514 Chartres Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Website, tours, social feeds here.
- Situated in a Creole townhouse first occupied in1823 by a pioneering pharmacist and his family, the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum is an introduction to the maladies and remedies that beset the city’s residents of the past.
- Two floors of displays offer a sometimes-bracing history of medicine as practiced more than a century ago, an experience that counts as one of the French Quarter’s best museum values.
The history
Built in 1822 and 1823 for Louis J. Dufilho Jr., a Paris-trained pharmacist’s son, the Creole townhouse at 514 Chartres served as Dufilho’s first-floor apothecary and upstairs home to his family – wife Emy Adel Becnel and seven children, three of whom died in childhood.
Dufilho sold in 1855 and the family returned to his native France. The home was then occupied by Dr. James Dupas and his wife, Celestine Pauline Fleitas. The couple lived on the third floor and produced four children. His medical practice was conducted on the second floor. There are tales of malpractice regarding Dupas’s methods, which are refuted in wall text and on the museum’s website. Apparently a bit of a brawler, Dupas died at age 60 of “acute diarrhea.” A paper warehouse occupied the building for the rest of the 19th century.
The first half of the 20th century was not kind to the building. Partial restoration by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s preceded the purchase of the building by New Orleans Mayor Robert Maestri, who deeded it to the city with a goal of establishing a “Napoleonic museum.” The “Napoleonic museum,” whatever that means, never materialized, and the history-minded pharmacists who oversaw the Pharmacy Museum’s installation and a late-20th-century renovation cemented the old Creole townhouse as a mainstay of French Quarter museumgoing. The museum dates its founding to 1950.
A courtyard display explains that the current property is missing structures that would’ve been in use during the years of Dufilho family residence, including a multilevel building that housed stables, a kitchen, and quarters for enslaved servants. What remains of the Dufilho years, on view in the museum, are an example of the wax seal he used to brand his prescriptions, and some ceramics rescued from the site of a courtyard privy.
A plaque on the building’s front recognizes Dufilho as “one of the first of his profession to have been licensed in the United States.”
Overview
Many of the artifacts that formed the museum’s first collection were found by Louis Wilson, a future pharmacist who began saving items as a student at Loyola University in the 1930s. (Source: A 1990 Times-Picayune story marking museum improvements around that time.) Supplemented since then by donations by institutions and private collectors, the collection now comprises more than 18,000 items.
From the collection items on view, you will learn:
- Questionable medical practices of the past, including patent medicines, opiates, purgatives, etc.
- Also the role of elixirs, tinctures, plasters, early hypodermics, etc.
- The imagined perils of constipation
- The real perils of venereal disease
- The pharmacy roots of soda fountains
- Voodoo pharmacy practices
- Midwifery and obstetrics history (“By the 1850s, New Orleans led the South in obstetric medical science, as much as it could be called science at the time”)
- Early examples of corrective eyewear
- The time and energy devoted to curing the maladies caused by wayward humors and vapors
- The time and energy devoted to treat the very real scourges of Yellow Fever, malaria, and cholera
The museum’s totally reasonable admission price ($10 for adults, $7 for seniors, people with disabilities, and military) makes it one of the best museum values in town. If you bring an affinity for the sometimes-creepy subject matter, even better. The experience is old-timey in that there’s a lot of old stuff in glass cases. To me, it fits the time period the museum celebrates, ranging back a couple of centuries from the early 20th. The museum recommends 90 minutes to see it all. If you’re a read-it-all “diver” (definition), you could spend longer. There is no elevator to the second floor. More accessibility issues are clearly addressed here.
Public programs
The Pharmacy Museum conducts well-attended seasonally themed tours and programs. I wrote about one here. There are guided tours of the museum Thursday through Sunday morning (less frequently in summer). Check here for upcoming opportunities.
Museum store
Branded apparel, posters, and books are available in-store and online. Carryout leeches are not.
Parking
It’s the French Quarter, so there will be no parking bargains. There are paid lots on Chartres just a few steps from the museum.
Lunch
The Napoleon House is a neighbor. Eat there and later join the hot vs. cold muffaleta debate. The Gumbo Shop, a favorite of NFL legend and video-game titan John Madden, is a couple of blocks downriver.
Drinks
The Chartres House is also a neighbor. The Touche Bar, a block away on Royal, is convenient and casual. The endlessly dissipating temptations of Bourbon Street are another block farther.
Website
Colorful, comprehensive, and easy to navigate. Before your visit, find the self-guided tour (visit > exhibits > red button) that offers background on everything you’ll see. Also find the FAQ section, which owns Dufilho’s history as a slaveholder. Also this: Q. “Is the building haunted?” A: “Surely. Which historic building in the French Quarter isn’t? This said, we don’t permit paranormal investigations.”
Extra things
There’s an unexpected narrative on the second floor recounting the history of African American pharmacists in New Orleans. Also there is recognition of the pioneering role played by the pharmacy school at Xavier University of Louisiana.
Like other French Quarter history museums, the Pharmacy Museum is clear about the role enslaved people played in the history of the building and its residents.
The building’s lovely courtyard is a popular setting for weddings and other social occasions. More here.
