Historical information

Martin Malone acquired a pharmacy business in Bacchus Marsh in December 1932. The business operated from premises in Main Street. He acquired the pharmacy from a Mrs A. E. Grant who briefly operated the business during 1932 after being a pharmacist in Pakenham East for a number of years. In 1936 the pharmacy moved to 143 Main Street. Martin Malone sold the pharmacy to F. Benallack in September 1947 and moved to Canterbury in Melbourne to continue his pharmacy career. The prescription books in this collection encompass entries from August 1927 until February 1937. As Malone did not acquire the business in Bacchus Marsh until 1932 the collection includes records created by earlier proprietors of the business.

Significance

Detailed customer records of prescriptions dispensed by Pharmacists are held by some libraries and museums in Victoria but they are a relatively rare type of material to be preserved. These records cover a period of severe economic depression and are particularly valuable as a record of how pharmaceutical practices were conducted during times of economic hardship. .

Physical description

Five bound volumes containing lists of customers and the prescriptions provided to them by Malones Pharmaceutic Chemist in Bacchus Marsh. Hand-written entries. Each volume is between 498 and 506 pages in size. Each volume contains and A-Z surname index at the beginning which lists all the customers and the pages in the volume where their prescriptions have been recorded.