Merchandising
medicine was once a "rough" business that called for creative
marketing. Take E.S. Wells, a Jersey City pharmacist in the mid-nineteenth
century. His line of proprietary cure-alls promised customers to be "Rough
On Coughs" as well as "Rough on Rats… Toothaches…
Corns… Bile… Catarrh… Itches… Piles… Worms."
An exhibit documenting this piece of history as well as other aspects
of patent and pharmaceutical medicine in New Jersey is currently running
on C-level of UMDNJ’s newly renovated George F. Smith Library of
the Health Sciences in Newark.
Trade
cards, postcards, bookmarks, pamphlets, almanacs, dream books, lithographic
prints, illustrations, blotters, calendars, sheet music and artifacts
help "tell the story of the patent medicine industry which was very
powerful in our state," explains Lois R. Densky-Wolff, head of Special
Collections. Before the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act by the federal
government in 1906, an unwary public was coaxed into buying medicine that
relied on "ingredients like alcohol, morphine, and opium…not
the best kinds of things for the common cold. One of the great problems
with patent medicine was
that it wasn’t standardized," Densky-Wolff says. "The word
patent didn’t necessarily mean that it was regulated by a governmental
authority, just that it was proprietary, or had a secret formula. The
ingredients were always suspect. Yet, people turned to these remedies
when they didn’t have access to a physician and perhaps in reaction
against treatments legitimate doctors relied on in the early nineteenth
century. There was a lot of purging and use of leeches back then."
Also
on display are materials which show the development of legitimate pharmaceutical
and medical industries in the state. Memorabilia from the beginnings of
companies like Becton-Dickinson, Reed and Carnrick, G. Mennen Chemical
Company, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Company, Ciba-Geigy, Hoffmann-La
Roche, Maltbie and Schering Plough show why New Jersey could call itself
"The Medicine Chest of the Nation" by the 1960s. "There
are a limited number of published books on the history of the health sciences
in New Jersey and our library probably has most of them. We have to search
further afield for different kinds of material to support this history."
Where does it all come from? "I went out and found these things in
paper shows, dealers’ catalogs and in a variety of ways. They are
all from New Jersey," says Densky-Wolff, who has been managing this
special collection for more than a decade. "This is a fun part of
my job."
Merchandising
medicine was once a "rough" business that called for creative
marketing. Take E.S. Wells, a Jersey City pharmacist in the mid-nineteenth
century. His line of proprietary cure-alls promised customers to be "Rough
On Coughs" as well as "Rough on Rats… Toothaches…
Corns… Bile… Catarrh… Itches… Piles… Worms."
An exhibit documenting this piece of history as well as other aspects
of patent and pharmaceutical medicine in New Jersey is currently running
on C-level of UMDNJ’s newly renovated George F. Smith Library of
the Health Sciences in Newark.
Trade
cards, postcards, bookmarks, pamphlets, almanacs, dream books, lithographic
prints, illustrations, blotters, calendars, sheet music and artifacts
help "tell the story of the patent medicine industry which was very
powerful in our state," explains Lois R. Densky-Wolff, head of Special
Collections. Before the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act by the federal
government in 1906, an unwary public was coaxed into buying medicine that
relied on "ingredients like alcohol, morphine, and opium…not
the best kinds of things for the common cold. One of the great problems
with patent medicine was
that it wasn’t standardized," Densky-Wolff says. "The word
patent didn’t necessarily mean that it was regulated by a governmental
authority, just that it was proprietary, or had a secret formula. The
ingredients were always suspect. Yet, people turned to these remedies
when they didn’t have access to a physician and perhaps in reaction
against treatments legitimate doctors relied on in the early nineteenth
century. There was a lot of purging and use of leeches back then."
Also
on display are materials which show the development of legitimate pharmaceutical
and medical industries in the state. Memorabilia from the beginnings of
companies like Becton-Dickinson, Reed and Carnrick, G. Mennen Chemical
Company, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Company, Ciba-Geigy, Hoffmann-La
Roche, Maltbie and Schering Plough show why New Jersey could call itself
"The Medicine Chest of the Nation" by the 1960s. "There
are a limited number of published books on the history of the health sciences
in New Jersey and our library probably has most of them. We have to search
further afield for different kinds of material to support this history."
Where does it all come from? "I went out and found these things in
paper shows, dealers’ catalogs and in a variety of ways. They are
all from New Jersey," says Densky-Wolff, who has been managing this
special collection for more than a decade. "This is a fun part of
my job."