Items

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: 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: Hanson's Magic Corn Salve
Description: Trade card advertising Hanson's Magic Corn Salve featuring a man in a three-piece suit holding a bouquet of flowers. His mustache is pointed at the ends, and he is framed by flowers that resemble Morning Glories. The back warns customers against counterfeit products.
Conditions Cured (LC): Bunion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Bouquets, Clothes And Dress, Costume, Eyeglasses, Flowers, Mustaches
ID: WH271
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: Dr. Mettaur's Headache Pills
Description: Trade card advertising Dr. Mettaur's Headache Pills featuring a young girl who seems to be praying on a bed. She is barefoot and wearing a nightgown. There is a pillow by her knees. The back has testimony from satisfied customers.
Conditions Cured (LC): Headache
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Children, Children—Prayers And Devotions, Pillows, Portraits
ID: WH303
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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