Ayer's Sarsaparilla purifies the blood, stimulates the vital functions, restores and preserves health, and infuses new life and vigor throughout the whole system / Dr. J.C. Ayer & Co.

  • Dr. J.C. Ayer & Co.
Date:
[between 1880 and 1889?]
  • Ephemera
  • Online

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Credit

Ayer's Sarsaparilla purifies the blood, stimulates the vital functions, restores and preserves health, and infuses new life and vigor throughout the whole system / Dr. J.C. Ayer & Co. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

About this work

Description

Colour trade card issued by Dr. J.C. Ayer & Co. of Lowell, Massachusetts, probably in the 1880s. A popular way of advertising, they were printed up by the hundreds and handed out in various public places. This one advertises Ayer's Sarsaparilla which claimed to cure scrofula, mercurial and blood disorders, erysipelas, salt rheum, tetter, scald head, ringworm, sores, boils, humors, pimples, ulcers, tumors, blood poisoning, mercury poisoning, liver complaints, female weaknesses (menstrual disorders), rheumatism, neuralgia, jaundice, dyspepsia, emaciation and general debility. Yes. All of them. This type of 'cure-all' medicine was very common at the time. Whether it actually lived up to its claims is highly doubtful. It was made from sarsaparilla root, stillingia, mandrake, yellow dock, iodides of potassium and iron. The card shows a woman in a blue dress reclining in a cushioned chair (presumably an invalid) in a garden setting, talking to another in a pink and white dress with a bottle of the sarsaparilla on the table between them. Two children play with a brown dog at their feet.

Publication/Creation

Lowell, Mass. : Dr. J.C. Ayer & Co., [between 1880 and 1889?]

Physical description

1 sheet : color illustrations ; 7 x13 cm

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Where to find it

  • LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores
    EPH287
  • Location Access
    Closed stores
    EPH287:13

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