Items

Title: Hoffman home remedies collection : manuscript, circa 1775-1850
Description: This manuscript contains approximately 45 medical receipts on 88 pages (about half are blank). Includes remedies for piles, wens, warts, burns, fever, croup, rheumatism, and gravel, among others. Some remedies are accompanied by prayers. The manuscript is in predominately one hand, possibly that of Susanna Weinbrech Hoffmann (1742-1803) or Lydia Henkel Hoffman. The only confirmed hand in the book is that of William Hoffman (1809-1886), Lydia's son, on the last page of the book.
Subjects (LC): Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Traditional medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Manuscripts, American -- 18th century, Manuscripts, American -- 19th century, Manuscripts, American -- 19th century, German Americans -- Maryland

Title: Approved receipts in physick : manuscript, circa 1650-1700
Description: Manuscript recipe book consisting of mostly medical formulas, as well as some culinary recipes and a few alchemical preparations. Predominately in two unidentified hands. There are approximately 480 medical recipes (467 numbered) and 21 culinary recipes. Includes remedies for sores, burns, wounds, ailments of the eyes, complexion, "greene sickness," colds, coughs, and more. Most of the recipes are unattributed, but there are a few exceptions, including a receipt for "Sr Walter Rawley's great cordiall". Culinary recipes include syrups, wines, meats, pickles, preserves, and waffles. The book was probably compiled in the second half of the 17th century.
Subjects (LC): Cooking, English, Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions -- Early works to 1800, Traditional medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Cooking, English, Manuscripts, English -- 17th century

Title: A collection of choise receipts : manuscript, circa 1680-1700
Description: Late 17th-centrury English manuscript divided into two parts: "A Collection of Choise Receipts" and "A Book of Physical Receipts." The first part of the manuscript contains approximately 390 recipes on 254 numbered pages. Of the recipes in the first part approximately 204 are culinary and approximately 175 are for medicines, perfumes, sweet bags, cosmetics, and household cleaners. A large portion of the culinary recipes concern banqueting, particularly fruit preserving; wines, liqueurs, non-medicinal waters, and syrups; and cakes and biscuits. Dinner and supper recipes, such as puddings, meat, poultry, and fish, are also well represented. The second part contains approximately 781 medicinal recipes on 214 numbered pages. Various diseases and conditions such as ague, bleeding, consumption, colic, dropsy, fits, fever, plague, pox, and stone are mentioned. Both parts are followed by indexes. The entire manuscript is written in one very legible hand, possibly that of a professional scribe. The characters "J H" appear frequently in the first part of the manuscript. Many of the recipes are attributed, some to nobility.
Subjects (LC): Cooking, English -- Early works to 1800, Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions -- Early works to 1800, Traditional medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Manuscripts, English -- 17th century

Title

Apicius [De re culinaria Libri I-IX]

Description

This manuscript contains 500 Greek and Roman recipes from the fourth and fifth century, both culinary and medical, reflecting the polyglot culture of the Mediterranean basin. Sometimes referred to as the oldest extant cookbook in the West, the manuscript is divided into ten books. It is likely that the Apicius began as a Greek collection, mainly written in Latin, and adapted for a Roman palate. The collection is likely compiled from many sources, as no evidence exists that Apicius (a Roman gourmet in 1st century AD), authored a book of cookery. Our manuscript was penned in several hands in a mix of Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian scripts at the monastery at Fulda (Germany) around 830 AD. It is one of two manuscripts (the other at the Vatican) presumed to have been copied from a now lost common source. The Apicius manuscript is the gem of the Academy’s Margaret Barclay Wilson Collection of cookery, acquired in 1929.

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Subjects (LC)

Cookbooks, Cooking, Latin peoples, Cooking, Mediterranean, Cooking, Roman, Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medicine

Title: Ayer's Cherry Pectoral Cures Coughs Colds &c: Penn's Treaty
Description: Trade card advertising Ayer's Cherry Pectoral featuring an image of a meeting between seven colonists (William Penn and others) and seven Native Americans. The Native Americans sit and stand to the left, and the colonists on the right present two scrolls that read "Ayer's Cherry Pectoral and Cures Colds, Coughs, &c." William Penn is holding a medicine bottle. The image is loosely based on Benjamin West's oil painting "The Treaty of Penn with the Indians." The back has an image of hands pouring medicine into a spoon in the upper left and text listing the curative properties of Ayer's Cherry Pectoral.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthma, Catarrh, Cold (Disease), Cough, Croup, Influenza, Laryngitis, Throat—Diseases, Tuberculosis, Whooping Cough
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Clothing And Dress, Ethnic Costume, Hats, Indians Of North America, Indigenous Peoples, Men, Treaties
ID: WH117
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Parker's Ginger Tonic
Description: Trade card advertising Parker's Hair Balsam and Parker's Ginger Tonic featuring a formally-dressed man sitting in an armchair defending himself against devilish creatures with an oversized box of Parker's Ginger Tonic. On the creatures' wings are written various ailments the Tonic cures. There is a broken crutch by the man's feet. The back describes the ailments the Balsam and the Tonic cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Body Fluids, Cold (Disease), Cough, Dandruff, Diarrhea, Heartburn, Indigestion, Itching, Neuralgia, Rheumatism, Tuberculosis
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Clothing And Dress, Costume, Crutches, Demonology, Devil, Domestic Space, Folklore, Men, Mythology
ID: WH318
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Vegetine: The Great Blood Purifier
Description: Trade card advertising Vegetine featuring two young children and a basket of animals. Within the basket are a lobster, who is pinching the left-most child's clothing, and a duck or goose. The right-most child is liftng the top off of the basket that contains the animals. The back has testimony from a satisfied customer.
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Baskets, Children, Children's Clothing, Children's Hats, Clothing And Dress, Costume, Ducks, Hats, Lobsters
ID: WH371
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Wheat Bitters
Description: Trade card advertising What Bitters featuring an image of a naked angel driving a cart with a large bottle of Wheat Bitters on it. The cart is pulled by two dogs, and two more naked angels run behind it. The back lists the curative properties of Wheat Bitters.
Conditions Cured (LC): Biliary Tract—Diseases, Constipation, Delirium Tremens, Fever, Indigestion, Jaundice, Malaria, Neuralgia, Paralysis
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Angels, Animals, Bottles, Carriages And Carts, Cherubs, Dogs, Folklore, Grasslands, Mythology, Stone Walls, Trees
ID: WH196
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: This is all right, Hood's Sarsaparilla Can't Fool me twice
Description: Trade card advertising Hood's Sarsaparilla featuring an elderly man outside a pharmacy looking at a box of Hood's Sarsaparilla. He is wearing a yellow jacket and holding a red umbrella under his left arm. Behind him are buildings and a fountain. The back is an advertisement for a concert as well as a description of the ailments Hood's Sarsaparilla can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Headache, Indigestion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Clothing And Dress, Drugstores, Fountains, Hats, Men, Men's Hats, Owls, Portraits, Umbrellas, Water
ID: WH388
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title

Aristotle’s Masterpiece, Or The Secrets of Generation displayed in all the parts thereof

Description

Published initially in 1684 and popular in both America and England for over two hundred years, this became the most widely reprinted medical book in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The contributions of the Masterpiece were not particularly scientific, but drew largely from Hippocrates, and Galen, as well as other classical and medieval writers. The source material came from two earlier books: Levinus Lemnius’s Secret Miracles of Nature, originally published in Latin in 1599, and The Complete Midwives Practice Enlarged (author unknown). Chapter headings include sections titled, “The Signs of Barrenness” “The Way of getting to a Boy or a Girl,” “How a Midwife Ought to be Qualified” and “A Word of Advice to both Sexes in the Act of Copulation.” The information this title offered on conception, pregnancy, and childbirth wasn’t particularly innovative; many seventeenth century discoveries in gynecology are absent from the text and replaced by Hippocratic pathology, or by superstition. The “Aristotle” of the title was pseudonymous, and likely evoked by the book’s author to give the tome scientific credibility. The book’s true author is unknown, though Culpepper and William Salmon, an English physician and author, are sometimes credited.

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