Excerpts from AIHP Publications
Slide Talk Excerpt
Nineteenth-Century Proprietary Medicine Trade Cards
Text prepared by William H. Helfand, with graphic items
from his collection.
Issued by the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, 1988.
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Presentation time: about 30 minutes
Requires: 2 x 2 projector for 54 slides
Audience suitability: Excellent for presentation to professional groups and lay groups interested in popular culture.
Suggestions for further reading:
Barry, Kit, The Advertising Trade Card, Brattleboro, VT, 1981
Heal, Ambrose, London Tradesmen's Cards of the Eighteenth Century, An Account of the Origin and Use, London, 1925
Helfand, William H., Art and Medicine in Professional Communications, Adler Museum Bulletin, 1983, 9, 1, 13 and 1983, 9, 2, 3
Jay, Robert, The Trade Card in Nineteenth-Century America, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, 1987
Landauer, Bella C., Trade Cards: An Overlooked Asset, Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, 1935, 9, 33
Introduction
Among the largest groups of advertisers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were the manufacturers of proprietary medicines. They heaped praise on their nostrums when newspapers began to carry advertising, and more than one newspaper was able to continue publishing because of their continuous demand for space. When monthly and weekly journals commenced publication, they advertised in them as well. In their continual search for new media to carry their hard-selling messages, they were always among the first and invariably were the most prolific users of space in every new venture. When posters appeared in the scene in the middle of the nineteenth century, the merits of Ayer's Sarsaparilla and Dr. Harter's Iron Tonic were posted on the outside walls of buildings and the inside walls of pharmacies for all to see. And when inexpensive color lithography permitted the printing of small advertising cards in economic quantities, both entrepreneurs and small businessman were quick to adopt this novel approach.
Trade cards, or tradesmen's cards, had been used by pharmacists and their colleagues in the health professions since the seventeenth century, when copper engravings were used to create appropriate messages. William Hograth in England and Paul Revere in the United States were among the artists and skilled craftsmen who created these cards. The advent of lithography in the early nineteenth century made such cards available to all, and the advent of color printing soon spawned an industry in which millions of cards were published, advertising every type of product and service.
Cards for over-the-counter medicines used beauty, humor, sentiment, history and patriotism among the many other appeals, always with the desire to attract the attention of the prospective buyer. The Brooklyn Bridge, the Statute of Liberty and the Washington Monument were architectural examples that appeared in trade cards. Subjects on the cards often had little or nothing to do with the products advertised; on printers' "stock" cards, the same illustration could be used for many varied products, with only the imprint being altered. Texts, usually printed in the reverse of the card in black and white, frequently promised complete and rapid cure; cards for Dr. Thomas's Eclectric Oil, for example stated that "It will positively cure toothache in 5 minutes, earache in two minutes and deafness in two days." Trade cards were given to the pharmacist along with quantity orders shipped by the manufacturer, or by traveling salesmen then called "drummers" as a sales incentive. The pharmacist would include trade cards in wrapped packages or even mail them to purchasers on request. Always without a charge, of course. A favorite Victorian pastime was collecting and pasting them in albums; today they are often found with their backs completely obliterated because of this popular pastime.
Trade cards were often signed by the publisher, and firms such as Currier and Ives, Louis Prang, J.H. Bufford, and Major and Knapp were frequently seen. As commercial objects, signatures of individual artist are rarely noted, but we will see, many trade cards for proprietary medicine had considerable artistic merit.
Slide #1: Herbs, roots, barks and other natural products were sold by the Shakers to support their communities. Capitalizing on their reputation, the A.J. White Company launched several products using their name, the Shaker Soothing Plasters being a representative example. Plasters today are infrequently used, but still are an effective means of providing counter irritation.
Slide #2: Hibbard's Rheumatic Syrup was purported to be "a remarkable remedy from roots, herbs and barks, compound by one of the noblest mothers." The speed of the racer implies that rheumatic patients could have such mobility restored to them if they would only use this remarkable product.
Slide #3: Cogent, a French firm, produced some of the most beautiful art designs. In this Spanish card the product is for the treatment of rheumatic complaints, but others using similar illustrations were used to advertise products for coughs, debility, and nutrition.
Slide #4: F. Berlyak, the Austrian distributor for Nestle products in the late nineteenth century, published this charming illustration of several mothers purchasing their children's food supplement in a Viennese store. Among other advertising, a diploma from Nestle decorates the wall.
Slide #5: While cocaine has some positive medical indication, it is doubtful that its use in toothache drops is one of them. Lloyd's Toothache Drops were registered in 1885 and must have been a quick success, for shortly thereafter the firm stated that the product's "wonderful properties are fully demonstrated by the many recommendations it is daily receiving."
Slide #6: The female complaints in this advertisement for English Female Bitters are difficult to specify, but he symptoms, according to the text on the reverse of the card, state the "she is becoming pale, feeble, lifeless, cross, fretful and unfit for anything." Further she can't sleep soundly, can't laugh heartily, has become melancholy and dull and lost her brilliant wit. At the time, there was no counterpart product for males.
Slide #7: The happy wild-eyed children on the seesaw are solid evidence of the efficacy of Carnick's Soluble Food. The product formula consisted of equal parts of the solid constituents of milk (the case in being solubilized by the use of pancreatin) and wheat in which the starch had been converted to soluble forms of dextrine and soluble starch.
Slide #8: The reason Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup was effective in calming teething children was that it contained morphine, prompting some physicians and journalists to call it a "babykiller." In the nineteenth-century, the British public was better protected that the American, since their labels for this product had to be marked "Poison."
Slide #9: What could have been the active ingredient, or ingredients, in Barry's Tricopherous to warrant their guarantee "to restore the hair to bald heads and to make it grow thick, long and soft?" It contained about 82% alcohol, about 7% of fixed oils and some coloring matter. In an analysis published in 1907, no alkaloids, metals or vescating agents could be detected. The mystery remains.
Slide #10: Blood Purifiers and Nerve Tonics left few claims out if the list of ailments they could cure. Dr. Green's for example for example, listed scrofula, Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Kidney Complaint, Liver Complaint, Lung Trouble, Salt Rheum, Constipation, Piles, Jaundice, Loss of Appetite, Female Weakness, Dyspepsia and Nervousness. And testimonials from happy users added yet more.
Slide #11: Gombaults's Caustic Balsam was good for man (rheumatism, sprains, sore throat) and beast (lameness, strained tendons, wind puffs). They issued a series of cards of champion horses, such as this one of the trotter Chain Shot, with statements on the reverse, listing uses for this product.
Slide #12: Breath purifiers are products that are still with us, particularly for smokers. None the less it is difficult to conceive of the Zouave in the illustration as one whose sweetness of breath is remarkable; possibly that card was a "stock" item in printer's catalog, chosen without much thought for its appropriateness.
Slide #13: The commercial Eau de Melisse des Carmes was launched in 1864 and is still being sold today. But its origins go back further, to the early seventeenth century in a monastery in Paris. Its use in apoplexy, seasickness, indigestion, colic, and "the vapors" is proposed on the reverse side of the card.
Slide #14: The beautiful jeweled mortar could be bought from the manufacturer Travis, McLewee and Ferry for $30 if it was to be illuminated by gas or for $32 if by oil. It was 21" x 18" in size and could be used as either a day or night trade sign by the pharmacy.
Slide #15: Ely's Cream Balm was to be rubbed on the skin to relieve a variety of complaints. The titles in the Phrenologist's Head give some of them but are not a complete listing. The product was essentially liquid petrolatum with small amounts of thymol, menthol, and bismuth carbonate.
Slide #16: The mandrake plant, Mandragora officinarum, has a fleshy forked root and was thought to resemble a living person. As such it enjoyed widespread usage in the past; Hippocartes, for example, suggested that small doses in wine would relieve depression and anxiety. Kermott's Mandrake Pills were to be used in headache, constipation, indigestion, liver complaint and to purify blood.
Slide #17: If you have a "soreness in the region of the liver, across the stomach below the ribs," the message on the reverse of this card directed you to Judson's Mountain Herb Pills, a specific in bilious fever, dysentery, diarrhea, chills and fevers, among other possibilities. In an age when treatment by physicians was not always reliable, and was certainly more expensive that proprietary medicines, such directions were more appreciated that they might be today.
Slide #18: A Philadelphia pharmacist stayed close to home using the illustration of William Penn's treaty with the Indians. Perhaps he wished to use Penn's Quaker honesty and fair dealing to imply similar virtues for his firm, or perhaps it was the comfort of the bare feet of the Indians that might entice buyers of his Corn and Bunion Plasters. We cannot be sure.
Slide #19: "The maiden with laughing eyes and rosy cheeks -- a picture of health -- is offering you Vegetine, the most reliable vitalizer of the human blood," notes the text accompanying this picture. Today there are other tonics on the market for "tired blood," etc., but they would not go as far as Vegetine's advertising copywriters who promised that "it is a radical cure and will reach the most severe cases of diseases arising from impurity of the blood."
Slide #20: Because the government had imposed a tax on alcohol, British manufacturers, to gain exemption, added bitter flavoring to the alcohol they bottled and promoted the resulting product for its medicinal virtues. The dosage form quickly spread to America, and spawned a large industry. Several thousand different "Bitters" have now been identified by passionate bottle collectors, such as this one for Congress Bitters.
Slide #21: Wm. Pfundler's Oregon Blood Purifier had this to say in advising would be purchasers, "Remember, by purifying your blood, you regulate the liver, and kidneys, cleanse the stomach of all morbid secretions, and enjoy the great boon, good health. No sufferer should fail to give this popular remedy a trial." Good advice indeed!
Slide #22: Nineteenth-century printers sold "stock" trade cards for pharmacists and other health professions to advertise their products or services. In this example, a Barcelona pharmacy chose an art nouveau illustration of children at play to promote Hipofosol, a cure for anemia and lack of appetite.
Slide #23: The Balm of Bethesda, a British product, not only would cure tender feet as the card proclaims, but also could cure corns, chapped hands, chilblains and itching feet, relieve swelled ankles and remove horny growths. Further, as the proprietor noted, tight boots could be worn with comfort after using it.
Slide #24: The image in this trade card for Buchu-Paiba employed the bottle as a ship floating in a choppy sea. The metaphor suggested that Buchu-Paiba could rescue patients from kidney and bladder infections in the same way shipwrecked sailors could be rescued for the sea. The buchu plant, Barosma betulina, was first imported to England in the 1820s for use as a diuretic.
Slide #25: The trade card for Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills had a mounted Indian and bear in the pose of St. George slaying the dragon. The pills were a good laxative, containing gamboge, aloin and capsicum. Their manufacturer, the Comstock company, had begun its operations before 1833, and a W.H. Comstock company was still in business in Australia in the 1970s.
Slide #26: Zan was the brand name of a pleasant-tasting licorice stick and was promoted as an agent good for relieving coughs and colds. Here the illustration suggests that the physician will soon be dismissed, giving way to superior remedy.
Slide #27: The advertisement for Pilules Dupuis was the front cover of a small booklet giving information on average children's weights. The illustration furthers the association of the product with children, and the caption "The grandfather's secret," obviously refers to the virtues of the pills, which promise to deliver a clean stomach, open bowels, pure blood.
Slide #28: It is impossible to consider that the clientele for present-day proprietary medicines would be "All Aesthetic" as this trade card for Star Cough Drops states. But this group was not the only one who might benefit, for children, public speakers, and singers could also be helped, as the advertising notes on the reverse.
Slide #29: Queen Victoria was brought in by the Royal Pharmaceutical Company to promote its product, Royal Elixir. It is doubtful that she agreed to do this, or that royalties were paid to her, but the firm did have offices in London as well as New York and was listed as being "Chemists by appointment to her Majesty, the Queen, and to the Royal Family." Possibly the illustration was used on one side of the Atlantic.
Slide #30: The Dr. Scott Company made a made a full line of electric belts, corsets and related materials designed to separate unsuspecting members of the public from their money. One of their products, The Electric Brush, was widely promoted; the long-haired model in this illustration has obviously received some benefit from using it.
Slide #31: Mrs. Dinsmore was a formidable-looking woman whose visage alone was probably sufficient to cure many illnesses. She claimed to have obtained the recipe for her product from England, and all of her product claims were rather extravagant and difficult to support.
Slide #32: H.H. Warner made his first fortune as a pioneer in the manufacture of safes in Rochester, New York. His company later became part of the Mosler Safe Company, and because of his background, Warner felt it appropriate to use the name "safe" in several of his products, including the Rheumatic Cure. Undoubtedly this word in the title aided sales.
Slide #33: The proprietors of M.I.S.T. sold boxes of 50 capsules for $1.00 and proclaimed it to be "the greatest blood purifier in the world." At times it was recommended not only for the diseases listed on the card, but also for "cancer and canerous germs" as well. The formula to do all this contained aloe, cascara, and licorice as active ingredients.
Slide #34: In contrast to the normal placement of suppositories, the Vita suppositories for colds, hay fever, and catarrh were meant to be placed in the nostril. A quote form a New York physician, published in 1885, points out that they contain astringent, demulcent, and stimulating remedies and no harmful or poisonous drugs.
Slide #35: Although they did not admit it, the proprietors of Boschee's German Syrup included morphine in their formula, and thus it did offer some measure of relief for coughs and colds and possibly even tuberculosis. In a card published in the late 1880s they stated that 500,000 bottles of their August Flower had been sold in one year without recording a single failure to cure dyspepsia.
Slide #36: Early advertisements for Hoxsie's Certain Croup Cure promised cures for diphtheria, tuberculosis, croup, influenza, coughs, colds and sore throats, but were toned down after the passage of the Federal Food and Drug Act in 1906. They stressed the absence of opium in the formula and claimed to have 20% alcohol, but certain samples tested as high as 31%.
Slide #37: Victorieux, a pharmacist in the Dordogne region of France, offered his Specifique as a radical cure for corns and related foot ailments. This trade card which also exists as a poster, shows French soldiers happily enjoying the use of M/. Victorieux's product, being envied by German soldiers across the way who are not so blessed.
Slide #38: An excess of watermelon and other fruits is bound to make the boys in the illustration candidates for Dr. Harris's Summer Cordial. The product promised to be "an unfailing remedy for Diarrhoea, Dysentery, Sour Stomach, Sick Headache and Indigestion," but comments on the reverse of the card also suggested value in teething problems of children.
Slide #39: Before and after pictures are natural illustration for proprietary medicines, and this 1872 card for Hamilton's Buchu and Dandelion is a classic example. The ingredients, buchu and dandelion, have excellent diuretic properties, giving patients evidence of some activity, but this does not necessarily mean that they are good for "all diseases of the kidney and liver."
Slide #40: Today it is not easy to accept the premise that a cold could be cured by a spending only a nickel for a package, despite the claim on this card for Red Cross Cough Drops. It is doubtful that International Red Cross, founded in 1863, had any association with the product, but the use of a related symbol suggested some medical validity.
Slide #41: Death had no chance on wrestling an opponent wielding a bottle of Hunt's Remedy. The image of the card has its precedents in fifteenth-century German wood engravings, but is here brought up-to-date in the interests of promotion. The Anonymous artist created a powerful image within the restrictions of a three-inch-square format.
Slide #42: The attractive automobilist stands in front of the factory of the Humphrey Homeopathic Medicine Company, perhaps the largest competitor in the field of homeopathic medicines in the early years of this century. Their Witch Hazel Oil was one of the few to carry a specific name, for most of the packages in the Humphrey line were sold by their number only, with No. 77 (for Grip) the most widely used.
Slide #43: None of the purported "Kidney Remedies" did anything positive for kidney disease, for destructive changes to the kidneys demand more than mere paliative therapy. Nor did they do anything for lower back pain, a condition frequently promoted in advertising of these products. Sanborn's Kidney Remedy was typical of the breed, a group of products that did much harm in delaying proper medical treatment.
Slide #44: The dancing Zulus in this illustration are promoting Kalodont Dental Cream, a product claimed to be refreshingly tasty and antispectic in its use. Techniques for chromolithographic printing on this and similar cards, such as those published by the Liebig Company, were able to produce images of high quality and thus have strong appeal for contemporary collectors.
Slide #45: The reverse of this surrealistic card for Burdock's Blood Bitters presents its indications as dyspepsia, biliousness, sick headache, and constipation. Another frequent theme in Burdock's advertising was contained in a headline used with great frequency, "Invalid Ladies-This is for You." There was 16% alcohol in each bottle of the Bitters, and other herbs and roots provided a laxative effect.
Slide #46: Redding's Russia Salve was recommended as a cure for conditions ranging from cancers and "swelled nose" to ingrown nails and mosquito bites. This illustration of a French officer treating a wounded soldier during Napoleon's ill-fated invasion of Russia illustrated an indication for flesh wounds.
Slide #47: Chlorol Marye was designed to be rubbed on affected parts, or in the case of animals, to be employed as soap. Not only was the sanction of the church suggested by the illustration, but Louis Pasteur was also quoted in support of the value of the product.
Slide #48: Lillie Langtry, the Jersey Lily, was the model in this advertisment for Brown's Iron Bitters. The product stressed its efficacy in treating women, and in its promotion emphasized the importance of products containing iron in various diseases. But a high content of alcohol also contributed to its success.
Slide #49: The Japanese Corn File, here shown in actual use, was a "safe, simple and efficient instrument, which can be used by a child with perfect safety, for the total eradication of corns..." Since it sold for 35 cents and could "last a family for years," it is not surprising that it has totally disappeared from the market today.
Slide #50: The health biscuit was promoted by testimonials from physicians such as this one from C.J. Hammond, M.D., "Medical science and long experience has taught the vital importance of nutritious and easily digested food for invalids and convalescents. Having had special opportunity to thoroughly test the 'Health Biscuit" made by you, I can say its great value is established beyond question, and I shall conscientiously recommend as well as urge its use."
Slide #51: The Seven Seals or Golden Wonder was so certain of its ability to relieve pain that it promised "No cure; no pay." Capsicum, a blistering agent, was the active ingredient in a formula containing ether, chloroform, camphor, oil of peppermint and 90% alcohol.
Slide #52: In this elaborate card, the Dr. Alexander Company presented the stand they constructed, for which they won a medal, at the Colombian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. Portraits of Columbus and Edward Jenner were also included, and to top if off, a lengthy quotation from the editor of the British Medical Journal.
Slide #53: To a nation of immigrants, appeals using ties to the mother country were a powerful marketing tool. This card was published to announce a series of Grand Irish Musical Festivals in New England, the Middle Atlantic States and the South. It was paid for by the proprietors of Irish Oil who, in their own self-interest, also proposed "Irish Medicines from all the World," and were not above including messages such as "Home Rule for Ireland" and " Irish Laws for Irishman."
Slide #54: A 1916 analysis of Dr. Tucker's Diaphoretic Compound found that it contained 71% alcohol, capsicum, oil of cajaput, oil of anise, and possibly some lobelia. A diaphoretic is a product that produces perspiration, and possibly Dr. Tucker's formula did. The reverse of the card presents a testimonial on the value of the product in the "severe cold to which Arctic climate subjects the unacclimated."
Conclusion
When techniques of color printing in nationally circulated magazines opened up vast new possibilities for advertisers at the close of the century, trade cards lost their popular appeal, and their use by advertisers was quickly curtailed. The illustrated post card, arriving on the scene at about the same time, also hastened their demise. Today they remain as effective evidence of a popular means of communication and of the taste of the nation in the period prior to the passage of the Federal Food and Drug Act in 1906.
