Light cardboard trade card for Perry Davis' Vegetable Pain Killer; front: colour chromolithograph depicting six chubby cherubs carrying a bottle over the globe with the first one strewing flowers along their path; globe has Providence, Rhode Island labelled; back: black on aged cream, telling when …
Light cardboard trade card for Perry Davis' Vegetable Pain Killer; front: colour chromolithograph depicting six chubby cherubs carrying a bottle over the globe with the first one strewing flowers along their path; globe has Providence, Rhode Island labelled; back: black on aged cream, telling when it was introduced, where to buy it, and the cost; bottom half shows which druggist presented this card.
Number Of Parts
1
Provenance
Purchased by Dr. M. Chiong for his patent medicine collection, July 15, 1995.
Front: "JOY TO THE WORLD // PERRY DAVIS' // Vegetable // PAIN-KILLER"; bottle reads: "A PURELY VEGETABLE MEDICINE // MEDICINE // FOR INTERNAL and EXTERNAL USE"; back: "THE OLD STANDARD FAMILY MEDICINE"; tells when it was introduced, where to buy it, the cost, and who it was presented by, and their address
Permanent Location
Storage Room 0010
0010-G Chiong Trade Cards Binder A
Dimension Notes
Length: 13.6 cm. x Width: 7.8 cm.
Condition Remarks
Front: top right corner, front part of paper has torn off, but very small; back: slightly stained and sun-aged
Copy Type
Original
Reference Types
Book
Other
JPG
Reference Comments
"The Snake-Oil Syndrome: Patent Medicine Advertising" by A. Walker Bingham, insert # 30; "One
For A Man, Two For A Horse" by Gerald Carson, p. 94; "The Toadstool Millionaires" by James
Harvey Young, p. 187; "The Golden Age of Quackery" by Stewart H. Holbrook, pp. 110, 147-153;
"History of Patent Medicines" - exhibit prepared by Dr. R.G. Guest, pp. 6-7; also see 996.001.441, .442, .446, .447, .451-.453, .572-.575; CD #6; CD #8
Research Facts
Product devised in 1840, registered in 1845, still sold in 1965, although now labelled "Liniment, Pain Killer Brandy"; still in business when Theodore Roosevelt sent the "Great White Fleet" around the world.
Supposedly cures cholera; said to contain various gums, camphor, and cayenne pepper (see amusing story, Carson, p. 94); claimed to have been used throughout the world in a mere 40 years, since it began, very popular in the 1880's, with many plank fences bearing its name; carried around the world by missionaries, sailors, one of the most successful, etc.; picture of card appears on cover of Bingham's book; gums included - myrrh, opium, benzoin, fuiaic, plus capsicum and alcohol; capsicum is a blistering agent and gastric stimulant.