Show globe
Show globes were displayed almost exclusively in English-speaking countries, contrasting with the wider use of the mortar and pestle as a pharmaceutical symbol.
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.
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.
Apothecary shops in coastal regions filled vessels with red and green liquids to show sailors where to obtain medical attention.
[5] 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.
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 its origin.
[7] 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.
If they were freestanding, they hung from a brass chain; the most elaborate had multiple tiers, each chamber containing a different color of water.
Pharmaceutical catalogs during the 1870s advertised numerous styles of show globes with each glass manufacturer developing his own design.
[13] Though oil could be used to illuminate the colored glass panes in windows, gas lighting in the early 19th century led to the general use of show globes.
[14] Through the 1950s, American Druggist urged pharmacists to bring back the show globe, terming it "the greatest trademark ever invented."
