Apothecary Shop

The Apothecary Shop is a museum building within Shelburne Museum that recreates the interior of a late 1800s pharmacy. The space contains original glass bottles, copper distilleries, a work area with a brick hearth, and equipment used for mixing and preparing medicines.

The building was constructed in 1959 to preserve items from closed New England pharmacies in the early 1900s. The collection documents the time when small independent pharmacies disappeared and were replaced by modern drugstores.

The collection shows how people shifted from relying on home herbs to buying prepared remedies, reflecting a major change in how Americans approached their health. You can see this transition through the labeled bottles and the way the shop was arranged to build trust with customers.

The space can be visited during regular museum hours, and most bottles and equipment have clear labels. Plan time to look closely at the details, as many small objects and the room's layout show interesting aspects of how pharmacies operated.

Red and blue liquids sit in window vessels meant to represent arterial and venous blood. This visual signal followed an old pharmacy tradition to quickly show customers what kinds of treatments were available.