The Old Bushmills Distillery Co.

Established in 1608, Bushmills in County Antrim, Ireland, is the world’s oldest legal distillery.  By the time of Bushmills’ official opening in 1784, whiskey was already quite popular, and the distillery has been frequented by travelers across the centuries. It won awards at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1889 and at the Chicago Colombian Exhibition of 1893.  Even after more than 400 years, it still wins awards at international spirit ratings competitions.

Bottle embossed: The Old Bushmill’s Distillery Co. Limited Trade Mark ESTd 1784

Ireland in the Nineteenth Century, and Seventh of England’s Dominion: Enriched with Copious Descriptions of the Resources of the Soil, and Seats and Scenery of the North West District (Google eBook) by Esq. A. Atkinson, 1833

Guide through Ireland (Google eBook) James Fraser (of Dublin.) 1838

Scenery & Antiquities of north-west Donegal, 1893

Official Catalog of the British Section, Great Britain. Royal Commission for the Chicago Exhibition, 1893 World’s Colombian Exposition

The Strand Magazine, Volume 15, G. Newnes, 1898

Bromo-Seltzer, Emerson Drug Co. Baltimore, MD.

Early in the 20th century, Bromo-Seltzer contained ingredients known to be poisonous, yet the product experienced widespread popularity and made its inventor very wealthy, due to his aggressive advertising campaigns.

According to the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “Isaac Edward Emerson was born in Chatham County, N.C., in 1859. His family moved to Chapel Hill in 1868. Emerson was graduated from the University of North Carolina as a chemist in 1879. He worked out and patented the formula for Bromo-Seltzer, a headache remedy, upon which Emerson’s immense wealth was based.”

Wikipedia described the Bromo-Seltzer product as “(acetaminophen, sodium bicarbonate, and citric acid), an antacid used to relieve pain occurring together with heartburn, upset stomach, or acid indigestion. Bromo-Seltzer is sold in the United States in the form of effervescent granules which must be mixed with water before ingestion.  The product took its name from a component of the original formula, sodium bromide; it contained 3.2 mEq/teaspoon of this active ingredient. Bromides are a class of tranquilizers that were withdrawn from the American market in 1975 due to their toxicity. Their sedative effect probably accounted for Bromo-Seltzer’s popularity as a hangover remedy. Early formulas also used acetanilide as the analgesic, a known poisonous substance.”

According to Joseph A. Schwarcz, author of The Fly in the Ointment: 70 Fascinating Commentaries on the Science of Everyday Life, there was another ingredient that was the key to the success of Bromo-Seltzer.

Suspicions about acetanilide goes back at least as far as 1905, when Samuel Hopkins Adams wrote The Great American Fraud and published this warning.

Despite the warning, Bromo-Seltzer remained a popular drug, due to its advertising.

Ad from The Pall Mall Magazine, Volume 17, 1899 page xviii.

Ad from LIFE Magazine, Feb 13, 1939, page 5

Ad from LIFE Magazine Dec 15, 1952, page 4

Chamberlain Med. Co., Des Moines, IA

Chamberlain’s Colic, Cholera and Diarrhea Remedy was one of many thousands of patent medicines that made incredible, and often false, claims about their effectiveness, and became tremendously profitable.  Eventually government regulations were put in place to prevent medicine manufacturers from making unfounded claims about their products.

Bottle embossed “Chamberlain’s Colic, Cholera and Diarrhoea Remedy / Chamberlain Med Co. / Des Moines IA, USA

Excerpt from Balm of America: Patent Medicine Collection – History, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center

Patent medicines are named after the “letters patent” granted by the English crown. The first “letters patent” given to an inventor of a secret remedy was issued during the late 17th century. The patent granted the medicine maker a monopoly over his particular formula. The term “patent medicine” came to describe all pre-packaged medicines sold “over-the-counter” without a doctor’s prescription. In the United States very few preparations were ever actually patented. It did not take long for Americans to cultivate their own patent medicines. The numbers and types of medications grew steadily in the decades leading up to the Civil War. The patent medicine trade was very lucrative, encouraging many enterprising individuals to launch their own brands.The second half of the 19th century is considered to be the golden age of American patent medicines. Rapid increases in industry and manufacturing, urban living, advertising in national newspapers and magazines, and the absence of drug regulation all contributed to a boom in the production and consumption of patent medicines. Many people turned to patent medicines out of fear and distrust of contemporary medical practices. This was the period of “heroic medicine,” in which extreme techniques such as bloodletting and the use of harsh purgatives and emetics were often employed by physicians. Working before the advent of germ theory at the end of the 19th century, regular physicians had few therapies that could compete with the patent medicine industry’s promise of easy health in a bottle. Patent medicines were aggressively marketed. Manufacturers developed distinctive trademarks and packaging for their products and created memorable advertising campaigns. Unique and sometimes charming, many trademarks became instantly recognizable. Patent medicine makers were pioneers in the use of such advertising techniques as solicitation through the mail, the provision of free samples and promotional trinkets, national newspaper campaigns, outdoor signage, and testimonials. Popular patent medicine almanacs (free publications of 30 to 40 pages containing weather forecasts, horoscopes, and household and health advice) offered abundant advertising for the sponsoring companies’ products. Before the beginning of federal drug regulation in 1906, patent medicine manufacturers made any therapeutic claims for their products that they wished. In addition, patent medicines often contained dangerous levels of alcohol, opium, and other narcotics, potentially addictive and deadly ingredients that were not revealed to the consumer. Unscrupulous manufacturers greatly exaggerated the curative powers of their remedies, selling them as “panaceas” or “cure-alls.” The aptly named Swaim’s Panacea purportedly cured all “blood diseases” including scrofula, chronic rheumatism, ulcers, old sores, boils and carbuncles, diseases of the spine, catarrh, and wasting.  A long and extravagant listing of conditions for which a medicine claimed to be beneficial, such as this list found on a box of Dr. Flint’s Quaker Bitters, was a hallmark of patent medicine packaging. Citizens groups, legislators, and journalists criticized the medicine industry for these practices. In 1905 and 1906 Collier’s magazine ran a series of influential articles by Samuel Hopkins Adams entitled “The Great American Fraud,” which exposed many of the deceitful and unsafe methods practiced by patent medicine manufacturers. Such exposes helped to promote the first federal Food and Drug Act, signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 30, 1906. The act was amended in 1912, and an even stronger Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act passed in 1938. These laws required drug labeling to include a list of ingredients and prohibited manufacturers from making false and misleading claims. From 1906 to 1918 manufacturers could label their products with a “guaranty” that their medicine complied with the new food and drug law. The 1906 law required manufacturers to label their products if any of the following ingredients were present: alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, eucaine, chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide. A complete listing of all ingredients was not required until 1938. Federal food and drug regulation continues to evolve. Amendments to the laws in 1951 established clear distinctions between prescription and over-the-counter drugs. More recently, new regulations have introduced the category of “dietary supplements,” whose health claims must be labeled as “not evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.” Also, a “Drug Facts” label has been required on all over-the-counter medicines since 2002. Despite dramatic changes in medical knowledge and federal regulation in the past 100 years, self-medication continues to be a popular form of treatment for many Americans. Although no longer referred to as “patent medicines,” over-the-counter products today offer an enormous array of choices without requiring the consultation of a physician. Manufacturers of these remedies continue to rely on extensive advertising to reach the consumer directly, employing many of the methods pioneered by patent medicine marketers over 100 years ago.

Chamberlain’s ad, the Ellensburg Dawn – Jun 8, 1905

Image from a 16-page pamphlet of short stories, c. 1910, published by the Chamberlain Medicine Co.
The pamphlet was only one of many advertising vehicles used by the patent medicine industry.

Excerpt from the post Cholera Medicine, in The Medicine Chest by Dr. Richard Cannon

“The word cholera is Latin for bilious disease, and has come to indicate a severe intestinal infection. In humans, certain strains of Vibrio cholera, a bacterium, produce the disease that can be severe and even fatal. Classic cholera is often referred to as Asiatic cholera because the disease was originally confined to Asia. Fluid and electrolyte replacement is the mainstay of treatment. Antibiotics shorten the duration of the disease.  Opium and bismuth were used in 1886. A better vaccine has been developed, but safe food and water and prolonged breast-feeding are still the most important preventatives. European cholera is considered to be a less dangerous form of the disease. Cholera infantum refers to a severe diarrhea of young children, bacterial or viral, which is most common during the summer months. Winter cholera is milder and usually due to a virus. Chicken or fowl cholera is caused by Pasturella multocida, bacterium, and can be acute and often fatal or chronic. It responds to certain antibiotics.Hog cholera results from infection by a RNA virus of the genus Pestivirus. It has also been called swine fever. Vaccines help but allow the virus to continue in the body. Infected animals usually have to be slaughtered. Brothers Davis and Lowell Chamberlain established a proprietary medicine business in Marion, Iowa, in 1873. With their sister Izanna in 1881, they formed Chamberlain and Company in Des Moines. The firm became the Chamberlain Medicine Co. in 1892, and soon expanded to Australia, Canada and South Africa. They also put out a cough remedy, liniment, pain balm and hand lotion.”

Chamberlain’s Cough Remedy ad, undated

Excerpt from July 1906 issue of the Homeopathic Envoy

“Up in Vancouver “Chamberlain’s Colic, Cholera and Diarrhoea Remedy” was too much for a baby. The Vancouver World published the facts with the coroner’s verdict in the case. The Chamberlain people then sent a defense to the World with a large advertisement which was refused. The medicine company then sued the newspaper for libel. The newspaper is now demanding and will probably get such legislative enactment as will in future control the sale of such dangerous medicines… Ella Clark went to the Insane Asylum at Mt. Pleasant in January, 1906. She was a morphine fiend and used the Chamberlain Colic Cure in large quantities. In Shelburne Falls, Mass., there is a man who began to take the same remedy for diarrhoea and now takes from two to four ounces nightly for its sedative effect and his doctor says he is a nervous wreck.”

Los Angles Daily Times, January 27, 1908

A black and white cartoon on a postcard. The caption reads ‘Cape Town, 1st May 1916/ ‘When you cough, sneeze and groan – you’ve got it!/ Take Chamberlain’s Cough Remedy and get fit/ yours for Health, Granny Chamberlain’. Chamberlain’s Cough Remedy was made by the Chamberlain Medicine Company from 1908 to 1918.

Snow and Palmer Dairy, Bloomington, ILL

Eight of the nine milk bottles found in the Old Main cistern were from one local dairy, the Snow and Palmer Dairy of Bloomington. Before effective refrigeration was available during transport, only local milk would have been available.

Milk bottle embossed “Snow & Palmer”

In the mid-nineteenth century, milk was primarily given to babies when mother’s milk was unavailable, but this carried some risks, as milk was dispensed with a ladle from street vendors (Robert Dirks, 2011, Come & Get It: McDonaldization and the Disappearance of Local Food from a Central Illinois: pg 172). Bacteria grew in the containers, especially during the warmer months of the year, causing “‘summer diarrhea’ a disease that often proved lethal among children. Gastrointestinal disease accounted for up to 25 percent of infant mortality in the United States as late as 1900” (Dirks 2011: 172).  In the town of Normal, at the turn of the twentieth century, consumers could choose from several dairy options. Dirks notes “early supermarkets stocked bottled milk and other dairy products, but most families preferred to purchase them from a ‘milkman’ who delivered right to the door” (2011: 172).

Milk bottle embossed “One Quart Snow & Palmer”

The Snow and Palmer dairy was started by Willis Snow in 1870, who formed a partnership with Harry Palmer in 1897 (Dirks 2011:174). Bloomington passed ordinances to ensure the safety of milk in 1911, which outlawed selling milk from canisters, and necessitated bottled milk (Dirks 2011: 173). Pasteurization was introduced in 1895, and mandated by the city of Chicago in 1908. “In Bloomington, the Snow and Palmer Dairy was the first to introduce pasteurization to its customers” (Dirks 2011:173). They merged with Beatrice Creamery in 1925, and began selling milk products under the Meadow Gold brand (Dirks 2011:174). The eight milk bottles then can be firmly dated within the 28 years of the Snow and Palmer partnership.

Image from “Bloomington-Normal in Vintage Postcards” by Elaine J. Taylor, 2002, pg 42.

Image from “Milk wagons pulled by ‘Old Dobbin’ came to end in 1946″ Pantagraph newspaper, by Bill Kemp, October 17, 2010

Image from “Illustrated Bloomington” by J. H. Hudson, 1917, page 75

Colgate & Co. Perfumers New York

According to the Notable Names Database “William Colgate came to America with his family when he was a teenager, and settled in Baltimore, where he worked as an apprentice to a soap-boiler. Eventually relocating to New York City, he worked as a candlemaker, and in 1806 he went into business for himself, selling soap, candles, and starch. After several years of financial struggle, William Colgate & Company prospered in the 1820s selling Windsor toilet soaps and Pearl starch. Thirteen years after his death in 1857, the company began selling toothpaste, and in 1893 it introduced toothpaste in a tube.”

Bottle embossed “Colgate & Co. Perfumers New York”  Ink added to highlight text.

Excerpt from “For Appearance’ Sake: The Historical Encyclopedia of Good Looks, Beauty, and Grooming” by Victoria Sherrow, 2001, pgs 78-79.

Colgate’s Cashmere Bouquet Perfume Ad, 1885

Colgate’s Cashmere Bouquet Perfume Ad, 1886

1890 “Heaps of Roses” advertisement for Colgate soaps and perfume

1899 black and white print ad for Toilet and Shaving Soaps, Perfumes, Sachets, Toilet Waters, and Dental Powder from the Colgate & Co.

Colgate’s Cashmere Bouquet Perfume advertising bookmark, 1900s

Victorian advertisement for Colgate’s soaps and perfumes. 1900s.

1916 Ad for Colgate’s Exquisite Perfumes

1918 World War I ad for Colgate’s line of toiletries

1920 ad for fragrant Florient Flowers of the Orient beauty products, from Colgate & Company.

Colgate’s Florient Flowers Orient Perfume Ad, 1921

Colgate’s Cashmere Bouquet Perfume Ad 1922

Colgate’s Florient Flowers Orient Perfume Ad, 1922

Colgate & Co. Dodge truck, dated 1922.

1925 ad for the Cashmere Bouquet Soap from Colgate and Company. This ad features a painting of “The Rose” by the artist Arthur Rackham.

Dr Kilmer’s Swamp Root Kidney Liver and Bladder Remedy, Binghamton, NY

According to Rochelle Frank, author of Early-Patent-Medicines-A-Dose-of-Deception “Swamp Root, perhaps because of its name, seems to fall into the same category as snake oil. It appears to suggest something exotic, mysterious, and not easily attainable.

The image of Dr. S. Andral Kilmer M.D., appeared on all packages, labels, books and promotions. The distribution of his products was so widespread that his face was more recognizable than that of the president in many parts of the country.

Swamp Root, in it’s many forms and variations was by far Dr. Kilmer’s most famous product, however he also lent his face to the promotion of Dr. Kilmer’s Ocean Weed Heart Remedy, Dr. Kilmer’s Indian Cough Cure, Dr. Kilmer’s Female Remedy, described as “The great Blood Purifier and System Regulator” as well as “The only Herbal Alternative and Depurative Ever Discovered, Specifically Adapted to female Constitutions….”) and Dr. Kilmer’s Prompt Parilla Liver Pills.”

Bottle embossed “Dr Kilmer’s Swamp Root Kidney Liver and Bladder Remedy, Binghamton, N.Y. U.S.A.”

Bottle Embossed “Sample Bottle Dr Kilmer’s Swamp Root Kidney Cure Binghamton, N.Y.”

Dr. Kilmer’s Guide To Health – 1890. “Although his name is never mentioned in this publication, it is quite likely that this was one of the first advertising efforts by Willis Sharpe Kilmer following his brief study at Cornell University.
This publication is also rare in that it discusses Dr. S. Andral Kilmer’s medical career extensively, including qualifications, treatment methods, and even provides his office hours. By 1892, he was no longer closely affiliated with “Dr. Kilmer & Co.”

Dr. Kilmer’s Swamp Root trade card, 1880’s

Advertisement from the Brooklyn Eagle, early 1900s.

Dr. Kilmer & Company advertised heavily in druggist catalogs.

Advertisement from Christian Work: Illustrated Family Newspaper, Volume 68, 1900

Advertisement from “Primary Education”, Vol 7, 1899.

Dr. Kilmer’s swamp-root almanac and weather forecasts for 1928. Binghamton, NY: Dr. Kilmer & Co., [ca. 1927]

 

The W. T. Rawleigh Company, Freeport, IL

Much like their historical competitor, the J. R. Watkins Medical Co., the W. T. Rawleigh Company of Freeport, IL, used direct sales through a fleet of door to door salesmen to build their business.  The Rawleigh Company advertised their scientific practices to deliver quality ingredients to their customers.  Though smaller now than it its heyday, the Rawleigh Company is still around, selling their products to their loyal customers.

bottle embossed “Rawleigh’s, TRADEMARK”

According to the Stephenson County, IL Historical Society

Mr. Rawleigh began his career at the age of nine by selling Mineraline Ink to schoolmates and country storekeepers. At the age of 17 his observation of men who called at his home selling farm medicines awakened in him the realization of the potential involved in this type of operation. An agile mind and fertile imagination, coupled with natural organizational genius, urged him to persuade his father to let him work for a neighbor as a farmhand ($20 a month) so he could make money to get started selling farm medicines. He earned $120 that summer and gave $100 of it to his parents. His father still objected to the young boy’s idea of selling but by spring finally gave permission, though he refused to provide the boy with money for freight and other starting expenses. He did however let him use a horse and helped him to buy a rig.”I was young, and green as a cucumber,” Mr. W.T. Rawleigh, affectionately known as “W.T.” later wrote. “I had practically no business experience. I had lived away from home but a few months. The only experience I had had was in making ink and selling books…but I packed my clothes, said farewell and departed to Stephenson County, Illinois.” Three years later he was successful enough to start advertising. With Mrs. Rawleigh’s help, cooperation and support, he began to make his own products in their home. Soon after that, he mortgaged his home, borrowed money from all available sources and started his first small factory and laboratory in a rented building downtown. Six year later in 1898 he built his first factory building, located on Douglas Avenue in the residence district of Freeport. In a laboratory in that building, Mr. J.R. Jackson, his brother-in-law, under Rawleigh’s supervision, made careful tests and established new standards of strength and uniformity. In 1924, Rawleigh began curing vanilla in Mexico and the West Indies, and in the same year opened a branch in Marseille, France and bought plantations in Madagascar and its dependencies, opened a vanilla office in Tamatave and began to cultivate, cure and buy vanilla. He did this because at that time the vanilla industry was highly inflated, closely controlled and manipulated and prices were about double what they should have been. When Rawleigh had accumulated abundant stocks of vanilla he proceeded to fight the monopoly that was strangling the islands and which monopolized the vanilla market at an artificial price of $9.50 a pound, F.O.B. New York, the highest price ever known up to that time. He first printed a series of vanilla market reports calling attention to the fact that there was no real shortage of vanilla supplies, that crops were above normal and abundant stocks were in the hands of dealers and speculators. He further pointed out the fact that despite these conditions the artificial price of $9.50 prevailed. Rawleigh was so successful in his fight against this monopolistic practice that during the first year of his fight, he successfully reduced the price of vanilla from the artificial high of $9.50 a pound to $2.50-$3.00 a pound. Foreign branches were started in 1925 at St. Mary’s Island, Reunion Island, Mexico, Grand Comore Island to secure raw materials at lower prices. On Zanzibar and Pemba Islands large staffs of employees were buying, cleaning, packing and shipping Rawleigh quality cloves. In Japan and elsewhere in the Far East, Rawleigh employees were busy making studies, investigating crops and markets for menthol, camphor, peppermint, cassia, black pepper, nutmegs and other raw materials. In line with Rawleigh’s unflagging efforts to pioneer and discover new markets and supplies, as well as to modernize and update his factory operations, Rawleigh’s glass bottle factory was built at Freeport in 1926 to make the carload of bottles that was being used every working day at the Rawleigh factories. The glass furnace tank held 150 tons of molten glass (about 2600 degrees F.) which was heated by blasts of producer gas. Three forming machines supplied automatic feeders with a capacity of 60 bottles per minute.

The story continues, according to Vance Lauderdale of the Memphis City magazine,

Rawleigh was a forerunner of the “direct-to-customer” method, meaning you bought their products by mail or from door-to-door salesmen. Then as now, you won’t find Rawleigh products in any store. Their method certainly worked; by 1920 Rawleigh had more than 22 million customers.The company built sprawling manufacturing plants in several cities across America. The 110,000-square-foot facility at 139 Illinois [in Memphis] opened in 1912 and was the largest Rawleigh plant in the country, making patent medicines, cosmetics, insecticides, and spices. In 1958, the big manufacturing operation here shut down. The buildings were converted into warehouses for the company. Rawleigh finally closed its Memphis division completely in the late 1970s, and the complex  — which is actually three adjoining buildings — was sold. In recent years it has been used as a production and distribution facility for John Simmons’ gift and art company, Carnevale, among other things. The W.T. Rawleigh Company is still around, and has adapted to the changing times by setting up a handy website where customers can purchase their products online.

Rawleigh salesman with horse-drawn wagon. It sold medical supplies, flavored extracts and ground spices. The motto was “You don’t pay until you are satisfied”. This is wagon #534, belonged to the W.T. Rawleigh Medical Co., Freeport, IL. Postcard made November 12, 1909 by photographer Resier on an AZO back.

1917 edition of the Rawleigh’s Almanac, Cook Book and Medical Guide. Front.

1917 edition of the Rawleigh’s Almanac, Cook Book and Medical Guide. Back.

Postcard with Bird’s Eye View of Main Laboratories, The W.T. Rawleigh Company.
Description reads “The building in the foreground on the other side of the card is the largest in the world devoted exclusively to the manufacture of proprietary medicines. Its nine floors are equipped with the very latest machinery for the manufacture of Rawleigh Quality Products, and it is the center of attraction for visitors and tourists. In its construction 300 tons of steel, 15,000 barrels of cement, about 800 carloads of sand and gravel, 50 carloads of other material and half a million vitrified brick, were used. This great building, with its 157,00 sq. ft. of floor space, was built in 1914 and is but one of the many factory buildings necessary in producing sufficient Rawleigh Household and Farm Remedies to meet rapidly increasing demand resulting in Repeat Orders from satisfied users-a most expressive and substantial endorsement from ten million users.”

Postcard, undated. Text reads: “To secure accuracy and uniformity of Rawleigh Products all raw materials and finished products are scientifically and accurately tested by chemists before, during and after formulation. Thus the High Standard of Excellence in Quality if maintained and it is but one of many measures taken to insure perfect satisfaction to consumers of Rawleigh products. IN 1925 the W. T. Rawleigh Company established the First, and now maintains the largest, finest and most completely equipped, Analytical Laboratory conducted by any company of its kind in the world.”