The seven ages of dope
Subject(s): Fans, Life cycle, Human, Medical care
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A folding fan opens to display “the seven ages of dope,” beginning on the left with a nurse attending to an infant, passing through childhood and adulthood, to old age, and culminating with a coffin-shaped closure for the fan. In the foreground is a row of containers for various types of adulterated products, and in the background are drug producing factories.
Comments and Context
Cartoonist S. D. Ehrhart’s moralistic cartoon is a play upon the very popular “Seven Ages Of Man,” from William Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man (infant, school-boy, lover, soldier, justice, “lean and splintered pantaloon,” and second childishness), issued at the time in framed prints, portfolios, and books.
The cartoonist casts a wide net, and the arrangement looks further like the popular moralistic plays, prints, and books “Ten Nights In a Bar Room,” depicting the stages of alcoholic dissipation in famous Currier and Ives prints.
At the time of this cartoon, Samuel Hopkins Adams was attacking the food and drug industry in muckraking magazine articles for Collier’s Weekly in 1905, and again after 1911. His articles were collected in the book The Great American Fraud. The “embalmed beef” scandal was still fresh in the public’s indignation — American meat companies supplied tons of canned food, mostly meat, to Spanish-American War servicemen, and much of it was rancid.
The cartoon’s broom sweeps wider, however. Ehrhart, perhaps a prophet of the natural foods movements, attacks paraffin in chocolate, and additives in general. Paraffin is not beeswax but a constituent of chocolates and other foods made today from vegetable oils, palm oil derivatives, and synthetic resin. Adams, Ehrhart, and many crusaders wondered further whether the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was chimera and the Supreme Court disallowed its provisions on technicalities, in 1911. Adams was commissioned to write a second series on impure foods and drugs.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1906-03-28
Creator(s)
Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937
Period
U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)
Repository
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Page Count
1
Record Type
Image
Resource Type
Rights
These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.
Citation
Cite this Record
Chicago:
The seven ages of dope. [March 28, 1906]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278524. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937. The seven ages of dope. [28 Mar. 1906]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. August 3, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278524.
APA:
Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), approximately 1862-1937., [1906, March 28]. The seven ages of dope.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o278524.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. August 3, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
APA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
