University Health Network - Academy of Medicine Collection
Category
Pharmacy and Drug Artifacts
Pharmacy, General
Pharmacy
Home Health Care
Classification
Pharmacy, General
Pharmacy
Home Health Care
Accession Number
1977.12.105
Description
Short cylindrical brown glass bottle with cream paper label with black and red text wrapped in tan glassine paper security covering; sealed, never opened.
Short cylindrical brown glass bottle with cream paper label with black and red text wrapped in tan glassine paper security covering; sealed, never opened.
Printed on label: "THIRTY TABLETS // BELL-ANS // TRADE MARK REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. // FOR // INDIGESTION"
Permanent Location
Storage Room 0010
0010-A4-6 Box 1 Row F
Unit Of Measure
centimeters
Condition Remarks
Like new
Copy Type
Original
Research Facts
In the late 1800’s, John Lanphere Dodge took his first job sweeping floors and stocking shelves at a New York City pharmacy. It wasn’t long until the young entrepreneur, fascinated with chemistry and pharmaceuticals, approached a chemist named Bell with the idea of creating a remedy for indigestion. Together they developed Bell-ans tablets—naming it after the chemist and the main ingredient, ‘pa-pay-ans,’ which means relief for indigestion.
The resulting concoction became a popular elixir that was said to “remove flatulence, vertigo, weakness and other symptoms of indigestion quickly and pleasantly.” The iconic bottle, manufactured from a massive three story factory building on the 150 acre compound at the foot of the Clausland Mountains in Orangeburg, became so iconic that one is in the collection at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.
In 1897, Dodge purchased 150 acres in Orangeburg, New York and built Bell-ans Park. factory buildings that produced the remedies and the cottages that housed the workers.