The inscription on three sides of this glass jar, in embossed letters, reads “CLARK STANLEY / SNAKE OIL LINIMENT.”
According to his own account, Clark Stanley was born in Texas, ca. 1854, and worked as a cowboy for several years. Then, while studying with a Hopi medicine man in Arizona, he learned the "secrets of snake oil." In 1893, after marketing his liniment at several Western medicine shows, Stanley and his rattlesnakes gained attention at the World's Columbian Exposition. He then established production facilities in Beverly, Ma., and Providence, R.I.
In 1916, after the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, Stanley's concoction was found to contain mineral oil, a fatty compound thought to be from beef, capsaicin from chili peppers, and turpentine. He was fined $20.00. The term "snake oil" would eventually become a popular euphemism for ineffective or fraudulent products, particularly those marketed as medicines or cures.
Ref: Clark Stanley, The Life and Adventures of the American Cow-Boy ([Providence, 1897]).
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