the Virginia Company

Virginia Company

The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on 10 April1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America...

 to send more physicians and apothecaries to the colony. In the early American settlements there was a shortage of health professionals; public officials, religious leaders, educators and household heads served as health advisors. Herbs and Indian remedies were used and apothecary shops were set up in large population centers. During the Revolutionary War medicine and pharmacy emerged as separate professions, and the first American Pharmacopoeia was printed in 1778. By the 19th century, pharmacists had stopped practicing medicine and even the name apothecary faded away. Pharmacies developed the warmth and comfort of country stores and were displaying show globes, which by 1789 were being exported to America. According to one writer, the only way pharmacies distinguished themselves from other stores was this unique sign. "Bakeries and hardware stores did not differ greatly from pharmacies in their façades." It was in the United States 19th century that the show globes started to develop their elaborate design and diverse forms. Although the show globe became a pharmacy symbol of mainly English-speaking countries, it did appear in a few other countries notably France.

Design and colors

Next to their origins, the greatest debate about show globes is what, if anything, the colors of the liquids symbolized. Red and blue may have indicated arterial

Arterial blood

Arterial blood is the oxygenated blood in the circulatory system found in the lungs, the left chambers of the heart, and in the arteries. It is bright red in color, while venous blood is dark red in color...

 and venous blood

Venous blood

Venous blood is deoxygenated blood in the circulatory system. It runs in the systemic veins from the organs to the heart. Deoxygenated blood is then pumped by the heart to lungs via the pulmonary arteries, one of the few arteries in the body that carries deoxygenated blood .Venous blood is...

. One belief was that if the globe was filled with red liquid there was a plague in town, but if it was filled with green all was well. Pharmacists could create vibrant colors with chemicals in their shops, often following a recipe book.

Most globes were plain glass, but sometimes they were punty cut or etched glass. Some had multiple stoppers, each stopper smaller than the one below, tapering to a small finial at the top. They could be freestanding or wall-mounted. If they were freestanding they hung from a brass chain, with the most elaborate having multiple tiers, each chamber containing a different color water. It was not so much the pharmacists who were responsible for the evolution of show globes to works of arts, but American glass manufacturers. Pharmaceutical catalogs during the 1870s advertised numerous styles of show globes with each glass manufacturer developing his own design. A US patent was granted in 1869 to Henry Whitney of Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

, for a show globe with a colored glass body with a neck and base of transparent uncolored glass. The purpose of this design was to eliminate the need to use colored liquids, which could leave a residue inside the bottle.
Though oil could be used to illuminate the colored glass panes in windows, gas lighting in the early 19th century led to the general use of show globes. They could be lit from the interior or placed in front of a gas jet. In the US, globes were usually illuminated by a light placed behind them.

Decline

Despite many attempts to revive show globes, they have disappeared from American pharmacies. By the early 20th century, new stores shunned them, and they were disappearing from many older pharmacies. Renewed support for the globes in the 1930s moved the Owens-Illinois Glass Company to introduce a new style with an electric bulb inside to illuminate the globe. Through the 1950s, American Druggist urged pharmacists to bring back the show globe, terming it "the greatest trademark ever invented."

Further reading

• McGee J. Piece on pharmacy history: Show globes. Maryland Pharmacist. 1997 Jan-Feb;73:16-8
• Stieb EW. Show globe—beacon through time. Pharmacy in History. 1986;28(1):52-4]
• Griffenhagen G. Signs and signboards of pharmacy. Pharmacy in History. 1990;32(1):12-21
• Hammond CV. An international pharmaceutical symbol. J Am Pharm Assoc. 1972 Dec;NS12:615,620, 632
• Helfand WH. Design of American pharmacies, 1865-1885. Pharmacy in History. 1994;36(1):26-37
• Richardson CG. The pill rollers : A book on apothecary antiques and drug store collectibles / by Charles G. and Lillian C. Richardson. Harrisonburg, Va.: Old Fort Press; 2003.
• Show globes are making a comeback — but where did they come from?. 2007–2008.
• Hammond CV. An international pharmaceutical symbol. J Am Pharm Assoc. 1972 Dec;NS12:615,620, 632.
• Whitney H. inventor; Improved show bottle. US Patent 88,105. 1869 March 23, 1869.
• Thompson CJS. The mystery and art of the apothecary, by C.J.S. Thompson. London: John Lane; 1929. p. 250.