Any history of pharmaceutical education during the two years 1918 to 1920 would be wholly incomplete without a review of the influences, which have brought about the conditions during the period under consideration. In pharmacy, as in medicine and law, the preceptorial system largely prevailed for the first century of pharmacy in the United States. Previous to 1851 there were but 3 teaching schools of pharmacy in existence; and only one, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, had sufficient life to maintain itself as a bona fide educational institution. In 1873 there were 11 teaching institutions in active operation, located in Philadelphia, New York, Cincinnati, Baltimore, St. Louis, Boston, Chicago, Louisville, Washington, Nashville, and San Francisco, with an attendance of approximately 600 students. The organization of these schools was due largely to the educational stimulus disseminated by the American Pharmaceutical Association, which had been organized in 1852, and to the various State pharmaceutical associations which at that time were beginning to exert considerable influence. This paper covers the following topics: (1) The beginnings of pharmaceutical education; (2) The birth of prerequisite legislation; (3) Classes of pharmacy schools; (4) The American conference of pharmaceutical faculties; (5) The United States Pharmacopoeia and the National Formulary; (6) Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association; (7) The Period of 1918-1920; (8) Attitude of the trade journals toward progress in pharmaceutical education; and (9) The 1920 United States Pharmacopoeial convention. (Contains 22 footnotes.) [This paper was written in collaboration with P. F. Fackenthall. Best copy available has been provided.]