On 16 November the authorities of the then Chamber of Pharmacy in Cracow decided to organize a regional museum of pharmacy. In January 1961 the Museum of Pharmacy was taken over by the Medical Academy of Cracow. Now since 1993 the museum exists as a separate unit under the auspices of the dean of the Pharmaceutical Faculty of the Collegium Medicum at the Jagiellonian University. The Museum is one of the few museums of the type in the world.
Exhibits collected here show the history of pharmacy from the Middle Ages to modern times.
The collections contain antique apothecary jars, mortars of various size and shape, apothecary utensils, medicinal raw materials, memorabilia of eminent pharmacists, postage stamps and envelopes referring to the history of pharmacy, and curiosa pharmaceutica. An eighteenth century pharmacy has been reconstructed, as well as some other interiors - like an old laboratory, an apothecary cellar with barrels and bottles for medicinal wines, and an apothecary attic for drying and storing herbs. There are also pieces of furniture from old monastic pharmacies, as well as furniture in Empire, Neo-Baroque and Biedermeier style. The museum houses also the library preserving old herbals, antidotaria, pharmacopoeias and other old prints relating to the history of the art of preparing medicines.