Wyposażenie „PRL-owskiej” izby recepturowej ze zbiorów Muzeum Okręgowego im. Leona Wyczółkowskiego w Bydgoszczy. Genius loci czy suma przypadków?

Equipment of a Prescription Room from the Polish People’s Republic Times in the Collection of Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz. Genius loci or the Sum of Cases?In 2017, the Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz purchased the collection of a private pharmacy museum, previously functioning in the back of the now-liquidated Pod Łabędziem (‘Under the Swan’) pharmacy in Bydgoszcz, first opened in 1853. Among the acquired museum exhibits, there is prescription room equipment from the Polish People’s Republic period. From the point of view of museum workers and researchers of pharmaceutical material culture, in order to learn more about the acquisitions, it is essential to answer the following questions: Where and when were the prescription furniture and their equipment produced? Were they used only in Pod Łabędziem (‘Under the Swan’) pharmacy? Is the room equipment complete? What can the preserved equipment tell us about the type of drugs produced there? The conducted analysis allows us to state that the prescription furniture were manufactured in Nowe nad Wisłą at the turn of the 1970s. The prescription room is an original component of the described pharmacy but preserved in a truncated form. Its location is secondary. Chaos reigns among the preserved utensils. The current state of affairs does not reflect the standards of work in the former community pharmacy. The sum of the cases prevails over the genius loci.