By John Antonowicz
Correspondent
Pepto-Bismol, Unguentine, NP-27, Amolin, Chloraseptic, and Norwich Aspirin are just some of the over 4000 products that were produced by The Norwich Pharmacal Company. With all these products produced by The Norwich Pharmacal Company, the company archives were vast, and showed the progressive history of the Pharmacal Company. Without the efforts of Shirley Edwards and Mildred Hazard, the Historical Society would not own all the original archives that once belonged to The Norwich Pharmacal Company.
Like most businesses, the company kept all of the original advertisements, artwork, products, and prescriptions in miscellaneous places within the factory. The company also kept many samples of the products they manufactured to use as a future resource.
In 1982, The Norwich Pharmacal Company became Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals. With Procter & Gamble taking over the company, representatives from the headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio went through the archives and sent a portion of the archives back to the headquarters. Even though Procter & Gamble took a large sample of the historical materials to Cincinnati, Norwich was still left with a great amount of materials that were unorganized and no one really knew what the archives contained.
In 1985, The Norwich Pharmacal Company celebrated their 100th anniversary with a museum opening in the Eaton Avenue portion on the company. The museum displayed a vast amount of photographs, paintings, products, and medical equipment that all were used or made by the Pharmacal Company in the past.
Shirley Edwards was born on Feb. 1, 1926 in Pharsalia and became a graduate of the Norwich High School class of 1942. Shirley joined the Pharmacal Company in the middle of the Second World War on Feb. 3, 1943. Although she planned on attending college, Shirley continued to work in the company until her retirement on June 30, 1993, a 50-year career with the company. Shirley worked in many positions throughout the company, including secretary, to the company president. She enjoyed her positions within the company and had a great impact on the company’s history.
