The sparkle of perfect health

ADvent Calendar Day 12ADvent Calendar Day 12

The Favorite Prescription was just one part of a range marketed by Dr Ray Vaughn Pierce in newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets and on the side of barns across the late 19th-century US. After his death in 1914, his profitable business continued in the hands of his son, Dr Valentine Mott Pierce, and today’s advertisement dates from that period. According to Charles Oleson’s Secret Nostrums and Systems of Medicine (1906), the ingredients of the Favorite Prescription included digitalis, opium, savin and alcohol.

 

Dr Pierce's Favorite Prescription, c 1920s

 

Image from Safety First, Dr V M Pierce

A glass bottle containing sand.

A Fortune Built on Sand: Health Grains

In early 20th-century New York, a mailman introduced a new patent medicine called Health Grains for indigestion – but the ingredients were far from beneficial. Mrs Bertha Bertsche, a 38-year-old widow, could often be found supervising the pans on the kitchen range at her home in Glebe Avenue, Westchester Square, New York. Inside the pans, […]

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Dangerous beauty: Madame Anna Ruppert

A box of confectionery arrived at the green room of the Princess’s Theatre, Oxford Street, on 6 November 1894 … with no well-wishes attached. The recipient was Anna Ruppert, whose new venture as a theatre manager and actress was a departure from a long career as a beauty specialist. Anna Ruppert ate a considerable quantity […]

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Dr Batty's Asthma Cigarettes

Victorian asthma cigarettes: who was Dr Batty?

While browsing your local newspaper in the 1890s, an asthma-cure advertisement might distract you from tales of the latest sensational crimes. ‘Agreeable to use, certain in their effects, and harmless in their action, they may be safely smoked by ladies and children,’ ran the promotional copy. The product was Cigares de Joy, handy little cigarettes […]

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