METC and Merck Partner for Virtual Program on February 4

The Museum of Early Trades & Crafts (METC) will host a virtual program on Thursday, February 4th at 7pm via Zoom in collaboration with Merck. History of Merck’s Commitment to Improve Public Health will showcase the long history of Merck and learn how Merck navigated past pandemics as a pharmaceutical company from 1895 to thru 1990s. Pre-registration is required for this event to access the Zoom link. This event is free for METC Members and $10 for nonmembers. Registration can be found here, https://app.donorview.com/Z6WKL, or at www.metc.org.

Patti McKenna and Peter Plante of Merck will present this program to the METC community. Patti has served as Merck’s Historian in Archival Services since 2012. With the rich history of Merck, Patti facilitates historical exploration and helps to guide and support applications to leverage this wonderful history to add business value. Currently, one of her projects is serving on the Smithsonian’s American History Museum’s Medicine & Science Sector Committee. Peter Plante joined Merck in 1988 and has served in several capacities with increasing responsibilities over the past 32 years. Chief among his accomplishments is the launching of 10 products including 5 vaccines. Additionally, Peter was the global marketing director for the company’s osteoporosis franchise, the Creative Director for Merck Creative Studios and for a time oversaw the Merck Archives. In his current position, Peter markets IT programs and initiatives internally to the company’s more than 66,000 employees worldwide.

This program is in conjunction with METC’s current Main Gallery Exhibit, Cholera to COVID-19: Epidemics, Pandemics & Disease. This exhibit explores America’s experience with infectious diseases. This exhibit intends reveals the impact disease had upon daily life, but more importantly how resilient Americans were throughout instances of widespread illness. Throughout this exhibit, primary source documents and historic objects will highlight the resources, tools, and techniques physicians used to diagnose and treat patients.