The New Orleans Pharmacy Museum
Welcome to the 19th-century French Quarter shop where modern U.S. pharmacy was born.
Back in 1816, when snake oil and magic potions ruled, Louis Dufilho Jr. became the first guy in America to pass a real pharmacy test after Louisiana made it law in 1804.
The two-story Creole home held his drug store, soda fountain, and post office. It’s now packed with wild tools and old-time cures that’ll make you glad for modern meds.
America’s First Licensed Pharmacist
When you walk through the door, you’re literally stepping into the birthplace of regulated pharmacy in the United States.
Right here in this building, Louis Dufilho Jr. made history in 1804 when he passed Louisiana’s tough pharmacy exam. For over 50 years, he ran this Chartres Street shop, bringing European standards to American medicine. The building still has its original cypress cabinets where Dufilho stored his medicines.
Love Potions That Were Quite Dangerous
Pharmacists really did mix cantharides (Spanish Fly) with chocolate and alcohol to help folks with their “bedroom troubles.”
You can see the handwritten recipes showing exactly how they made these dangerous concoctions. Next time you’re browsing the museum’s collection, remember these weren’t novelties but serious medicine.
Doctors prescribed these potions well into the early 1900s, though they could damage your kidneys or even kill you if the pharmacist wasn’t careful with measurements.
The Soda Fountain Had a Secret Purpose
That beautiful marble counter wasn’t just for serving refreshments. That Victorian soda fountain was one of medicine’s clever disguises. Pharmacists would mix bitter medicines into sweet, fizzy drinks so patients would actually take them.
The original syrup pumps are still there, once used to create early versions of famous sodas. This fountain is one of the few from the 1850s that remains intact today.
The Pharmacy Garden Grows Both Healing and Deadly Plants
Take a stroll through the courtyard and you’ll find yourself surrounded by the same plants 19th-century pharmacists grew. Many saved lives but could just as easily end them. Foxglove provided heart medication, deadly nightshade relieved pain, and mandrake worked as an anesthetic.
Over 20 species grow in historically accurate beds, each labeled with both healing properties and toxic effects.
There Are Powders That Could Turn You Into a Zombie
The second floor holds genuine tetrodotoxin powders collected in Haiti in the 1980s. Made from pufferfish toxins, these compounds could paralyze people while leaving them conscious. Dr. Edmund Leblanc donated the collection after studying with ethnobotanist Wade Davis.
The Pharmacy Saved Lives from Polio
During the 1950s polio outbreaks, when the pharmacy temporarily became an emergency treatment center for children who couldn’t breathe. Besides the medicines, a massive metal tube with a rubber seal forced their lungs to expand and contract by changing air pressure. Look closely and you’ll see it still has the original motor and pressure gauges from when it was in active use.
Those Leeches in the Jar Are the Real Deal
See that ceramic container with holes in the lid? It contained actual medicinal leeches from the 1800s, with special internal ridges that kept leeches from escaping. Their remains are still there.
Imported from Europe at $1 each (about $30 today), these bloodsuckers were valuable medical tools. You can still make out their segmented bodies preserved inside.
These particular specimens were discovered sealed away during the building’s 1950s renovation, forgotten in a hidden compartment for nearly a century.
Some Medical Devices Were Too Risqué for Display
The museum keeps some items in private archives that were once standard medical equipment. From 1920s Victorian-era devices for treating “female hysteria” to safety goggles that were used in operation, you’ll find a lot of odd stuff.
Appointments for these treatments happened in the pharmacy’s back room, recorded in a separate ledger from regular prescriptions.
The Collection’s Creator Met a Strange End
Dr. J. William Bradburn died suddenly in 1941 after testing a compound he was developing in the Caribbean, though something went terribly wrong.
Bradburn had been researching tropical disease treatments using substances found in the pharmacy’s basement. His laboratory journal (at the display counter) has notes showing his final unfinished formula.
Visiting the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum
You’ll find it at 514 Chartres Street, New Orleans, LA 70130.
- Admission: $10 for adults, $8 for students and seniors, free for children under 6 (as of 2025)
- Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM (Closed Sunday and Monday)
Try visiting on Wednesday afternoons when they occasionally demonstrate historical compounding techniques using antique equipment.
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