Light cardboard trade card for Wells, Richardson & Co's Lactated Food; front: colour chromolithograph of a chubby, naked fairy playing a reed flute on a riverbank to some butterflies nearby; framed at the top and bottom by script describing who and how Lactated Food helps (children, infants, enfeeb…
Light cardboard trade card for Wells, Richardson & Co's Lactated Food; front: colour chromolithograph of a chubby, naked fairy playing a reed flute on a riverbank to some butterflies nearby; framed at the top and bottom by script describing who and how Lactated Food helps (children, infants, enfeebled adults); back: brown writing on tan; shows trademark and picture of two rings looped together, each with a picture inside, one showing two cows and the other showing a field of grain, and some that had been harvested already, representing the ingredients -- sugar of milk, wheat (gluten), barley (Diastase), and oats; size of a small postcard.
Number Of Parts
1
Provenance
Purchased by Dr. M. Chiong for his patent medicine collection, July 15, 1995 (before).
Around in 1892 and was still aroung in 1911 (Eaton's and Hudson Bay catalogues); made after Paine's Celery Compound and Diamond Dyes
Material
paper: red/pink; yellow; blue; green; brown
Inscriptions
"Thousands of children are insufficiently nourished, // and must be puny and fretful. Lactated Food will // give them strength and flesh, and make them joyous // and happy. // In the enfeebled digestion of invalids, Lactated Food // is more easily assimilated than any other nutritive. // In old age it gives strength to the physical and nervous // systems"; back: "Wells, Richardson & Co's // LACTATED FOOD, // FOR INFANTS AND INVALIDS. // GREAT SUCCESS // Has followed ..."; describes uses and the ingredients/constituents in the product
Permanent Location
Storage Room 0010
0010-G Chiong Trade Cards Binder A
Dimension Notes
Length: 15.0 cm. x Width: 9.8 cm.
Condition Remarks
Front: small stain on right edge about 1/3 of the way up; edges a little worn; back: pencil doodles in top half and stain on left side (same as the front, just soaked through) and small stain (also seen on front) near the lower right corner
Copy Type
Original
Reference Types
Book
Reference Comments
"The Snake-Oil Syndrome, Patent Medicine Advertising" by A. Walker Bingham, p. 71; "The Golden Age of Quackery" by Stewart H. Holbrook, p. 60; "Step Right Up" by Brooks McNamara, colour insert # 8, four pictures of Lactated Food trade cards; "American Health Quackery" by James Harvey Young, pp. 141-142
Research Facts
Packed in square tins saying "The Physicians Favourite ... Sure Cure for Cholera Infantum ... Perfect Nutrient for Invalids", etc.; images of children predominant since they were for children; since it had a milk base, often used cows in ads too; hovered between foods and drugs, promising to make youngsters healthily plump