Miracle Cures: 19th-20th Century Patent Medicine Packaging and Advertisements

Items

• Fluid-d'Or Reduso, The Slim Figure Bath, Fluid-d'Or Company, Hibbing, Minnesota
  Cardboard box for the bath supplement, "Flouid-d'Or, The Slim Figure Bath" produced in Hibbing, Minnesota.
• Nux-I-Tone bottle, Prepared for Bugbie & Schwartz Druggists, Paynesville, Minnesota
  Glass bottle for Nux-I-Tone Tonic. This Tonic containing Iron and Nux vomica in combination with Beef and Wine is recommended for convalescents, weak women, aged persona and delicate children. Of special benefit to person who do not have sufficient iron in their blood as indicated by paleness and anemic conditions. 15.5 Fluid ounces. Alcohol 16%
• Allen's Lung Balsam
  Glass bottle containing dark residue and accompanying box for Allen's Lung Balsam. Ethyl alcohol, 6% (drug active ingredients)
• Dr. Shoop's Cough Remedy
  Corked glass bottle containing dark residue between two cardboard boxes for Dr. Shoop's Cough Remedy.
• Dr. J. R. Stafford's Olive Tar
  Glass corked bottle containing dark liquid and cardboard box advertising Dr. J. R. Stafford's Olive Tar.
• Syrup of Figs and Elixir of Senna
  Corked glass bottle filled with dark liquid and cardboard box advertising Syrup of Figs and Elixir of Senna, accompanied by small zip-loc bag containing small printed image of a woman. The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are: To help cleanse the system, to assist in overcoming habitual constipation. Active ingredients: senna, carminatives, cassia, cloves and mint.
• Madam Zadoc Porter Cough Balsam
  Corked glass bottle with paper label, filled with dark liquid, and cardboard box advertising Madam Zadoc Porter Cough Balsam.
• Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery
  Corked glass bottle with paper label filled with dark liquid and cardboard box advertising Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery.
• Moses Dame's Wine of the Woods
  Three corked glass bottles with paper labels filled with dark liquid advertising Moses Dame's Wine of the Woods.
• Piso's for Cough and Colds
  Currently not on view
• McArthur Syrup of the Hypophosphites of Lime & Soda
  Glass bottle with paper label, cork, and wax paper filled with dark liquid advertising McArthur Syrup of the Hypophosphites of Lime & Soda.
• Trade card for Lactart Milk Acid, Avery Lactate Company, Boston, Mass., 1884
  Trade card for the Lactart patent medicine. It was said to relieve fevers, headaches, wakefulness, nervous depression, and urinary troubles. The card depicts a milkmaid and cows in a pastoral scene.
• Frederick Brown, Philadelphia
  Advertisement for Frederick Brown, Philadelphia. This is the only card in the collection for this business. The French caption reads, "Au Bord du Lac."
• Merchant's Gargling Oil
  This is the only card in the collection for this business. Merchant's Gargling Oil was a prosperous business for most of the 19th century, and so the date of the card is unknown. The caption reads, "And he whispered in her ear / Something sweet for her to hear / Said he, 'Try Gargling Oil!'"
• Hood’s Sarsaparilla
  The trade card shows an older man carefully reading the package of Hood’s Sarsaparilla to ensure he purchased the correct product. Hood’s Sarsaparilla was marketed to purify the blood and cure various disorders, including heart disease, rheumatism, and edema. The product was inspired in part by the success of Ayers’ Sarsaparilla. Hood’s Sarsaparilla contained sarsaparilla root, dandelion, juniper berries, and 18% alcohol among other ingredients. The C.I. Hood and Company was an industry leader in pharmaceutical advertising during the 19th century, producing a variety of visually striking and unique trade cards such as the one shown as well as posters, calendars, and even cookbooks. At the time, Hood’s Sarsaparilla laboratory was touted as one of the largest of such facilities in the world.
• Brown’s Iron Bitters
  The trade card shows a woman behind broken glass. Cocaine was a known ingredient in this product. As the trade card indicates, health claims for this product included curing “malaria, dyspepsia & female infirmities.” The product was also marketed to cure a variety of maladies such as lack of energy, nervous prostration, and fainting.
• Morison’s Vegetable Pills
  The trade card displays an individual looking into a mirror and realizing their body has changed overnight into a medley of vegetables, after consuming a thousand of Morison’s vegetable pills. More commonly known as Morison’s Pills, the product was immensely popular as a universal cure for all diseases caused by blood impurities. James Morison, the creator of the pills, dominated the patent medicine markets with memorable marketing that advocated vegetable-based and herbal cures over established “heavy metal” drugs.
• Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup
  The trade card shows a mother in bed holding her children and a newspaper advertising the product. Significant levels of morphine and alcohol were known ingredients in this product. The medicine claimed to treat teething for children. The product was popularly used among mothers. Yet the copious amounts of alcohol and morphine had the potential to induce coma, addiction, and death for infants. The product originally contained 65 milligrams of morphine before legislation and litigation reduced the amount over the next few decades. The American Medical Association labeled the product as a “baby killer.” The product was eventually discontinued and removed from the market in the 1930s.
• Dr. Thomas’ Eclectric Oil
  The trade card shows a cat and five kittens on top of a desk, looking at and interacting with a globe. On the globe, “Dr. Thomas’ Eclectric Oil is used all around the world” is written. Originally intended to treat colds, the product was expanded as a universal cure for muscular pains, rheumatisms, neuralgia, joint aches, and sprains. Eclectric oil was derived from mix of alcohol, chloroform, opium extract, and other assorted ingredients. The product was known as a magical painkiller.
• Ayer’s Cathartic Pills
  The trade card shows a battle involving two military soldiers fighting on horseback, with one soldier holding a flag that has “Ayer’s Pills” written on it. “The Fight for the Standard” is written on the bottom of the card. The product was marketed to cure a wide variety of health conditions such as digestive issues, liver disorders, and numbness. Ayer’s Pills were even advertised to cure women’s menstrual ailments, diagnosing them as symptomatic of “wrong livers.”
• Kodol Nerve Tonic
  Corked glass bottle with paper label containing dark residue. Bottle advertising Kodol Nerve Tonic. The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are: Blood builder; prevents and cures catarrh of the mucous membranes, influenza, indigestion, dyspepsia, loss of appetite, heart diseases, kidney troubles, malaria, chills, fevers and general debility, insomnia, seminal weakness, irregular, profuse, scanty or painful menstruation, and all female compaints.
• Dr. Harter's Iron Tonic
  Black glass bottle with paper label advertising Dr. Harter's Iron Tonic. The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are: Aids digestion and corrects the stomach, highly beneficial in dyspepsia, chills, fever and malaria. Regulates the kidneys and liver. Dispels low spirits and nervousness. Removes that tired feeling. Will purify and enrich the blood. Does not blacken teeth or cause headaches. Wonderful effect on generative organs. Relieves suppressed menses and whites. Active ingredients: alcohol, 23%, iron, calisaya bark, phosphates, vegetable tonics, aromatics
• Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
  Glass bottle with paper label advertising Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound for the price of "ONE DOLLAR PER BOTTLE." The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are: A sure cure for prolapsis uteris or falling of the womb and all female weaknesses, including leucorrhoea, irregular and painful menstruation, inflammation and ulceration of the womb, flooding, diseases of the kidneys. For all weakness of the generative organs of either sex, it is second to no remedy that has ever been before the public, and for all diseases of the kidneys it is the greatest remedy in the world.
• Dr. Mead's Female Regulating Remedy
  A rectangular cardboard box printed on the front with the words: "DR. MEAD'S FEMALE REGULATING REMEDY. Compounded and Prepared BY THE BOTANIC MEDICINE COMPANY. AT MANAWA, WIS." Box has scroll and leaf designs on its back and sides. The box has water damage. Top reads: "PRICE. ONE DOLLAR PER BOX." Bottom reads: "PATENTED NOV. 3rd, 1868. J.W. WILCOX'S SONS, Manufacturers of Patent Paper Boxes, 121 Frost Street, New York." Contains paper insert with description, directions, and testimonials. The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer: It cures all diseases that originate from the suppression of the Menses, by taking cold or from any other cause. It cures the Lucorrhea, or Whites, in a very short time. It regulates and tones the up the system without the pernicious use of mineral drugs. It is good to use before childbirth, it prepares the system for the event, relieves of more than one-half the labor and pains, and every woman who has once used it, would not consent to do without it. It is a medicine that all middle-aged women need the regulate and relieve them of the pain and ill feeling, incident to that critical period called the turn of life. Two or three powders taken before the periodical return of the Menses, will prevent all sickness incident to such cases. It is purely vegetable and absolutely harmless, and would not hurt a well person; for it only acts on the sexual organs, and will regulate and tone them to healthy action. Thousands of girls in passing from girlhood to womanhood, take a slight cold, which supresses the natural courses, causes them to decline for one, two or three years and finally sink into an untimely grave, and the family physician calls it consumption; when one half box of this remedy taken at first, would have restored them to health and usefulness. [printed on paper insert]
• Stark's Headache Powders
  White box containing small paper packets of powder. Text lists the price as "8 POWDERS 25 CENTS." The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are: For relief of simple headache and neuralgia pains and minor menstrual discomforts. Directions: Put powder on tongue, take with drink of water. Repeat in 3 or 4 hours if necessary. Warning: Too frequent use may be injurious. Do not take more than 3 powders in 24 hours. Not for use by Children [printed on label]. Drug active ingredients: acetophenitidine [acetophenetidin, Phenacetin], 5 grains, caffeine, soda.