Items

Title: Dundas Dick & Co.'s Compliments of the Season, 1875
Description: Trade card from Dundas Dick & Co. featuring a greeting card with writing that reads: "Dundas Dick & Co.'s Compliments of the season, 1875." Surrounding this card are autumnal leaves. The back features a nineteenth-century calendar.
Subjects (LC): Acorns, Advertising—Medicine, Leaves, Nature
ID: WH261
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: Hood's Sarsaparilla Purifies the blood, creates an appetite, makes the weak strong, and builds up the system
Description: Trade card advertising Hood's Sarsaparilla featuring a cupid-like boy with small wings and a blue garment around his waist. He is marching while playing a golden horn and holding a yellow box of Hood's Sarsaparilla. The back lists the health benefits of blood purification, as well as the ingredients in Hood's Sarsaparilla.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Body Fluids, Constipation, Furuncle, Headache, Indigestion, Salt Rheum, Scrofula, Syphilis
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Angels, Cherubs, Folklore, Musical Instruments, Mythology
ID: WH143
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Catarrh, Neuralgia & Headache No More! Cushman's Menthol Inhaler Cures Diseases of the Head Including Hay-Fever, Colds & Bronchitis
Description: Trade card advertising Cushman's Menthol Inhaler featuring a young woman using the inhaler. She is wearing a feathered hat and a long-sleeved shirt or dress with ruffled sleeves, a bodice, and a wrapped garment around her bosom and neck. The back explains what the inhaler is, its price, and has an illustration of a woman looking over her back, right shoulder at the buyer while using the inhaler. The card is tinted blue-green.
Conditions Cured (LC): Bronchitis, Catarrh, Cold (Disease), Hay Fever, Headache, Neuralgia
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Clothing And Dress, Inhalers, Portraits, Women's Clothing, Women's Hats
ID: WH135
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Dr. White's Cough Drops Are the Best
Description: Trade card advertising Dr. White's Cough Drops featuring a yellow rose and berries on the left and a circular image of a snowy landscape on the right. Within the image are a small house, a fence, some rocks, and some snow-covered trees. The back lists the ailments the Cough Drops can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Cold (Disease), Cough, Hoarseness
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Berries, Flowers, Housing, Leaves, Nature, Rocks, Snow, Trees, Wooden Fences
ID: WH380
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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