Varieties of Medical Ephemera

Continuing my search of the Internet for interesting Ephemera, I ran across a site today hosted by the United States National Institutes of Health.

It references an exhibit that was held at the National Library of Medicine during the summer of 1995.

Entitled “Here Today, Here Tomorrow” and subtitled “Varieties of Medical Ephemera“, it heralds items in the private collection of a Mr. William H. Helfand and on loan to the NLM.

The exhibit was in 9 different areas as follows:

The one that originally caught the eye of my search engine was Women… but each of the sections has true merit.

The Women’s exhibit reads:

Images of women have always been featured in product advertisements, and large collections of medical ephemera could be built on this theme alone.

Perhaps the one that caught my eye the most was the one for “Dodd’s Female Pills”, and advertisement in the Drane and Company’s price list, and dated around 1900.

These magic pills were recommended for a variety of irregularities including “headache, pain in the back or limbs, faintness, sickness, giddiness, languer, constipation, flushing of heat, palpitation, indigestion, change of life, swollen limbs and all other irregularities.”

Now where might we find some of those pills today… surely there are a number of folks out there who could be cured of a lot of misery, with just a few of Jefferson Dodd’s pills.  For more info visit the Hospital or Women in Soho Square, London.

You can see this exhibit as well as the other eight by visiting the United States National Institute of Health site.

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the encore it deserves.

Tom
Click to see my current Bonanzle items

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