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- Title
- William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards
- Description
-
The William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards contains approximately 300 colorful pharmaceutical trade cards produced in the U.S. and France between 1875 and 1895 that were used to advertise a wide range of goods in the nineteenth century; although introduced (in the mid-eighteenth century) as an ephemeral form of advertisement, they soon became collectors' items and were mass-produced in collectible 'series' comparable to those produced by sports teams in the twentieth century. They are now regarded as some of the best source material for the study of advertising, technology and trade in the post-Civil War period.
The collection was donated to the Academy Library by Mr. Helfand (one of the nation's leading collectors of medical ephemera) in a series of individual gifts between 1986 and 1992. The collection includes a number of duplicates, some of which are useful for scholarly study (e.g. bearing the stamps of different distributing pharmacists).
Scope Note: A collection of approximately 300 trade cards, ca. 1875 - ca. 1925 (bulk ca. 1875 - ca. 1914). Almost all advertise patent medicines or herbal remedies; a few deal with cosmetics, chocolate, or veterinary products. The collection includes a small number of French, German, Italian and Spanish cards; however, the bulk of collection is from the United States. Some of the companies represented manufactured the medicines and products advertised on the cards; others are local pharmacies which had their names printed onto cards advertising products they distributed. Many of the medicines and remedies claim to cure almost any complaint, or to address generalized conditions such as weakness, nervousness and general debility. Others address specific conditions or groups of ailments. Only a few cards list the printer or lithographer responsible for producing the image; very few indicate a date of publication or copyright.
Historical Note: Trade cards are small illustrated advertisements that were distributed for free by manufacturers and retailers from the 17th century to the early 20th century. Following the Civil War, trade cards became enormously popular in the United States and were the most effective mass advertising medium until the end of the 19th century. Late 19th century American trade cards were typically small pasteboard cards printed with illustrations in multiple colors. These cards were either custom-produced for one firm or store, or issued as stock cards. Stock cards allowed a manufacturer or retailer to have printed or stamped their advertisement and/or name and address on the front or back of an existing illustrated card, thus avoiding the expense of having one specially made.
- 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
- Dr. Roger's Syrup
- Description
- Trade card printed on two sides advertising Dr. Roger's Syrup, a cough remedy.
- Manufacturer
- Manhattan Medicine Co. (New York (N.Y.))
- Language
- English
- ID
- WH338
- 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
- Hunt's Remedy [from verso]
- Description
- Trade card printed on two sides advertising Hunt's remedy, "the best kidney and liver medicine."
- Subjects (LC)
- Children
- Manufacturer
- Hunt's Remedy Co. (Providence (R.I.))
- Language
- English
- ID
- WH279
- 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
- 19. Execution : a full and true account of the last speech and dying declaration of William Burke, who was executed at Edinburgh this morning, for murder, and his body given for dissection; also of his conduct and behaviour since his condemnation, and on the scaffold
- Description
- Illustrated broadside. Cut and mounted.
- Language
- English
- Collection
- The Resurrectionists
- Title
- Ayer's Sarsaparilla
- Description
- Trade card advertising Ayer's Sarsaparilla featuring an image of a man in a dressing gown holding a bottle of Ayer's Sarsaparilla and reading a paper advertising the medicine. A woman wearing a bonnet and a dress with lace cuffs and collar reads over his shoulder and clasps his arm. The back explains the product's health benefits and has an image of an animal intertwined with the word "MIND."
- Conditions Cured (LC)
- Asthenia, Body Fluids, Catarrh, Eczema, Furuncle, Indigestion, Lymph Node, Rheumatism, Tuberculosis
- Subjects (LC)
- Advertising—Medicine, Bottles, Clothing And Dress, Lace And Lacemaking, Men, Men's Clothing, Sarsaparilla, Women, Women's Clothing, Women's Hats
- ID
- WH111
- Collection
- William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards
- Title
- Vaseline Chesebrough Manfg Co.
- Description
- Trade card primarily advertising Pure Vaseline featuring a beach scene with two children playing in the foreground. They are both wearing yellow hats and playing in the sand with shovels and a single pail. Behind them stands a woman with a parasol. She is in formal dress, with an overcoat, ruffled skirt, and yellow bow on her hip. There are various people on the beach and in the ocean as well is what looks like a cruise ship in the far background. The back contains a poem titled The Elixir Vitae and lists prices for various vaseline products.
- Conditions Cured (LC)
- Asthma, Burns And Scalds, Cold (Disease), Croup, Neuralgia, Rheumatism
- Subjects (LC)
- Advertising—Medicine, Beaches, Boats And Boating, Bows, Children, Children's Hats, Clothing And Dress, Crabs, Hats, Parasols, Ribbons, Sand Pails, Sand Toys, Shovels, Water, Water Waves, Women's Hats
- ID
- WH369
- Collection
- William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards
- Title
- Vesalius’s De humani corporis Fabrica
- Description
-
Andreas Vesalius’s De humani corporis Fabrica of 1543 is probably the most beautiful anatomical atlas produced in the 16th century. Vesalius, the 28 year old professor of anatomy at the University of Padua at the time of the book’s publication, spared no expense in hiring extraordinary craftsmen to create the woodblocks to illustrate his monumental atlas and we know that some of the drawings that were transferred to the blocks were made by Jan Stephen van Calcar, a Venetian artist working in Titian’s studio, although the block cutters themselves are unidentified. Despite Vesalius’s attempt to protect the images in the Fabrica through the acquisition of various royal privileges, they immediately became extremely popular and were widely reproduced in many other publications.
In 1932, Samuel Lambert, who had been the Academy's 32nd president, began raising money for the publication of the Icones Anatomicae, an edition of all of the images from the two editions of the Fabrica (1543 and 1555) and some of Vesalius’s other publications. Lambert studied and wrote about the historiated initials that appeared in the Fabrica, and a colleague suggested to him that the original wood blocks might still survive. He wrote to Dr. Willy Wiegand of the Bremer Press in Munich, asking if he would do some investigation. Wiegand visited the library at the University of Munich and a search turned up a box containing 227 of the blocks used in the production of the Fabrica and its companion publication from 1543, the Epitome (but none of the blocks for the initials). In light of this felicitous discovery, Lambert approached the Academy with the idea of publishing an edition of the rediscovered images.
Lambert envisioned a very ambitious and beautiful book, which is described at length in the Prospectus. After the discovery of the blocks, Lambert began raising money for a Library Publication Fund, and amassed over $15,000 from various donors by the end of 1932. The University of Munich agreed to co-publish the volume with NYAM, and Willy Wiegand, the head of the Bremer Press, was engaged as the printer. As we can see from the information in the Prospectus, no expense was spared in the creation of the book. Fine handmade paper with a special watermark was created especially for the volume, and photographic reproductions of the missing blocks were made and subtly marked in the descriptive tables.
Four hundred copies of the Icones Anatomicae were printed and sent to NYAM; an additional 295 copies were printed for the European market. At the same time, a small number of portfolios of 40 loose plates, the Tabulae Selectae, was printed as well. For years, individuals wrote to the NYAM librarians requesting individual images from the Tabula, which were sold at a very modest price. The portfolio was also available as a complete set. The title pages of both the 1543 and the 1555 editions of the Fabrica are included in the Tabula, along with a number of the skeletons, muscle men and flayed men that are some of the Fabrica's most iconic images.
Sadly, both the woodblocks and all of the copies of the German edition of the Icones were destroyed during the bombing of Munich in the summer of 1944, so NYAM has the distinction of being the organization that was responsible for the final inking and printing of the beautiful 16th century blocks.
Vesalius, Andreas. [Icones anatomicae, tabulae selecta]. Munich, 1935.
Photography by Ardon Bar-Hama courtesy of George Blumenthal.
- Title
- Good For Man or Beast [from verso]
- Description
- Trade card printed on two sides advertising Dr. Streeter's Magic Liniment, a remedy for cramps and aching joints. Trimmed
- Subjects (LC)
- Drawings, Puzzles, Walking
- Manufacturer
- Dr. Streeter's Magnetic Liniment
- ID
- WH355
- Collection
- William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards
- Title
- I's All Right Now!: In Constant Use Since 1795
- Description
- Trade card advertising Dr. Isaac Thompson's Eye Water featuring two girls in a red armchair. The older of the two is holding a bottle of what seems to be Dr. Isaac Thompson's Eye Water in her right hand. Her left hand is around the shoulders of the younger girl who is holding a tissue. They are both in dresses and have brown-blond hair. The back describes the meritous reputation of the Eye Water.
- Subjects (LC)
- Advertising—Medicine, Bottles, Chairs, Children, Children's Clothing, Clothing And Dress
- ID
- WH368
- 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
- Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
- Description
- Trade card advertising Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, Lydia E. Pinkham's Liver Pills, and Lydia E. Pinkham's Blood Purifier featuring an evening, winter landscape in which one can see two figures walking over a bridge. The bridge is over a small body of water, and there is a full moon in the sky. The back lists the benefits of the items advertised.
- Conditions Cured (LC)
- Asthenia, Backache, Body Fluids, Depression, Mental, Erysipelas, Headache, Indigestion, Insomnia, Neurasthenia, Peptic Ulcer, Rheumatism, Salt Rheum, Scrofula, Tumors
- Subjects (LC)
- Advertising—Medicine, Bridges, Nature, Snow, Trees, Water
- ID
- WH184
- Collection
- William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards
- Title
- Dr. A.C. Hoxsie's Certain Croup Cure
- Description
- Trade card printed on two sides advertising Dr. A.C. Hoxsie's Certain Croup Cure, a remedy for coughs and colds.
- Subjects (LC)
- Bouquets, Girls, Hats
- Manufacturer
- Dr. A.C. Hoxsie
- Language
- English
- ID
- WH277
- Collection
- William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards
- Title
- Ayer's Sarsaparilla Gives Health and Sunny Hours
- Description
- Trade card advertising Ayer's Sarsaparilla featuringan image of a woman in an elegant pink gown standing in a sunny field and balancing a young child on her shoulder. The back shows an image of a bottle of Ayer's Sarsaparilla with a wreath around its neck and text explaining its curative properties.
- Conditions Cured (LC)
- Lymph Node, Tuberculosis
- Subjects (LC)
- Children, Children's Clothing, Clothing And Dress, Nature, Sarsaparilla, Toddlers, Women, Women's Clothing
- ID
- WH110
- Collection
- William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards
- Title
- NYAM Lectures Broadcast by WNYC
- Description
-
Forty lectures on medicine and society that NYAM produced and WNYC-FM broadcast in the 1950s. Digitized from the original lacquer disks.
- Title
- The Little Pets [from verso]
- Description
- Trade card printed on two sides advertising Scott's Emulsion, a remedy for the "wasting diseases" of adults and children.
- Subjects (LC)
- Children and animals
- Manufacturer
- Scott & Bowne (New York (N.Y.))
- Language
- English
- ID
- WH351
- Collection
- William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards
- Title
- Pomet's Bezoar with Goat
- Description
- The French druggist Pierre Pomet devotes a section of his comprehensive history of drugs to bezoars, explaining that the stones appear in the stomachs of cows, apes, and goats. Pomet's goat leaps over a bezoar, sliced open like a geode to reveal its efficacious core. Pomet argues that this bezoar, produced in the belly of a high-leaping wild goat common in the East Indies, would promote sweat and drive away malignant humors. We'd wager Monsieur Pomet, apothecary to Louis XIV, could give even Snape a run for his wand in a battle of the Potion-Masters.
- Collection
- How to Pass Your O.W.L.s at Hogwarts: A Prep Course