To link to this database use: https://libraries.indiana.edu/databases/popular-medicine
Documents the history of ‘popular’ remedies and treatments in nineteenth century America, through primary source materials drawn from the extensive collections at the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Additional Information:
The material covers popular trends such as phrenology, herbal medicine and hydrotherapy, and documents the rise of widespread advertising by commercial manufacturers of medical aids. Materials have an emphasis on ephemera and advertising, aimed at the ordinary man in the street rather than medical professionals, with the focus upon enabling him to treat himself and his family at home using an array of inventive methods and fashionable techniques. These popular practices were built upon the earlier traditions of folk medicine and materia medica as dispensed by apothecaries, and help to show the relationships and differences between traditional old-style medicine and newly emerging scientific methods.
Coverage: 1800-1900
Vendor: Adam Matthew Digital
Producer: Adam Matthew Digital
Interlibrary Loan Type: Secure Electronic Transmission Permitted
Simultaneous User Limit: Unlimited simultaneous users