Show Globe - Origins and History

Origins and History

The most dramatic story of their origin goes back to the time of Julius Caesar 100–44 BC. When the Romans invaded England, 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'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 journal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain) in 1931. As the columnist wrote, "Surely further research is needed."

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

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