On Nov. 28, Hamilton Alumni and Parent Relations hosted “Bristol Myers Squibb, Hamilton, and a Long Pharmacopeia” led by Professor Mackenzie Cooley, Assistant Professor of History and Director of Latin American Studies at Hamilton. The event took place virtually on Zoom and over 35 people attended.

Cooley shared her research on the genesis of Bristol Myers Squibb, which was founded by two Hamilton alumni, William McLaren Bristol, class of 1882 and John Ripley Myers, class of 1887. It was originally called Clinton Pharmaceuticals Company and based out of the second floor of the building now home to Clinton’s popular Utica Coffee shop.

The “first breakthrough product” of Bristol Myers was their Sal Hepatica salts, meant to ease constipation while mirroring many of the qualities of a bohemian spa’s natural mineral waters.

What is known today as Bristol Myers Squibb, explained Cooley, was founded in 1887 by Myers and third generation Hamiltonian Bristol after they took over a “failing drug manufacturing business” called the Clinton Pharmaceutical Company. The company eventually moved to Syracuse and then Brooklyn, and, in 1899, changed their name to “Bristol, Myers Company.”

Hamilton’s connection to the pharmaceutical company continued to remain strong, as Bristol’s son, Henry Platt Bristol, class of 1911, took over as president after his father, beginning the post in 1927.

Alongside an incredibly thorough and well organized presentation regarding Hamilton’s relationship with Bristol Myers Squibb and the history of the company itself, Cooley invited the audience to reflect on larger questions about the pharmaceutical industry as a whole. “Like most pharmaceutical projects, the drugs created by [Bristol Myers Squibb] often relied, and indeed, do rely, on natural products…,” she said. “How, we might ask, have these drug development products extracted medically potent materials from living nature and how have they recorded these efforts?”

While Cooley admits she doesn’t have “a systematic answer to this question” she does explore the findings of her archival research, carried out with the support of Jeremy Katz, Hamilton’s archivist. Their deep-dive into Hamilton’s collection revealed significant information about the pharmaceutical company and its history, especially its relationship to the College and information on its key founders.

Cooley also introduced herself and her research foci to the audience, highlighting her interests in the study of ideas, and her courses, including “The Scientific Revolution: Making Knowledge in the Early Modern World,” and an advanced seminar she will offer titled “Bioprospecting and Ecologies of Medicine.” “I teach courses on lots of different projects relating to the history of ideas,” she says, which cover a range of time periods. She goes on, “I’m really interested in where brilliant innovations come from and the interplay between society and individuality in creating inspiration and in creating big ideas.”

She also expressed a profound gratitude for her students who have supported her along her research and aided in her process. “Teaching here at Hamilton, I’ve really had the opportunity to work through some of these ideas, in Kuwait though they might be, with some of our brilliant students,” she said.