20th century

Omega Oil

The Omega Oil company, which had London and US branches, had its work cut out to get the product noticed among pages of attractive pictorial adverts. But get noticed they did. The constant flow of new designs together with the unique selling point – It’s green – helped create a long-lasting brand. And there […]

The Zerret Applicator

And now for something completely different… We leap forward into the 1950s today with this Public Service Announcement from the US Food and Drug Administration. The presenter is actor Raymond Massey and his advice is all too relevant today. [youtube]R2t6Ei55TYU[/youtube] ‘There are no Z-rays’ is undoubtedly the best line of the film, but it’s quite difficult […]

Make-Man Tablets

Do You Want A Vacation? It’s Make-Man Tablets You Need. Fifty Cents Worth of Make-Man Tablets Often Do More For A Man or Woman Than a Three Hundred Dollar Vacation. Do you feel played out—nervous, tired, irritable, don’t sleep good, wake up every morning with a bad taste in your mouth and a dull, hot, […]

Dr Young’s Rectal Dilators

Source: Detroit Medical Journal August 1905 As you can see, this ad is aimed at the medical profession, and the product was (and still is) accepted by orthodox practitioners as helpful for certain conditions – it was not so much the dilators themselves but the claims made about their efficacy that at one point pushed […]

Magic Foot Drafts

RHEUMATISM Cured Through the Feet Without Medicine An external cure so sure that the makers send it FREE ON APPROVAL. Try it. Send your name and address to the makers of Magic Foot Drafts, the great cure for every kind of rheumatism; Chronic or Acute, Muscular, Sciatic, Lumbago, Gout, etc., no matter where located or […]

Wine of Cardui

WINE FOR WOMEN! Woman’s modesty and ignorance of danger often cause her to endure pains and suffer torture rather than consult a physician about important subjects. Pains in the head, neck, back, hips, limbs and lower bowels at monthly intervals, indicate alarming derangements. McELREE’S WINE OF CARDUI is a harmless Bitter Wine without intoxicating qualities. […]

Bile Beans, part 2

Just a quick post today while I languish on my sickbed without any useful remedies to console me. Following on from a previous post about the Bile Beans for Biliousness, Jane Ellen, Senior Archivist at the University of Melbourne Archives kindly sent me this image, probably from the 1930s. It looks as though it was […]

La Vida Vibrator

Source: The Syracuse Herald (NY) 7 Sept 1919 . Every Woman needs a Vibrator La Vida $7.50 The Vibrator EVERY Woman Needs There comes a new world, a generous world of abundant health, of comfort, of beauty measured by long years—when La Vida enters in. To own La Vida is every woman’s right—it costs so […]

Every Woman's Flesh Reducer

Diet products that promised you could eat what you like and not have to do any tedious exercise had a market in the early 20th century, even though today’s media would have us believe that everyone in the good old days was more robustly active than us morally decrepit modern lard-arses. While many of today’s […]

Derk P. Yonkerman's Tuberculozyne

Consumptives There is Hope for You! Derk P. Yonkerman, Specialist, discoverer of a remarkable Cure for Consumption. To every consumptive person there is hope of life and health, for, incredible as it may seem, a specific which cures Consumption has at last been found. Seeking year after year, working early and late, […]