Written by the team behind Puzzlify. Puzzlify is our product, so weigh what follows with that in mind. We've tried to make this useful even if you never use it. We're not affiliated with any pharmacy, pharmacy chain, pharmaceutical company, professional pharmacy body, apothecary or medical museum, historical society, antiques dealer, auction house, council, heritage body, heritage funder, sponsor, school or community organisation. Nothing here is medical, pharmaceutical, legal, historical, conservation, hazardous materials, valuation, first aid, health and safety, safeguarding, bereavement, copyright, trade mark, photography permission or employment advice; check your own group's guidance on gifts, photos, the collection, children and people's details.
It's a dark Tuesday afternoon in late October, the week before half-term, and in the window of a Victorian chemist's shop that is now a small museum, two great glass carboys are glowing, one red and one green, lit from behind the way they would have been to show passers-by that the chemist was open. Inside, a retired pharmacist called Margaret is standing behind the long mahogany dispensing counter with a class of eleven-year-olds in front of her. Behind her, floor to ceiling, are rows of little wooden drawers with gilt labels in Latin, shelves of blue and brown glass bottles with glass stoppers, white ceramic drug jars painted with names nobody can pronounce, a set of brass scales under a glass dome, a pill machine, a tray of pill boxes, a rack of measuring glasses, and a big leather-bound prescription book. "Right," says Margaret, holding up a small brass mould. "In 1890, if the doctor said you needed pills, nobody opened a packet. Someone stood here and made them. Rolled the mixture into a long sausage, cut it on this, rolled each one round, and coated them. Silver, if you were rich." A girl at the front puts her hand up. "Did they work?" Margaret smiles. "Some did. Some really didn't. That's what the rest of the afternoon is about."
Every drawer label, every bottle and every jar in that shop was cleaned, checked, catalogued and put back by a volunteer. Some of them are former pharmacists, dispensers and pharmacy technicians; some are retired chemistry teachers; some just love old shops.
Who we mean
This is for the people who keep an apothecary or old chemist's shop museum going: the guides and front-of-house volunteers behind the counter, the demonstrators who roll pills, fold powders and explain the scales, the collections volunteers who handle fragile glass and ceramics and know which bottles must never be opened, the archive and research volunteers who read old prescription books and answer letters about a great-grandfather who was a chemist, the oral history volunteers who record retired pharmacists and shop assistants, the education volunteers who run science and history mornings for schools, the restoration volunteers who look after the shop fittings and the window, the shop, café and events volunteers, the trustees, and the founders who saved the shop when it closed.
It also works for a pharmacy heritage group, a medical history society, a herb garden or physic garden team, a living history town with a period chemist's, or a local museum with a chemist's shop corner.
Words first
The best thank-you to a volunteer is a few specific sentences: what they did, when, and what difference it made. "You showed our daughter how a pill was made by hand in 1890 and she came home wanting to be a pharmacist" is worth more than any gift. Write the note first. Then decide whether to add something with it.
Safety and the collection come first
An old chemist's shop is unusually delicate, and sometimes unusually hazardous. Old bottles and drawers can still hold residues of substances that are toxic or controlled, which is why museums handle them under their own rules, keep some sealed, and never let visitors open them. Glass and ceramics chip and crack, labels flake, the shop fittings are often listed or irreplaceable, and some objects are on loan. If you take photos for a gift, take them when you're allowed to, from where visitors normally stand, and without touching the counter, drawers, jars, bottles, scales or anything behind the glass. Ask before photographing the stores, the workshop or any volunteer at work. Keep visitors, children who aren't yours, other people's faces, records, prescription books with real names, labels with donors' names, insurance or security details and anything private out of the frame.
A practical point: please don't give a volunteer an old medicine bottle, an antique remedy or anything with contents as a thank-you, and don't ask them to identify or value something you've found in a loft. Many old remedies are not safe to keep at home, and the museum will have its own advice and rules about donations.
An honest word about old medicine
The history of the chemist's shop is fascinating and also uncomfortable. Many old remedies did nothing, and some did harm; patent medicines were sold with wild promises; opium, arsenic, mercury and other poisons were sold over the counter; and poor families often couldn't afford a doctor at all, so the chemist was their only help. Good museums tell all of this plainly, and many volunteers, especially former pharmacists, take real care in doing so. Your note doesn't have to mention any of it, but if a guide explained it well to your child, saying so is a real compliment. And if the volunteer you're thanking has been unwell themselves, or has lost someone recently, keep the note warm and simple.
When to send it
Good moments include the end of the visitor season, the dark afternoons after the clocks go back (Sunday 25 October this year), half-term, a volunteers' Christmas lunch, a long-serving volunteer's anniversary, the reopening of the shop after restoration, the day the carboys are lit again in the window, or simply the week after a school visit that your child talked about for days.
Why a jigsaw can fit
A photo jigsaw is a small, careful thing, like counting out pills on a tray or matching a stopper to its bottle. It takes a picture the volunteer already loves, the carboys in the window, the wall of drawers, the counter, and gives it back as something to sit with for twenty minutes, piece by piece, ending with a note in your words. It arrives as a link, so there's nothing to post, wrap or store, and no new bottle on anyone's shelf.
For the guides and the demonstrators
They stand behind the counter and turn a room of jars into a story. A photo of the dispensing counter with the scales, or the pill machine on its tray, is a good choice. "Thank you for rolling a pill for us. We'll never take a packet for granted again."
For the collections and restoration volunteers
They know every jar and every drawer label, and they know which ones must stay sealed. With permission, a photo of a row of blue glass bottles, the gilt-lettered drawers, or a single painted drug jar makes a lovely, detailed puzzle.
For the archive, research and oral history volunteers
They read the old prescription books and listen to retired pharmacists. A photo of a shop sign, a trade card or an old advertisement on the wall works better than any page with real names on it.
For the education volunteers
They run the mornings where children weigh things on brass scales and learn why we test medicines now. A child's own drawing of the carboys or the shop front, photographed flat in good light, can make a sweet 24-piece puzzle from your family to them.
For the trustees and the founders
A photo of the shop front at dusk, with the carboys lit, is perfect for the people who saved it.
When a long-serving volunteer steps down, or in memory
When someone who has stood behind the counter for years steps down, a larger puzzle of the whole shop, with a note signed by everyone, can be a quiet way to say that the place won't forget them. If a volunteer has died, a calm photo of the counter where they stood, sent privately to the family with a few remembered sentences, can be a kind gesture. Ask the museum or the family first, and keep it simple.
Not just in Britain
Historic chemist's shops and apothecary museums exist in many countries: restored Victorian and Edwardian pharmacies in British and Irish towns, old apothecaries in the United States and Canada, colonial-era pharmacies in Australia and New Zealand, and centuries-old monastery and town apothecaries across Europe, from Germany and Austria to Italy, Spain, Croatia and Estonia. Wherever you are, the same rules apply: ask first, photograph gently, keep names and records out of the frame, and say thank you in your own words. Where a collection includes traditional or Indigenous plant medicines, follow the museum's lead on how they are shown and described.
Photo ideas and consent
- the red and green carboys glowing in the window at dusk
- the wall of gilt-labelled wooden drawers
- a row of blue and brown glass bottles with their stoppers
- the brass scales under their dome on the counter
- one painted ceramic drug jar, close up
- the shop front on an autumn afternoon
Always ask the volunteer, and the museum if it's their photo or their shop. Leave out children who aren't yours, visitors, other volunteers who haven't agreed, prescription books, labels with names and anything on loan if the lender wouldn't want it shared.
Getting the JPG right
Use a JPG, sharp and well lit. Glass bottles and glass cases reflect, so stand a little to one side and turn off your flash. The carboys look best at dusk, when the light inside them is stronger than the daylight outside. Rows of drawers and bottles have lots of repeating detail, which makes a satisfying but tricky puzzle; one jar on its own makes an easier one. Crop to the part that matters.
Privacy and an optional PIN
Puzzlify puzzles are private links. You can add an optional PIN so only the person you send it to can open it. Photos aren't used to train AI and aren't shared with third parties.
Say it's from you
Put your name, or your family's, in the note at the end so they know who sent it. A puzzle that ends with "from Class 6 and Mr Hughes, who now all know what a carboy is" is a thank-you.
Piece counts
| Pieces | Photo idea | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | a child's drawing of the shop | a quick solve, or a child's thank-you |
| 48 | one painted drug jar | one clear subject, a relaxed solve |
| 80 | the carboys in the window | a cheerful image with strong colour |
| 130 | a row of glass bottles | a detailed photo for a keen puzzler |
| 252 | the whole wall of drawers | a long, slow solve for a long-serving volunteer |
How to send it
Make the puzzle, write the note, publish the link and send it by email or message, or print the link as a QR code inside a card. The recipient doesn't need an account or an app; it plays in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer.
Note examples
- "Thank you for the pill-rolling. Our daughter now wants to be a pharmacist."
- "You told the class the truth about patent medicines, and they listened. Thank you."
- "The carboys were lit when we arrived. It felt like stepping into 1890."
Honest pricing
The preview is free, so you can see how it looks before deciding anything. Publishing the link costs one credit (€3.99), or less per puzzle with a bundle. If a card and a few sentences feel like enough, they are.
Ideas that are not a puzzle
- a handwritten card left at the counter
- a short message to the volunteer coordinator naming the person
- a donation to the museum in their name
- a box of biscuits for the volunteers' room
- a kind online review that mentions the volunteer by first name, if they're happy with that
If a photo puzzle feels right as well, choose the carboys, the drawers, the counter or the shop front, take it with permission, keep names, records, visitors and children out of the frame, and write the note in your own words. You can make a free preview here and decide later whether to send it.
Whatever you send, the most important part is the sentence that sounds like you, written to the person who rolls a pill by hand for a class of eleven-year-olds and then tells them honestly which remedies worked, who keeps the drawers labelled and the carboys lit, so that the chemists, the dispensers and the people who came to the counter for help are remembered, one bottle, one drawer, one piece at a time.
Written by the small team behind Puzzlify (info@puzzlify.app). Not medical, pharmaceutical, legal, historical, conservation, hazardous materials, valuation, first aid, health and safety, safeguarding, bereavement, copyright, trade mark, photography permission or employment advice. Check your own group's guidance on gifts, photos, the collection, children and people's details.