Selling the Cure
This presentation of trade card images explores several major themes used in the advertising of patent medicines. These advertising themes are of historical importance because they document and illuminate one of the most critical time periods in the history of western medicine: the transition from ancient Galenic notions of internal humors as a cause of disease to modern understandings that both internal and external factors, such as micro-organisms, can cause disease. This time period also reflects increasing refinement in the understanding of human anatomy, the fruit of several centuries of diligent and sometimes dangerous work by early anatomists. The early studies of physiology, the discovery of micro-organisms or "germs," and the exciting discoveries of electricity, radiation, and magnets and other scientific wonders all found their way into the growing fund of traditional scientific knowledge, but they also found their way into the advertisements of patent medicine manufacturers. Some advertisements illustrate the Victorian love of puzzles and optical illusions. Other major advertising themes include medicines marketed towards women, the "sick patient motif " and the "before-and-after" card. Some cards are beautiful examples of the new printing technology of "Chromolithography". Many of these same advertising themes or motifs can be seen today in ads designed to sell to consumers both traditional as well as non- traditional medicines and medical devices.
PRESENTED BY
Norm Barker MS, MA, RBP, FRPS is a Professor of Pathology and Art as Applied to Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine. He is Director of Pathology Photography and Graphics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. A graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, he also holds a M.S. from Johns Hopkins University in education as well as a M.A. from the University of Baltimore in publications design. He specializes in photomicroscopy and macro photography. His work appears in textbooks, journals and museums worldwide. His latest book collaboration Hidden Beauty: Exploring The Aesthetics of Medical Science shows the beauty of medicine and the human body.
