The records of the American College of Apothecaries include materials concerning groups founded prior to 1940 but with objectives similar to those of the ACA; the history of the ACA; the founding procedure; administrative records regarding the constitution, by-laws, committees, special projects, membership, annual reports and minutes of the two yearly conventions and board of directors' meetings; correspondence; files on awards and honors; and miscellaneous papers.
A chronological arrangement has been established throughout under each series or subject wherever material is or can be dated. The files of the pre-ACA and associated groups, and those of the ACA's history, founding and administration are arranged sequentially in order of their occurrence or their significance for the organization. The correspondence is separated into that of Charles V. Selby, Frederick D. Lascoff, Max Lemberger, and Albin L. Malmo. Each of these four divisions is separated by years and alphabetically by correspondent thereunder. The awards and honors file is alphabetical by recipient surname.
The purposes of several groups organized prior to the ACA, such as the National Council on Pharmaceutical Practice, Association for the Advancement of Professional Pharmacy, American College of Pharmacists, Society of Pharmacy Colleagues, and the American Board of Apothecaries, overlapped those of the ACA. Most of these organizations were incorporated into the ACA when it was founded. Materials filed here pertaining to these organizations are mainly mimeographed pages from books and newspaper articles.
The papers pertaining to the founding of the organization include minutes and reactions to the organizing conferences. A draft of the first constitution and by-laws is filed here. Several newspaper accounts of the meetings are included also.
Administrative records include constitutional and by-law changes, a sample selection of the group's financial records, and the membership applications through 1950. There are three folders on special plans and projects pertaining to the search for an ACA emblem, and research projects of individual members and of the organization itself. Some correspondence relating to each of these administrative subject areas is filed here. The bulk of the papers in the administrative file consists of the annual reports. Each year's report includes open letters from either the president or the secretary to the membership, news releases to the press, and copies of papers read at the annual conventions and mid-year conferences. Except for the war years and the mid-1950s, the reports are complete. For the years 1958-1962 bound copies of the minutes of the conventions and conferences were distributed to the membership: a copy of each is preserved here. Minutes of the Board of Director's meetings (1940: 1956-1965) are also in this file and on one reel of tape. The ACA Bulletins and Secretary's Newsletters are available at the University of Wisconsin Powers Pharmacy Library: Photographs accompanying membership applications of pharmacies are in Visual and Sound Archives. Correspondence in the ACA records is seventy-five percent that of ACA secretary Charles Selby. Selby's correspondence covers eleven years (1940-1951) and is concerned with membership, dues, projects of the organization, and related matters. The remainder of the correspondence is that of Frederick D. Lascoff, Max Lemberger, and Albin L. Malmo.
A small series titled Awards and Honors consists of materials dealing with the honors awarded individuals (Homer George; Frederick Lascoff: Sister M. Jeannette, the first Lascoff Memorial Award recipient; and Charles Selby) by the organization.
The Scrapbook of Charles Selby is one kept during his years as secretary of the American College of Apothecaries (1940-1950).
