Items

Title: Boyd's Medicated Conserves [from verso]
Description: Trade card advertising Boyd's Medicated Conserves featuring a blank space where one might presumably write an address. It is surrounded by a pink flower that a bee is pollinating. The back details how to get more illuminated cards by purchasing Boyd's products.
Conditions Cured (LC): Biliary Tract—Diseases, Headache
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Bees, Flowers, Insects, Roses
ID: WH233
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Going for Kendall's Spavin Cure
Description: Trade card advertising Kendall's Spavin Cure featuring a horse pulling a man who is being pulled by a dog. The man is straddled around a wooden stake, holding the horse's reins. The dog has a spotted collar and is biting the man on his rearend. The back features testimony from satisfied customers.
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Dogs, Horses, Men, Nature
ID: WH167
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Wheat Bitters
Description: Trade card advertising Wheat Bitters featuring an exhausted-looking man in a shroud reclining in a chair reaching out his hand towards another man who is carrying an oversized bottle of Wheat Bitters towards him. The back explains how Wheat Bitters works and how it can cure various illnesses.
Conditions Cured (LC): Fever, Malaria
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Bottles, Costume, Domestic Scenes
ID: WH195
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Miniature representation of Hood's No. 3 Placque
Description: Trade card advertising Hood's Sarsaparilla featuring a circular image of a buck with large antlers. He is standing in a field with grass and wildflowers. There is a snow-capped mountain in the back. The back quotes testimony from satisfied customers.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Indigestion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Deer, Mountains, Nature
ID: WH149
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Mentholatum Gives Comfort Daily
Description: Trade card advertising Mentholatum featuring a triptych of women applying mentholatum for various ailments.
Conditions Cured (LC): Cold (Disease)
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Health, Self-Care, Women
ID: WH169
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Mentholatum Gives Comfort Daily
Description: Trade card advertising Mentholatum featuring a triptych of women applying mentholatum for various ailments.
Conditions Cured (LC): Cold (Disease)
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Health, Self-Care, Women
ID: WH170
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: The Toll Gate
Description: Trade card advertising a book titled "The Sexual System and its Derangements" featuring an image of a donkey in a barn. A man's head peeks out from a window overlooking the donkey from within the barn. There is a fence between the viewer and the donkey that seems to read "Buffalo NY." There are various hidden images in the leafless trees that surround the barn. The back praises the book being advertised.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Depression, Dizziness, Fatigue
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Donkeys, Hats, Trails, Trees, Wooden Fences
ID: WH254
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Parker's Ginger Tonic: the Best Health and Strength Restorer
Description: Trade card advertising Parker's Ginger Tonic, Parker's Hair Balsam, and Floreston Cologne featuring a text-based panel flanked by two images of men. The one on the left features a man bending over in what seems to be a coughing fit. The one on the right features a man at peace who seems to have just taken the Tonic being advertised. The back lists the benefits of each item advertised.
Conditions Cured (LC): Cough, Dandruff, Indigestion, Rheumatism
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Clothing And Dress, Men, Men's Clothing, Men's Hats
ID: WH180
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Your Cough or Cold can be Cured by Using Hartshorn's Cough Balsam
Description: Trade card advertising Hartshorn's Cough Balsam featuring an image of a tree with songbirds. In the background there is a body of water with a house on the shore. The back outlines why Hartshorn's Cough Balsam has gained popularity in the past, the ailments it cures, and the price.
Conditions Cured (LC): Bronchitis, Cold (Disease), Cough, Influenza, Lungs—Congestion, Pneumonia, Whooping Cough
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Birds, Carriage Houses, Nature, Trees, Water And Architecture
ID: WH137
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: 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: Take Hood's Sarsaparilla 100 Doses One Dollar: First Lesson
Description: Trade card advertising Hood's Sarsaparilla featuring a dog, three puppies, and a rat in a straw-filled, indoor scene. There are a broom and a dog house in the background. In the foreground, the dog is pinning a scared-looking rat to the ground while the three puppies look on. The back describes the disease catarrh and how Hood's Sarsaparilla can help with it. The back also includes testimony from satisfied customers.
Conditions Cured (LC): Catarrh
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Brooms And Brushes, Dogs, Hay, Puppies, Rats
ID: WH148
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

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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