On October 23, 2019, our weekly What Is It Wednesday post featured this photo:
Can
you identify what's in this photo?
Each Wednesday morning
on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page
the Lutherlyn Environmental
Education Program posts a photo.
Readers
have all morning and afternoon
to
make their best guess about what the photo is.
Around
6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.
at one of
Lutherlyn’s archaeology sites.
It was found at the site of an 1800’s
settler homestead
near the historic Venango Trail.
When students visit this archaeology site as part of an education program at Lutherlyn, they get to participate in archaeology by digging at the site and sifting their work to see what they unearthed from the past. Afterwards, we clean and catalog the artifacts, and in the case of especially notable finds, do some research to find out what more we can learn about and from that artifact.
It may be a bit hard to see in the photo, but the letters on
the side of the bottle
(near the top of the photo)
are “RCE MD”
and the letters
on the front of the bottle
(near the bottom of the photo)
are “E”
and then on
the next line “TION”.
It is exciting whenever we find artifacts with letters or
numbers imprinted on them, because often just a few letters or numbers can lead
to a much fuller understanding of what the artifact is and what it tells us
about the lives of the people who used it in the past.
In this case, we knew of a similar bottle that had the name Dr.
Pierce printed on it and we guessed that the RCE MD referred to Dr. Pierce. A
quick search showed that his “Favorite Prescription” – a medicinal tonic for
women – was one of the most popular remedies of the late 1800’s, and explains
the TION. This bottle once held Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription.
Dr. Pierce himself is a fascinating figure, as is the history
of medicinal tonics of the late 1800’s. Many of them were little more than
alcohol or opium solutions, and did little good or even caused harm by
including ingredients like mercury.
Ray Vaughn (R.V.) Pierce graduated from The Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati,
and afterwards practiced medicine in Titusville, PA during the oil boom
of the 1860’s. He later moved to Buffalo, NY, and became one of the most successful
purveyors of medicinal tonics of the late 1800s.
A summary of the Nickell Collection of Dr. R.V. Pierce
Artifacts states,
“Perhaps the most
significant accomplishment
of Dr. Pierce was his ability to market
and sell his
medicines more successfully
than almost any other physician
at a time when
availability of home remedies and nostrum cures were at their height.
His
descriptions of illnesses and their symptoms, with just the right amount of
medical terminology and human pathos for cures, made them seem
authentic and
scientifically possible.…
Another marketing skill employed by Pierce was that
of the testimonial.
His advertising, which includes his book,
The People's
Common Sense Medical Adviser
(essentially an advertisement for his various
products), sold millions of copies,
and included testimonials from patients
whose claims of near-miraculous cures
convinced millions of people to try the
remedies of Dr. Pierce.”
(Nickell Collection of Dr. R.V. Pierce Medical
Artifacts,
New York Heritage Digital Collections)
Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription was a tonic aimed
specifically at the ailments of women. In some cases it was labeled “Dr. Pierce’s
Favorite Prescription For the Relief of The Many Weaknesses and Complaints
Peculiar to Females” and it claimed to ease symptoms of “nerves” and the nervous
systems as well as the female reproductive system and overall weakness and
illness.
While much of the public eagerly believed these claims and
others like them, many did not. Dr. Pierce was accused by Colliers and Ladies
Home Journal of being a “quack” and was sometimes referred to as the Prince of
Quacks. Pierce sued Ladies Home Journal for these accusations and what he
claimed were false reports of the ingredients of the Favorite Prescription
including opium, digitalis, and alcohol. He won the case.
Pierce later served as a NY State Senator from 1878-1879,
and in the US House of Representatives 1879-1880. In these roles he advocated
for free enterprise and against the Pure
Food and Drug Act that was eventually passed in 1906.
In addition to the peek that the life of Dr. Pierce gives us
into the “wild west” of medicine in the late 1800s, learning about Dr. Pierce’s
Favorite Prescription also allows us a window into the lives of women of that
time period. Initially upon hearing of the Favorite Prescription, I imagined women
primarily making use of it for such ailments as “malaise” and other maladies that
could be seen as a reasonable emotional response to living the very constrained and also demanding lives that many women faced at the time. But many of the
testimonials included in Dr. Pierce’s advertising refer to very serious illness,
often including serious complications of childbirth, that were debilitating to women. (See the newspaper ad testimonial in the last link below for an example of this.) Whether these testimonials were the genuine outpourings of actual women, or
fictions created by Dr. Pierce, they paint a picture of the sometimes dire
health challenges facing women, and the meager abilities of medicine to respond
to them at the time.
All of that leads to questions relating to our find at the
archaeological site at Lutherlyn. We know a bit about the family who owned the
property where the site is located, from 1838-1877. The patriarch of the
family, Michael Heckert, had two wives (one who died, and one whom he married
after becoming a widower) and four daughters.
What did they experience that caused one or more of them to need
a medicinal tonic?
Were they searching for a remedy to a serious ailment, or were
they simply curious to see if Dr. Pierce could make their life a little more
manageable?
Did they believe Dr. Pierce had the solution to their problems or
were they skeptics?
Did they buy it from a local store, or a traveling
salesman, or even from Dr. Pierce himself?
Did they find relief?
It is fascinating how one small artifact can open up such a
window into the past, and raise so many more questions.
Like and follow Camp Lutherlyn on
Facebook, to see What is it Wednesday posts when
they come out and have the opportunity to share your guesses in the comments!
