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Patent Medicine Trade Cards

238 items
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About this Collection

A collection of 247 patent medicine trade cards. Patent medicines were medical compounds sold under a variety of names and labels, though they were for the most part actually trademarked medicines, not patented. The trade cards are small, colorfully illustrated advertising cards touting a particular medicine and its many cures. The era of patent medicine began to unravel in the U.S. with the passage of the first Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906.


Collection Overview

Date Created
[between 1870 and 1906?]
Extent
247 prints (trade cards)

Find this Collection

Repository
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library. History and Special Collections for the Sciences
ARK
ark:/21198/zz0002gwzg
Opac url
https://search.library.ucla.edu/permalink/01UCS_LAL/17p22dp/alma9960994033606533
MANIFEST URL
IIIF Manifest

Notes

Description
The trade cards are small, colorfully illustrated advertising cards touting a particular medicine and its many cures. The illustrations often have little to do with any of the ailments purported to be cured. They were pure advertising and very collectible.

Physical Description

Extent
247 prints (trade cards)

Keywords

Genre
trade cards
Subject topic
Drugs, Non-Prescription--Advertisements
Patent medicines
Location
United States
Canada
Hungary
Belgium

Browse items in this collection
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