Printed on box: "NASAL BALM // A // POSSITIVE CURE // CATARRAH // COLD IN THE HEAD // CATARRHAL DEAFNESS // HAY FEVER, ROSE COLD // AND // CATARRHAL HEADACHE // PRICE 50 CTS // FULFORD & CO. // BROCKVILLE" on stamp: "PRIOR TO // PROPRIETARY & PATENT // MEDICINE ACT 1915 // DEPT. OF // HEALTH // CANADA"
Permanent Location
Storage Room 0010
0010-A5-5 Box 4 Row B
Unit Of Measure
centimeters
Condition Remarks
Surface grime, abraded edges label split at middle over opening where paper lifted, brown oily minor stains along bottom with some losses to bottom edge
Copy Type
Original
Research Facts
George Taylor Fulford (August 8, 1852 – October 15, 1905) was a Canadian businessman and politician. Born in Brockville, Canada West (now Ontario), to a family of United Empire Loyalist stock, he was the youngest son of Hiram Fulford and Martha Harris.
Fulford went to business college in Belleville, Ontario, and apprenticed with his brother, William, who was a dispensing chemist in Brockville. He took over his brother’s modest apothecary in 1874 and eventually built on it to form a successful patent medicine company.
In January 1887, Fulford registered G. T. Fulford & Co. in the Leeds County Registrar, as a vendor and manufacturer of patent medicines. In 1890, a local McGill-trained physician, Dr. William Jackson, sold him the rights to Pink Pills for Pale People for $53.01. This patent medicine would make him a millionaire.
Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People were marketed in 87 countries worldwide, including Canada, Britain, France, Belgium, South Africa, Singapore, Australia and China. Fulford was an innovative advertiser. He relied heavily on testimonials, submitted by customers, of miraculous recoveries. He would have these printed in newspapers in a way that it was difficult to differentiate news articles from the advertisements, so readers would see headlines proclaiming these miraculous recoveries, and read on to learn that they were saved by Pink Pills. By 1900, he was spending £200,000 yearly in Britain alone on advertising.
Dr William’s Pink Pills for Pale People were sold in Canada for fifty cents per box, or $2.50 for six boxes. Essentially, they were an iron supplement, containing mostly sugar, starch and an iron sulphate. Due to the prevalence of anaemia at this time, the iron-based pills worked as a blood booster for many, thus perpetuating the pill's reputation as a cure-all.
After Fulford’s death, G. T. Fulford & Co. was managed by different associates, and went into receivership in 1989.
He was elected to the town council in 1879 and served as an alderman for 12 terms. He was involved with the Liberal Party of Canada and became a friend of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. He was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 1900 representing the senatorial division of Brockville, Ontario. He served until his death in 1905.
Exhibit History
On exhibit, Billings Estate, 15 Jan 2009 - 31 Dec. 2009