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bottle

Catalog Number
2019.35.12
Description
Empty glass bottle with paper label. The label contains the words "Parke, Davis & Co., Holland, Michigan, USA" at the bottom. Above this is the name of the medicine, TR. Of Phemerol. This bottle contains a glass stopper.
History
Parke-Davis started out in Detroit, MI ca. 1860. Early in 1952 they opened a plant in Holland Charter Township at 182 Howard Avenue, in the former Armour Leather Company building. They began manufacturing antibiotics in Holland, with the drug chloromycetin being the most popular at the time.
In 1975 the Holland facility was expanded to include chemical manufacturing and research buildings. “The entire complex in 1977 became part of Warner-Lambert…. The 350 employees, of which one-third were chemists, discovered and produced many leading products, including the anticonvulsant drugs Dilantin and Neurontin, the cholesterol-lowering Lopid, the anti-histamine Benadryl, and the Alzheimer drug Cognex.
In 2000 the facility changed hands again when Pfizer…bought Warner-Lambert and committed $250 million for a research laboratory in Holland, which opened in 2002. The next year Pfizer began downsizing, first closing the laboratory in 2004 and laying off nearly one hundred chemists, and then in 2007 ending production in the adjacent manufacturing plant. Pfizer generously donated the $50 million laboratory to Michigan State University for biotechnology research, but razed the manufacturing plant after failing to find a buyer.”
- Robert Swierenga, "Holland, MI: From Dutch Colony To Dynamic City" pages 1015-1016.
Gift of
Freckman, Bill