Trade card, coloured, advertising Ayer's Cherry Pectoral showing two toddlers and a giant bottle of Ayer's with a cherry branch; back describes curative properties and strength of the Pectoral.
Trade card, coloured, advertising Ayer's Cherry Pectoral showing two toddlers and a giant bottle of Ayer's with a cherry branch; back describes curative properties and strength of the Pectoral.
Number Of Parts
1
Provenance
Purchased by Dr. M. Chiong for his patent medicine collection, before July 15, 1995.
paper: green; blue; brown; white; orange; grey; red
Inscriptions
Front reads: "AYER'S CHERRY PECTORAL // Cures Colds, Coughs & all Diseases // of the Throat and Lungs"
Permanent Location
Storage Room 0010
0010-G Chiong Trade Cards Binder D
Unit Of Measure
centimeters
Dimension Notes
Length: 6.5 cm. x Width: 11.8 cm.
Condition Remarks
Large bend, upper right corner; bend, upper left corner; bend, lower left corner; lower right corner shows evidence of rubbing; some bald patches on back
Copy Type
Original
Reference Types
Book
Reference Comments
"American Health Quackery" by James Harvey Young, pp. 130-134; "The Golden Age of Quackery" by Stewart H. Holbrook, pp. 10-11, 47, 50-51; "Secret Nostrums and Systems" by Chas. W. Oleson, p. 9; The Great American Fraud" by Samuel Hopkins Adams, p. 181
Research Facts
Ayer began his career working at an apothecary shop in Lowell, Mass.; studied medicine with a local physician, bought a drugstore in 1841, and later got a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania; began marketing Cherry Pectoral "about midcentury" and followed with other medicines; the Cherry Pectoral was first compounded in Jacob Robbins' Drug Store, Lowell, Mass.; later bought Robbins' Drugstore with money borrowed from his uncle; contained heroin; recipe for Ayer's Cherry Pectoral (from Pacific Med. and Surg. Journal): acetate of morphia, 3 gr., tincture of bloodroot, 2 dr., wine antimony, 3 dr., wine ipecac, 3 dr., syrup wild cherry, 3 oz.; Ayer's Cherry Pectoral was praised for its full labelling of its product -- it printed on its label, as the law required, "the proportion of heroin contained in it" as well as all other ingredients and their proportion.
A Native American medicinal staple, the bark of wild cherry is used for its medicinal properties; it is most commonly used to treat symptoms of respiratory ailments, such as colds and bronchitis; its sedative, drying, and expectorant properties make it a common ingredient in cough syrups; also used to treat pain and digestive disorders. Cherry bark is great at combating dry and irritable coughs. Overuse of cherry bark can be toxic.
Exhibit History
On travelling exhibit ‘Unmasking Influenza’ / Spanish Flu Ottawa L-2019-3 30 April 2019-31 Dec 2022.