MUSEUM TOUR STOP
SKAGGS BUILDING, FOURTH FLOOR LOBBY
Just outside the elevator is the natural products display. This 102-drawer cabinet is filled with natural plant and mineral products, along with vintage medicinal bottles and correlating details about how the natural products were used.
Believed to have originated in a 1950s apothecary shop in Denver, the cabinet eventually made its way to Tucson, where an avid collector used it to store dollhouse miniatures. In 1990, Tucsonan Dave Fisher acquired the cabinet and began searching for someone who would maintain the massive piece. After years of battling pack rats who thought the structure would make an excellent habitat, Fisher generously donated the cabinet to the museum. Representative of an era in pharmacy when medications were kept out of sight, the cabinet was adapted to reveal pharmaceutical secrets that once were hidden.
College of Pharmacy graduate Frank Ernst (class of 2000) donated hundreds of hours to create the natural product display. Under the direction of the museum's curator, Dick Wiedhopf, Ernst meticulously brought the cabinet's history back to life.