America 1870-1900 - NOSTROMS: Cure-Alls with a Kick

Well, it turns out that Nostrums is another word for patent medicines. How funny! A whole section with a new vocabulary word. The double spread is a patent medicine wagon in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. It is the vehicle of the Dr. Krohn Family Medicine Company. It reminds me of Mr Mysterious and Company by Sid Fleischman. 

To draw the line nicely, and fix definitely, where the medicine may end and the alcoholic beverage begins, is a task which has often perplexed and still greatly perplexes revenue officers. - Commissioner of Internal Revenue 1883

Paine's Celery Compound was good for what ails you at 21% alcohol. 

TL tells of how most nostroms were booze and opium. So I guess we are better off now that our medicines actually cure stuff sometimes. The next two pages are advertisements and they do seem to be promising things they can’t possibly deliver. There is an electric toothbrush and an “electric belt for ladies” (I know how that sounds. This is not that “ladies massager” you’ve read about.) Neither of them seems to run on any current. They are just “infused” with electricity.

Ooh! The next two pages are color adverts! So pretty! And still so useless. The companies made trading cards to market their wares. Kids in particular swapped them around like Wacky Packs and Pokémon of old. 

Ponds Extract has a hopped up science frog and his child labor assistant cooking up the stuff.

Lydia Pinkham’s grandchildren are pictured on her card. I wonder what happened to her fortune? So I looked it up and she was actually awesome! She was an abolitionist,  a friend and neighbor of Frederick Douglass in Lynn, Mass., and a proponent of women's health! Her home in Lynn is on the National Register of historic places and her former factory is now the Lydia Pinkham Open Studio. 

Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup has a mom so excited to get 5 minutes peace by drugging her child. 

Dr. Morse’s Indian Root Pills and Comstock’s Dead Shot Worm Pellets are fighting to the death on the frontier. 

Dr. J.C. Ayer of Lowell, Mass. has all his medicines dancing around the earth in a ballet of world domination!

The Insurance Medicine Company believed so strongly that their medicine wouldn’t actually kill you that they insured each 12-week supply with a $500 policy. I assume they did okay playing those numbers. 

And finally there is a bit about “medical almanacs” which were free books full of ads for the products, but also astrology, long range weather forecasts and jokes. Apparently for some families, those were the only books they owned, other than the Bible. It does make me think about the adage - if you’re getting something for free, you are the product. 

Next up - the city.

All quotes and photographs are from TL