In popular culture within the United States, many have heard of the “snake oil salesman” – a stock character in Western movies depicted as a supposed traveling doctor who peddles “medical” oils, elixirs, tonics, pills, bitters, liniments, tinctures, salts, powders, or syrups to unsuspecting crowds of passers-by. An accomplice in the crowd (a “shill”) attests ...
Index or Pointer or Book Mark. Ansonia, Connecticut: Wallace & Sons, 1858. On October 10, 1858, the manufacturing firm Wallace & Sons (founded 1848) took out a patent to make foldable bookmarks from brass. The company’s primary product was brass fasteners for hoop (or skeleton) skirts which were becoming fashionable in the late 1850s. One ...
The People’s Pathfinder (St. Louis, MO) Spring 1853. Edited by William H. Keevill. This is a rare advertising piece for the dry goods palace of Hubbell & Hunt at Corinthian Hall in St. Louis, Missouri. As can be seen from the large woodcut on the front page, this publication is about hats. The articles are about ...
Graefenberg Gazette (New York, NY), August 1847. The first thing that should grab your attention about this advertisement sheet is that it is printed in red ink. This was a marketing trick by the Graefenberg Company that put out a wide variety of pills and elixirs. This particular sheet promoted their vegetable pills, sarsaparilla compounds, eye ...
Calico Dress Ball! There Will be a Social Dance at Lyceum Hall, West Acton. Boston: Searle Printing, 1870. This large (42” x 28 ½”) broadside was one of a group of five sheets purchased together, all of which relate to activities in Acton and West Acton, Massachusetts, between 1865 and 1875. Printed in Boston by F.A. ...
?The Adventures of Teasing Tom and Naughty Ned with a Spool of Clark’s O.N.T. Cotton. New York: F.B. Patterson, 1879. Books printed as advertisements were frequently directed at children, as is the case of this chapbook hawking Clark’s cotton thread. Not only do Tom and Ned play hooky from school, but they use a spool of ...
Civil War era newspapers were more than just sources of information regarding current events. In the Boston Daily Advertiser, for example, nearly half of any given issue was devoted to advertising. It was certainly not alone in this, though it was at least honest enough to include the word “advertiser” in its name. Goods and ...
As the calendar turns to November, our thoughts naturally turn to baseball... What!? Really? Yes, this year it took until November first to crown a World Series champion. Each year it seems, the games are on later and later (in the day and in the year). Can the casual fan sustain his ...
When I first told people I'd decided to nurse my twins I was asked jokingly, "So you're going to hire a wet nurse?" followed by "too bad they're not around anymore." Of course they are, I thought - just ask Salma Hayek. For awhile I didn't think about nursing history, until I recently saw ...
