Items

Title: What Happened in ___ During the Hot Spell?
Description: This blank postcard, labeled "Efficient Citizenship No. 454," promotes the achievements of the New York Milk Committee and allied agencies in their fight against infant mortality from July 1 -15, 1911. Statistics from thirteen American cities are provided, as is the reason for the campaign's success: access to, and use of, "good milk." The postcard verso includes a chart of "baby deaths for one year" -- tracking seasonal changes in mortality rates -- and asks the reader to consider, "When does the spurt come in your city?" Contact information for the New York Milk Committee is also provided.
Subjects (LC): Mortality, Milk, Summer, Infants, Hygiene, Health
ID: mk1e010
Geographic Subject: New York. New York City.
Collection: New York Milk Committee Ephemera Collection

Title: Lykosthenes' Phoenix with Flames
Description: One of the earliest descriptions of the mythical phoenix dates to Herodotus, who described a bird with red-and-gold plumage that appears in Heliopolis once every 500 years. This woodcut is from the Alsatian chronicler of curiosities and humanist Konrad Lykosthenes. Worried this distressed rara avis will go the way of kindling? Not a chance! Not only is the Order rooting for him, but, as Dumbledore's patronus, we're pretty sure he's on the rise, especially on Burning Day.
Collection: How to Pass Your O.W.L.s at Hogwarts: A Prep Course

Title: Put Upon Their Feet [from verso]
Description: Trade card printed on two sides, advertising Burdock Blood Bitters.
Subjects (LC): Collars, Feathers, Hats, Women
Language: English
ID: WH131
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Urine Wheel Diagram
Description: The urine wheel diagram is yet another visual trope adapted from medieval manuscripts. Urine texts were very popular, and while the urine consult scene appears to be original to the Fasciculus medicinae, several medieval medical texts included this circular diagram to aid a physician in remembering the various attributes of urines, and what they indicated about a person’s health. It is set up like a wagon wheel, with the urines grouped together by color. The outer edge of the wheel describes each color in detail by comparing it to a common object; for example, “The color of this urine is yellow like gold.” The inner circle of the diagram further divides the urines into groups of colors, and what producing a urine in that color signified about a person’s digestion and overall health. In each of the four corners of the page outside of the diagram are descriptions of the four temperaments, sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic, and what urine colors meant in regard to a person’s humoral balance. 1495: The urine wheel diagram is not in this 1495 version, for reasons unknown. 1500: In this version, the artist has tried to represent the urine colors using the color descriptions at the base of each jar around the wheel. This diagram also includes an introduction discussing the Fasciculus at the top center of the page, as well as a brief few lines of verse mentioning the connections between the four humors, the four elements (earth, air, fire, water), and the four complexions or temperaments. All were thought to be tied together, and revealed much about a person’s personality and physical tendencies. 1509: The urine wheel is the only image in the 1509 edition that includes color. The urines are lightly painted to correspond to their textual descriptions. Unfortunately, a large part of the upper portion of this page has been damaged, and subsequently repaired. The same few lines of verse describing the temperaments and complexions (translated into Italian) can be seen at the bottom of this page between the descriptions of phlegmatic and melancholic temperaments. 1513: The 1513 version is essentially the same as the 1500 version, although without the colors. 1522: The 1522 version is the same as the 1513 and 1500 versions, but translated into Italian and lacking any color.

Title: Ayer's Cherry Pectoral
Description: Trade card printed on two sides advertising Ayer's Cherry Pectoral, a syrup for colds and coughs.
Subjects (LC): Cherries, Hats, Women
Manufacturer: J.C. Ayer & Co. (Lowell (Mass.))
Language: English
ID: WH225
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: 34. Answer to "Observations on the phrenological development of Burke, Hare, and other atrocious murderers, &c. By Thomas Stone, Esq.," &c.
Collection: The Resurrectionists

Title: Out of Town
Description: Within this folded circular produced by the New York Milk Committee is a sentimental poem contrasting the summer holidays of wealthy city dwellers with the fate of working-class infants struck down by disease. Opposing phtographs of healthy children, poor children, country life, and city life emphasize the poem's theme. The back side of the circular lists milk stations where city parents can find care and relief for their children.
Subjects (LC): Milk, Infants, Mothers, Summer, Death, Poetry, Funeral processions, Mortality, Mortality
ID: mk1e001
Geographic Subject: New York. New York City.
Collection: New York Milk Committee Ephemera Collection

Title: Red Star Cough Cure
Description: Trade card printed on two sides advertising Red Star brand cough remedy.
Subjects (LC): Actors, Daggers and swords
Manufacturer: Red Star Cough Cure
Language: English
ID: WH335
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Summer At The Seaside [from verso]
Description: Trade card advertising Jayne's Carminative Balsam and Jayne's Tonic Vermifuge featuring a young woman leaning over a baby in a basket on a seashore. She is wearing a loose, white shirt and a long, red skirt. The baby is covered by a red-and-white patterned blanket. There is a pillow and a yellow blanket in the basket as well as a sprig of a plant with berries. Behind them is a rough sea and a rocky shoreline. The back lists the ailments the Balsam and Vermifuge can cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Diarrhea, Dysentery, Gastroenteritis, Helminths, Indigestion
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Babies, Baskets, Beaches, Berries, Blankets, Cliffs, Clothing And Dress, Costume, Cradles, Grasses, Infants, Leaves, Nature, Necklaces, Ocean, Pillows, Rocks, Textile Fabrics, Water, Water Waves
ID: WH283
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Bloodletting Figure

Title: 17. Confessions, lamentations, & reflections of William Burke, late of Portsburgh, who is to be executed at Edinburgh, on the 28th January, 1829, for murder, and his body given for public dissection
Description: Ballad, illustrated. Cut and mounted.
Language: English
Collection: The Resurrectionists

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: 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: Recipe book : manuscript, 1804
Description: Manuscript volume comprises about 92 culinary recipes, as well as about two dozen medical and household recipes. The majority of the culinary recipes are for savory dishes, including soups, curries, stewed fish dishes, collars, and pickles. Sweet recipes (fruit preserves, jellies, cakes, lemon creams, and a "raspberry spunge") are also present. Entries, written in multiple hands, are up to page 86; the remainder are blank except for one page with a partial index.
Subjects (LC): Cooking, English, Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Traditional medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Manuscripts, English -- 19th century

Title: Dundas Dick & Co.'s Compliments of the Season, 1875
Description: Trade card from Dundas Dick & Co. featuring a greeting card with writing that reads: "Dundas Dick & Co.'s Compliments of the season, 1875." Surrounding this card are autumnal leaves. The back features a nineteenth-century calendar.
Subjects (LC): Acorns, Advertising—Medicine, Leaves, Nature
ID: WH261
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, Lydia E. Pinkham's Blood Purifier, and Lydia E. Pinkham's Sanative Wash featuring an image of a fisherman in a wooden boat on a body of water. In the background there is a large house with a smoking chimney, a bridge, a mountain, and some greenery. The image is framed by sprigs of pink flowers. The back lists the benefits of the items advertised.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Backache, Depression, Headache, Indigestion, Insomnia, Neurasthenia, Peptic Ulcer, Tumors
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Bridges, Chimneys, Fishing, Flowers, Hats, Mountains, Nature, Smoke Plumes, Trees, Water, Water And Architecture
ID: WH187
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title

Specimen Medicinae Sinicae

Description

The Specimen Medicinae Sinicae is the first illustrated book published on Chinese medicine in the West. It contains an overview of Chinese medical practices including acupuncture and meridian theories, semiology of the tongue, descriptions of Chinese pharmaceuticals and their uses, and an important translation of a Ming treatise on pulse diagnosis. The Specimen includes thirty engraved plates and woodcut illustrations in the text, depicting the Chinese doctrine of the pulse and the semiology of the tongue, along with eight tables showing the variations of the pulses. Explaining Chinese pulse theory to a European audience proved difficult. Insufficient description of the plates, which pictured figures with doubled lines running through the bodies, confused western audiences, who interpreted these representations as indication that the Chinese didn't know their anatomy. The publication of the Specimen Medicinae Sinicae did little to change the commonly-held belief that the Chinese were crackerjack diagnosticians, with a misguided idea of the body's interior. The tenets of Chinese medicine and diagnostics were also somewhat muddled in the minds of westerners. Nevertheless, the translation did much to introduce pulse lore, acupuncture, and new materia medica to a Western audience of medical practitioners eager to experiment.

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