When Robert K. Pentland, one of Temple University School of Pharmacy’s (TUSP) very first students, arrived in 1901 for his first day of classes, he most likely carried only a fountain pen and tablet to help him get started in a professional field undergoing drastic and rapid changes. He sat in College Hall next to the old Baptist Temple with the only other student to be enrolled in the pharmacy program, Minnie Asnis.

Henry Ryan, Class of 1926

For students like Pentland who were among the first to graduate from TUSP, the experience of attaining their degrees was understandably quite different from that of today’s students. Initially, only two degrees — the Doctor of Pharmacy and the Master in Pharmaceutical Chemistry — were offered. Both were two-year degrees that included a wide variety of classes taken in Pharmacy, Medicine and the Liberal Arts.

Temple College, as the University was then known, was under financial duress in 1901 and, as a result, could not afford to establish separate physical facilities for both the School of Medicine and the School of Pharmacy. Students enrolled in Pharmacy and Medicine attended classes of equal importance to both professions. All classes were held in the evening and were taught by the same faculty. It was not until 1905 that the TUSP faculty was completely organized with its own staff of six part-time professors and 10 part-time instructors. 

Pentland and his classmates were required to complete the newly created two-year course of study to receive their degrees. Since all of the students enrolled at the time were employed during the day and were attending classes in the evening, they took an additional year to complete their coursework. TUSP had been in existence for five years before day and afternoon courses were offered, which occurred at the same time that the School separated from the School of Medicine.

The world of pharmacy was changing rapidly as TUSP came into its own. In the years just before and after the doors opened, many scientific advances were made that still affect the field today. In the first half of the 20^th century, antibiotics were developed, vaccines for diseases such as smallpox and polio were discovered, vitamin products first came into use and increasing numbers of synthetic drugs were first made possible.

Drug discovery began to develop as a stepwise process with one of the pharmaceutical sciences, medicinal chemistry, playing a pivotal role in the production of new chemical entities for pharmacologic study. The increasing sophistication of drug discovery was paralleled by advances in pharmaceutics and the development of drug delivery systems (dosage forms); large-scale manufacturing processes; the creation of new disciplines such as biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics in order to establish suitable dosing regimens; and the evolution of regulatory processes to oversee issues of drug safety, efficacy and quality control.

A student studying to become a pharmacist struggled to bridge the gap between the worlds of the 19th and 20th century. In the late 19th century, pharmacists worked independently, compounded herbs to make pills and potions and were a great source of medical information to their patrons.

In the 20th century, synthetic, manufactured drugs began to diminish the importance of extemporaneous compounding, thus turning pharmacies in large part into dispensaries. Thus the corner drug store, remembered now as much for the prominent soda fountain as for the prescriptions filled there, was transformed. This transformation took several decades, and up until the early 1960’s, it was not unusual to observe pharmacists compounding several prescriptions ordered by physicians on a daily basis.

The most telling changes experienced by TUSP can be seen through a look at the daily life of a student like Robert Pentland. Typical coursework for the first classes of TUSP included subjects like Materia Medica, Physics, Chemistry, Physiology, Hygiene, Bacteriology, Botany and Pharmacognosy. One of the unique aspects of a pharmacist’s training in 1901 was the effort put into learning the display and design characteristics of the original apothecaries. Pharmacies remained ornate establishments for many years, and student pharmacists learned the art of elaborately displaying bottles and jars of various chemicals in the windows and shelves of their stores. Despite the fact that compounding was becoming less and less necessary each passing decade, it was still regular practice for corner pharmacists to keep the dramatic urns containing herbs and powders lining the walls. Student pharmacists at TUSP in 1901 took courses to learn how to create compelling window displays. It was not until the latter half of the 20th century that such courses were removed entirely from the curricula of pharmacy schools.

The buildings that Robert Pentland spent so many evenings in to earn his degree have also changed quite a bit since the School was established. Like many colleges at Temple, TUSP first held classes in the basement of College Hall on Main Campus before Temple University acquired the Philadelphia Dental College and Garretson Hospital buildings at 18th and Buttonwood Streets and moved the Schools of Medicine, Chiropody and Pharmacy to that location.

TUSP remained there until 1947 when it moved to what is now known as the Old Dental School building on North Broad Street. The School did not occupy its own building until 1974 when the current School of Pharmacy building was constructed to accommodate the growing number of students and the need for large classrooms and modern laboratory facilities for both teaching and research.

Robert Pentland is typical of the original students that made up so much of Temple’s lore. TUSP has steadily gained in enrollment over the years and is now, after 100 years, the alma mater to 7,000 graduates from across the nation and the globe.

In a report compiled by Dean Joseph Sprowls in 1961, he said of TUSP, “Those who study and teach at Temple University can never forget the generosity, the devotion, and the humanitarian spirit which brought about the foundation of this great institution and which existed so strongly in the hearts of those who gave so much during the early years to make it grow and live.”