Antikamnia Calendars: 19th Century Medical Advertising

– by Josh Bicker, Visitor Services Floor Supervisor

 

Among the College of Physicians Medical Library’s collection, we have a number of advertisements for the Antikamnia Chemical Company. Within these, a curious image can be found in an advertising pamphlet of the time, portraying a stout man, dressed in a suit, with an enormous skull atop his neck. With spectacles perched at the bridge of his nose, he closely inspects a round tablet with the letters “AK” monogrammed on it. Rays of light shower over him, and at the bottom of the page we see the phrase “Tis The Genuine”. It is as if he has received some divine inspiration.

 

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Patent Medicines and the History of Cocaine

– by Charlie Dawson, Visitor Services/Gallery Associate

 

From the waning days of the golden age of patent medicine comes this advertisement for pharmaceutical cocaine. The ad was produced by CF Boehringer and Soehne, founded in 1885 Mannheim, Germany, but which soon expanded into New York. By the time of this ad’s publication in 1897, cocaine was available in New York only by prescription.  


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