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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Ayer's Sarsaparilla Worth $5 a Bottle |
| Reference | 1988-102-9 |
| Library | Philadelphia Museum of Art |
| Collection | The William H. Helfand Collection, 1988 |
| Date | c. 1895 |
| Document Type | Poster |
| Theme(s) | Botanic Medicine |
| Keywords | blood, tonic, cure |
| Additional Information | Dr James Cook Ayer introduced his Sarsaparilla in 1848. While its principal advertised ingredient was the root of Smilax officinalis, the American sarsaparilla, this probably had no therapeutic value whatsoever; other vegetable drugs, such as queen's-root, yellow dock, and mayapple, produced the tonic effect for which the product was best known. Neither its plentiful quantity of glycerin, more than 50 percent of the volume, nor potassium iodide, an expectorant normally used to treat bronchitis and asthma, is known to produce the promised benefit "for the blood." The Ayer company advertised its products as widely as any nineteenth-century patent medicine firm, but this Sarsaparilla poster is unusual in showing an elderly man as a contented user. William H. Helfand, from 'The Picture of Health: Images of Medicine and Pharmacy from the William H. Helfand Collection' (1991), p. 26. |
| Note | Please note that some of the metadata for this document has been drawn from the Philadelphia Museum of Art's catalogue. |
| Visual Content | View thumbnails |
| Copyright | Philadelphia Museum of Art |