Balm of America: Patent Medicine Collection

Balm of America Banner image, a collection of medicine

About the Collection
The Smithsonian Institution began to collect objects related to health and medicine in 1881. It first obtained examples of patent medicines in 1930, acquiring packages of Haarlem Oil (or Dutch Drops), Dr. John Hooper’s Female Pills, and Roche’s Herbal Embrocation. Since then the Smithsonian’s collection of patent medicines has expanded to over 4,000 products, dating from the 19th century to the present day.

About this Object Group
This group of objects features examples from this collection, found in the Division of Medicine and Science at the National Museum of American History. Each entry includes a photo of the object, the product’s name, maker’s name, place of manufacture, and a date range. Ingredients and therapeutic claims are included when indicated on the product packaging.

Browse
Browse the collection by therapeutic category. You can also use the keyword search (at right) which searches all fields of information.

More Information
Learn more about patent medicine history and how this history is revealed in examples from our collection. Questions or comments? Contact us.

Certified Aspirin

ID Number
1985.3096.32
catalog number
1985.3096.32
nonaccession number
1985.3096

Dr. Shoop's Restorative Pills

ID Number
ZZ.RSN80523Y18

Schenck's Mandrake Pills

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Dr. J. H. Schenck & Son
ID Number
MG.M-10903.112
catalog number
M-10903.112
accession number
259201

Kinsman's Asthmatic Powder

maker
Capital Drug Co., Inc.
ID Number
1985.0481.079
catalog number
1985.0481.079
accession number
1985.0481

Bayer Aspirin

ID Number
1977.0667.14
catalog number
1977.0667.14
accession number
1977.0667

St. Joseph Genuine Pure Aspirin

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Plough, Inc.
ID Number
ZZ.RSN81535V72

Father John's Medicine

ID Number
1985.9151.01
accession number
?

Dr Benj Godfrey's Cordial

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
c. 1900
maker
Dr. Benj Godfrey
ID Number
ZZ.RSN81533G56

Dr Hand's Plesant Physic

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
ZZ.RSN81533G15

Pulvis Aerophorus Laxans Seidlitz Pulver

ID Number
1979.1144.106
catalog number
1979.1144.106
accession number
1979.1144

Turlington's Balsam of Life

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1870-1920
ID Number
1982.0513.02
accession number
1982.0513
catalog number
1982.0513.02

Taylor's Bromo-Aspirin

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1982.0492.02
accession number
1982.0492
catalog number
1982.0492.02

Carter's Little Liver Pills

The Carter Medicine Co. was established by Samuel J. Carter (d. 1884), a graduate of the University of Edinburgh who served in the Union Army during the Civil War before becoming a pharmacist in Erie, Pa. The first ads for Carter’s Little Liver Pills appeared in 1878.
Description
The Carter Medicine Co. was established by Samuel J. Carter (d. 1884), a graduate of the University of Edinburgh who served in the Union Army during the Civil War before becoming a pharmacist in Erie, Pa. The first ads for Carter’s Little Liver Pills appeared in 1878. By 1880, these pills were said to be “as nearly perfect as it is possible for a pill to be.” The firm was later incorporated as Carter Products.
Ref: Ad for “Carter’s Little Liver Pills” in [Ashtabula], Ashtabula Telegraph (Sept. 27, 1878), p. 4.
Ad for “Carter’s Little Liver Pills” in [Cairo, Ill.], The Daily Cairo Bulletin (July 25, 1880), p. 1.
ID Number
1985.3096.29
catalog number
1985.3096.29
nonaccession number
1985.3096

Formamint

ID Number
1980.0182.06
catalog number
1980.0182.06
accession number
1980.0182

Drake Aspirin

ID Number
1982.0052.02
catalog number
1982.0052.02
accession number
1982.0052

Haarlem Oil

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
ZZ.RSN81530G34

Farris' Healing Remedy

The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are: For saddle and harness galls, barbed wire and other cuts and wounds, burns, scratches, cracked heels, calk sores; in fact all hurts where the skin is broken. Good for man or beast. Strongly antiseptic.
Description
The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are: For saddle and harness galls, barbed wire and other cuts and wounds, burns, scratches, cracked heels, calk sores; in fact all hurts where the skin is broken. Good for man or beast. Strongly antiseptic.
maker
Old Kentucky Manufacturing Company
ID Number
2006.0084.01
catalog number
2006.0084.01
accession number
2006.0084

Warner's Safe Pills

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Warner's Safe Remedies Company
ID Number
1978.0883.062
accession number
1978.0883
catalog number
1978.0883.062

Schenk's Mandrake Pills

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
ZZ.RSN81563G78

Guaiacum Lozenges

ID Number
1980.0076.045
catalog number
1980.0076.045
accession number
1980.0076

Gowans Preparation

ID Number
1978.0235.043
catalog number
1978.0235.043
accession number
1978.0235

Chalk Mixture, U.S.P., Friable Tablets

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
H. K. Mulford Company
ID Number
2000.0137.059
accession number
2000.0137
catalog number
2000.0137.059

Mu-Col

Date made
1923
ID Number
MG.M-10167
catalog number
M-10167
accession number
238391

Keller's Refined Benzine No 10

maker
Carr Owens and Company
ID Number
ZZ.RSN81522V16

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