'Chemists to the Nation, Pharmacy to the World': Exploring the Global Dimensions of British Healthcare and Beauty with Boots the Chemists, 1919-1980

“化学家走向国家，药学走向世界”：通过 Boots the Chemists 探索英国医疗保健和美容的全球维度，1919-1980

• 批准号: AH/T008741/1
• 负责人: Anna Greenwood
• 金额: $ 89.97万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FT008741%2F1
• 关键词: Chemists; Nation; Pharmacy; World; Exploring

This project will explore the largely unknown international history of British healthcare and beauty, using Boots the Chemists, Britain's most recognised chain pharmacist, as the central case study. The project spans the period from 1919, when the company posted its first sales agent overseas, to the streamlining of its divisions in 1980. It examines how Boots established itself as a prospector, retailer and manufacturer overseas, but also how it continually absorbed international influences as part of its home marketing strategies. Drawing on Boots' vast, underexplored archive (c.5,000 boxes of approximately 500,000 items), this project bridges medical, social, cultural, business, colonial and transnational history. The project team are not interested in writing a classic business biography of Boots' success and growth, rather they are interested in exploring what the Boots story reveals about the international dynamics of the British health and beauty industries. The central research question asks: How does Boots' international archive allow us to map the global networks that moulded and sustained British experiences of healthcare and beauty both at home and abroad? To answer this, thematically focused work packages will recreate the life-cycles of key products within six product domains (pain management, personal hygiene, surgical supplies, vitamins, perfumes, and skincare) across local, national and international spaces. These six focal areas have been selected because of their ample archival resources and their potential to illustrate how complex imperial and other global networks of materials, knowledge and people underpinned the development of British healthcare and beauty, both at home and overseas.This pioneering research will appear in leading academic journals across the historical humanities and in a co-authored book. It will advance early career capacity by employing a full-time postdoctoral researcher, and provide additional opportunities for an already funded M4C doctoral student. Three interdisciplinary academic workshops will explore new perspectives on the internationalisation of the UK beauty and healthcare industries and will open the project to colleagues in geography, pharmacy, medicine, literature and linguistics.The project team will showcase findings via an easily navigable website featuring information about the project, links to relevant resources and quarterly updated project stories, attractively illustrated with archival images. Some of these stories will be authored by the project team and some by 'citizen researchers'. These contributors will be identified through call outs via social media, Boots newsletters, and the local press, and might be local history enthusiasts, former Boots employees or business people reflecting on historical context. Additional outreach will include two pieces of popular history, a high-profile public exhibition, with a touring component and accompanying public talks, timed to coincide with Boots' 175th anniversary in 2024. A further outreach strategy targets professional archivists via three initiatives i) working with Boots Archive staff to help inform their cataloguing and digitisation strategies; ii) holding three innovative 'Archive Roadshows' where team members visit other significant business archives (Unilever, Marks and Spencer, John Lewis) to reflect on the usefulness and accessibility of their resources; iii) hosting an Archive Study Day to bring together company archivists throughout the UK. Finally, team members will work with Nottinghamshire County Council to run two 'Knowledge Labs' to consider how this research might stimulate creative thinking about current issues facing the UK high street. Sessions will discuss not only how local growth is internationally informed, but also how international markets are heavily influenced by smaller local developments.

该项目将探索英国医疗保健和美容的国际历史，使用英国最知名的连锁药剂师Boots the Chemists作为中心案例研究。该项目从1919年公司在海外设立第一个销售代理到1980年精简部门。它探讨了博姿如何在海外建立探矿者、零售商和制造商的地位，以及如何不断吸收国际影响力作为其国内营销战略的一部分。该项目利用Boots庞大的未充分发掘的档案（约5,000箱，约50万件物品），连接了医学、社会、文化、商业、殖民和跨国历史。项目团队并不想为博姿的成功和成长撰写一部经典的商业传记，而是想探索博姿的故事揭示了英国健康和美容行业的国际动态。中心研究问题是：博姿的国际档案如何使我们能够绘制出塑造和维持英国国内外医疗保健和美容经验的全球网络？为了回答这个问题，以主题为重点的工作包将在六个产品领域（疼痛管理，个人卫生，手术用品，维生素，香水和护肤品）中重现关键产品的生命周期，跨越当地，国家和国际空间。选择这六个重点领域是因为它们拥有丰富的档案资源，并有潜力说明复杂的帝国和其他全球材料，知识和人才网络是如何支撑英国医疗保健和美容的发展的，无论是在国内还是海外。这项开创性的研究将出现在历史人文学科的领先学术期刊上，并在一本合著的书中。它将通过雇用全职博士后研究人员来提高早期职业能力，并为已经资助的M4 C博士生提供额外的机会。三个跨学科的学术研讨会将探讨英国美容和医疗保健行业国际化的新视角，并将向地理学、药学、医学、文学和语言学领域的同事开放该项目。项目团队将通过一个易于浏览的网站展示研究成果，该网站提供有关该项目的信息、相关资源的链接以及每季度更新的项目故事，并配有精美的档案图片。其中一些故事将由项目团队撰写，一些则由“公民研究人员”撰写。这些贡献者将通过社交媒体、Boots通讯和当地媒体的号召来确定，可能是当地历史爱好者、前Boots员工或反映历史背景的商界人士。额外的宣传将包括两件流行的历史，一个高调的公共展览，有一个巡回演出的组成部分和伴随的公开讲座，时间与靴子的175周年纪念日在2024年。进一步的推广战略通过三项举措针对专业档案管理员：i）与Boots Archive工作人员合作，帮助他们了解编目和数字化战略; ii）举办三次创新的“档案路演”，让团队成员参观其他重要的商业档案馆（联合利华、玛莎百货、约翰刘易斯）反思其资源的有用性和可获得性; iii）举办档案研究日，将英国各地的公司档案管理员聚集在一起。最后，团队成员将与诺丁汉郡理事会合作，运行两个“知识实验室”，以考虑这项研究如何激发对英国商业街当前面临的问题的创造性思考。会议将不仅讨论当地增长如何在国际上知情，而且还讨论国际市场如何受到较小的当地发展的严重影响。