Items

Title: Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
Description: Trade card advertising Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound and Lydia E. Pinkham's Liver Pills featuring a bouquet of red and purple flowers with green leaves. The back lists the ailments the items can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Backache, Biliary Tract—Diseases, Constipation, Depression, Headache, Indigestion, Insomnia, Neurasthenia, Peptic Ulcer, Tumors
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Flowers, Leaves, Nature
ID: WH189
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
Description: Trade card advertising Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound and Lydia E. Pinkham's Liver Pills featuring a bouquet of red-blue-and-white and purple flowers with greenery. The back describes the ailments the items can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Backache, Biliary Tract—Diseases, Constipation, Depression, Headache, Indigestion, Inflammation, Insomnia, Neurasthenia, Peptic Ulcer, Tumors
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Bouquets, Flowers, Nature
ID: WH324
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Nearly 50 Years the Favorite: Piso's Cure a Medicine for Coughs Colds Etc.
Description: Trade card advertising Piso's Cure featuring a scene of two men constructing or deconstructing a wooden dock on the Allegheny River. A red-wheeled wheelbarrow on the bank holds wooden planks. There is an island in river that has a red-and-white house. There are forested hills on the farther shorelines. The back is a blank template for a postcard.
Conditions Cured (LC): Cold (Disease), Cough
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Carpenters, Carts And Carriages, Hats, Housing, Islands, Marshes, Nature, Trees, Water, Woodworkers
ID: WH329
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Mother Swan's Worm Syrup
Description: Trade card advertising Mother Swan's Worm Syrup, Wells' Complete Cure, Wells' May Apple Pills, Wells' Health Renewer, and Buchu-Paiba featuring various illustrations related to the different items advertised. There is a picture of a swan with its children, a picture of a dead rat, and a picture of a man leaning his head back and opening his mouth. The back is a blank template for a postcard.
Conditions Cured (LC): Agitation (Psychology), Biliary Tract—Diseases, Constipation, Fever, Helminths, Impotence, Indigestion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Rats, Swans, Water
ID: WH376
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Hanson's Magic Corn Salve
Description: Trade card advertising Hanson's Magic Corn Salve featuring a man in a three-piece suit holding a bouquet of flowers. His mustache is pointed at the ends, and he is framed by flowers that resemble Morning Glories. The back warns customers against counterfeit products.
Conditions Cured (LC): Bunion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Bouquets, Clothes And Dress, Costume, Eyeglasses, Flowers, Mustaches
ID: WH271
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Pond's Extract Co.
Description: Trade card advertising Pond's Extract featuring two autumnal-colored leaves. The back warns against counterfeits and lists the ailments Pond's Extract can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthma, Bruises, Burns And Scalds, Catarrh, Diphtheria, Furuncle, Headache, Hemorrhage, Hoarseness, Inflammation, Neuralgia, Peptic Ulcer, Rheumatism, Sprains, Throat—Diseases, Toothache
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Leaves, Nature
ID: WH332
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
Description: Trade card advertising Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, Lydia E. Pinkham's Liver Pills, Lydia E. Pinkham's Blood Purifier, and Lydia E. Pinkham's Sanative Wash featuring a square image of a sailboat in profile with a shadowed fleet behind it. The foregrounded boat has a red flag at the tip of its mast. The square image is framed by overlaid leaves and red, white, blue, and purple flowers. The back describes the ailments the items can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Backache, Constipation, Depression, Headache, Indigestion, Inflammation, Insomnia, Neurasthenia, Peptic Ulcer, Tumors
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Boats And Boating, Flowers, Nature, Ocean, Sailboats, Water
ID: WH327
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
Description: Trade card advertising Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound and Lydia E. Pinkham's Liver Pills featuring a bouquet of orange, red, and white flowers with greenery. The back describes the ailments the items can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Backache, Biliary Tract—Diseases, Constipation, Depression, Headache, Indigestion, Inflammation, Insomnia, Neurasthenia, Peptic Ulcer, Tumors
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Bouquets, Flowers, Nature, Roses
ID: WH322
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
Description: Trade card advertising Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, Lydia E. Pinkham's Liver Pills, Lydia E. Pinkham's Blood Purifier, and Lydia E. Pinkham's Sanative Wash featuring an image of a fisherman in a wooden boat on a body of water. In the background there is a large house with a smoking chimney, a bridge, a mountain, and some greenery. The image is framed by sprigs of pink flowers. The back lists the benefits of the items advertised.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Backache, Depression, Headache, Indigestion, Insomnia, Neurasthenia, Peptic Ulcer, Tumors
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Bridges, Chimneys, Fishing, Flowers, Hats, Mountains, Nature, Smoke Plumes, Trees, Water, Water And Architecture
ID: WH187
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title

An Abstract of the Patent Granted by His Majesty King George…

Description

Patent medicines originated in England in the mid 17th century and were marketed with extravagant claims, offering cures for a host of maladies. Recommendations for dosage were vague, and ingredients (often including opium) were usually not specified. In 1726 Benjamin Okell was granted the royal patent for Dr. Bateman’s Pectoral Drops, a tincture of gambir (an astringent extract from an Asian plant) and opium. Advertisements published in the London Mercury as early as 1721 directed prospective customers to the warehouse and printing shop at Bow's Churchyard, where they could purchase the drops for one shilling. Our copy of the 1731 reprint by Peter Zenger is likely the first piece of medical printing in New York. Zenger, who would later become famous for printing seditious texts, was instrumental in establishing freedom of the press in America. The Academy has the only known copy. Bound with our copy of the abstract is a copy of A Short treatise of the virtues of Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops, also issued by Okell and his printing house partners. Here, Batemans efficacy as a treatment for numerous ailments are described in sections dedicated to each. The last section of the treatise offers testimonials from satisfied customers.

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