26 Jul 2021 Antique medicine bottles offer glimpse of days gone by

By Chloe Short

Located in downtown Conway sits Baker Drug. Customers know this store for its reputable service, friendly cashiers, and for the owner, Jimbo Hendrickson. You can bet these customers have also noticed the vast collection of antique medicine bottles the store exhibits.

Hendrickson displays various bottles around his store that capture the eye. Some date back further than 1964. The bottles contain things like poison, a desiccated placenta, and a memory substance. He also displays objects like old measuring cups, syringes, and inhalants. Hendrickson said he decided to arrange them around the store because he owned so many of them and wanted to give customers something interesting to look at and read.

“Anytime you had a bottle that had raised glass [like ridges], it meant it was a poison of some kind. Because before they had electricity, they’d pick it up in the middle of the night and wouldn’t know if it was poison or not unless it had the raised glass on it.” he said.

The pharmacist said that customers are most interested in the bottles that contain poisonous substances. Other bottles that shoppers most notice feature handwritten labels that state how to mix the drug. These medicine bottles show no expiration dates because early in medication history, expiration labels were not common. Most of the displayed antique medicines are no longer available by prescription nor safe for consumption because of health reasons and medical advancements.

“The most interesting one to me in my collection is a bottle of heroin and chloral hydrate with a handwritten label, so it goes way, way back,” Hendrickson said. “I have one bottle of tincture cannabis that was dated back in the ’50s. I’ve got iodine we used to sell all the time. They took it off the market because of all the mercury in it, but I’ve got a gallon of it.”

He bought Baker Drug from former pharmacist John Reese in 1978. When he purchased the store, 95% of the bottles came with it and lined the shelves all the way to the back of the store. The rest have been gathered from customers and make nice additions to the store.

“In fact, I’ve got like seven more totes of bottles upstairs that I need to unpack,” Hendrickson said.

Customers, people considering a local pharmacy, and other intrigued citizens looking for a unique collection of history can stop by Baker Drug on 924 Front St. in downtown Conway.