Patent medicines

Uncle Sam sits in a chair with pillows behind his head, convalescing. Before him is a table filled with various medicines, including “Bland-Allison Silver Mixture, Sherman’s Compromise Lotion, Tariff Tinkering Tincture, Jones’ Repudiation Pills, Weaver’s Old Greenback Cordial, [and] Fake Financial Theories.” A bottle of “Byran’s Free Coinage Panacea” lies under a chair and a device labeled “Peffer’s Populistic Electrifier” sits on a small table. In consultation around a table in the background are “Drs. Cleveland, McKinley, [and] Reed.” On the table is a bottle labeled “Currency Reform Medicine.” Wreaths labeled “Merry Christmas” are hanging in the windows. Caption: Uncle Sam (to his three eminent doctors of different schools)–Say, gentlemen, I’m getting over my prostration so fast that all I need is a good dose of that bottle on the table, and you can throw all this stuff here out of the window!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-12-23

Theodore Roosevelt, as an Indian medicine man, beats a drum labeled “The New Nationalism” while standing in a cart with “Publisher Howland” and “Editor Abbott” who are selling bottles of “Outlook Tonic” hailed as “Nature’s Remedy for All Ailments.” On Roosevelt’s chest is the head of an elephant. Caption: The populace is privileged to step up and buy at any time.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-11-02

Two men labeled “Georgia” and “Maine” hold bottles, “Orange Phosphate” and “Cold Tea,” respectively, which contain alcohol. Their pockets are filled with such bottles, their method of subverting prohibition.

Comments and Context

Puck and cartoonist L. M. Glackens were letting their cynicism show — or, rather, emblazoning it on its colorful cover — about the Prohibition movement in America, generally; and in Georgia, specifically.

In this vignette cartoon, President Roosevelt and members of his cabinet appear at the center in a meeting. Each has a signboard advertising a patent medicine or other product on their back. Roosevelt’s says, “Strenoline The Famous Vigor Producer A De-Lightful Stimulant, Nervy Mfg. Co, Royster Bay.” Surrounding the central image are scenes showing men, animals, and statues, all with signboards, including an elephant labeled “G.O.P. The Great Tariff Comedian – Continuous Performances.”

Comments and Context

One of cartoonist Samuel Ehrhart’s now-standard vignette cartoons in Puck, a topic of the day with variations on a theme, in this double-spread was quite standard. The single concept of advertisements encroaching on daily life is played, and stretched, most of the humor derived from puns or association with names of celebrities and professions. Since the 1880s, Puck had lampooned advertising signs on elevated trains and commercial billboards, so this cartoon focusing on sandwich boards was a variation. Present-day eyes might require details about long-forgotten issues and personalities, however.

The street cleaner with “White Wings” on his sign is a reference to the contemporary nickname for New York City’s street-cleaning squad. In 1895 the new reform mayor William Strong was determined to clean the city streets of garbage, clutter, and horse manure. As a mark of how serious he assayed the challenge, he hired “Colonel” George Waring as Sanitation Commissioner, a position he originally intended to offer to Theodore Roosevelt.

President Roosevelt gives the Republican elephant labeled “G.O.P.” a spoonful of “Trust Legislation Tonic.” On the elephant’s abdomen is a “Reciprocity Plaster.”

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Pughe suggests that by early 1902, President Roosevelt was manhandling his party, advancing a modified high-tariff policy and forcing trust-busting medicine down its throat. However, reciprocity had been President McKinley’s new policy trend when he died; and, as far as trusts went, neither the party nor the nation yet knew how much farther than the Northern Securities case the president would go.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

A wizard holds the strings to a wooden jumping toy shaped like a globe with a head, arms and legs. He is surrounded by vignettes with captions: “An early fake,” “The Millerites, waiting for the world to ‘come to an end,'” “The ‘Materializing’ fraud,” “The ‘Get Rich Quick’ delusion,” “The Dowieite’s short-cut to Heaven,” “The superstition of modern drug worship,” and “The profitable ‘Religion’ of Christian Science.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-04-10

An old man reaches for a bottle of “Glycero-Phosphate of Sodium,” a patent medicine that apparently restores youthfulness to aged people. The spirit of Juan Ponce de León stands in the background, laughing. Caption: Ponce de Leon. — They laugh at me, but they still keep it up!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-01-30

In the interior of “The Killem’ Quick Pharmacy,” an elderly man, the pharmacist, dispenses a “Bracer” to a crowd of eager consumers, while a young girl secures a bottle of “Soothing Syrup.” On the counter are bottles and packets of “Arsenic, Strychnine, Antipyrin, Nerve Stimulant, Opium, Cocaine” and “The Needle.” Signs on the wall state “Open all night” and “Prescriptions carefully compounded.” The saloon keeper leans against a column. Caption: Saloon Keeper. — The kind of drunkard I make is going out of fashion. I can’t begin to compete with this fellow.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1900-10-10

Illustration showing two men, “Prof. Scarem” presenting his latest findings on microbes to a crowd of frightened onlookers, and “Dr. Fakem” selling the latest protection against microbes to a crowd of eager consumers. “Scarem” and “Fakem” are a pair of quacks working together to take advantage of a gullible public.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1900-02-28

Theodore Roosevelt informs Robert A. Leet that The Outlook has stopped publishing the Rexall advertisements except for the “entirely innocent form” of the Rexall Hair Tonic, because they are under contract to publish them for the next year. The advertisement that Leet sent is not the kind that has ever appeared in the periodical.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-01

President Roosevelt asks Secretary of Agriculture Wilson if he can take action regarding an advertising campaign by Duffy’s malt whisky, in which the brand claims that it has a number of medicinal properties. Roosevelt believes these claims place the whiskey “clearly within the class of the most objectionable fake patent medicine.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-20