Sources and resources ‘The People’s Chemists’: the Walgreens Boots Alliance Archive

Greenwood, Anna; Ingram, Hilary

Abstract

This article explores the historic records of the Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) Archive, a repository of over 500,000 items chronicling the over 165-year history of Britain’s most famous pharmaceutical retailer. It introduces some of the diverse materials present in the collection that would be of interest to social historians of medicine and pharmacy, particularly highlighting resources pertinent to understanding developments in: the formation of pharmaceutical identity; medical advertising; the internationalisation of pharmaceutical and medical retailing; product research and development; and employee welfare. In the light of the recent launch of the first phase of the Boots online catalogue, the article demonstrates ways in which these records could be utilised to better understand the wider social, cultural and political dynamics at play in the development of medicine, healthcare and pharmacy in Britain over the long twentieth century.

Citation

Greenwood, A., & Ingram, H. (2018). Sources and resources ‘The People’s Chemists’: the Walgreens Boots Alliance Archive. Social History of Medicine, 31(4), 857-869. https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hky021

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 20, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Apr 26, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018-11
• Deposit Date: Mar 15, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 26, 2018
• Journal: Social History of Medicine
• Print ISSN: 0951-631X
• Electronic ISSN: 1477-4666
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 31
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 857-869
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hky021
• Keywords: Boots; archives; British pharmacy; pharmaceutical retail
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/928657
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/shm/article/31/4/857/4986968
• Contract Date: Mar 15, 2018