Neither Snake Oils nor Miracle Cures: Interpreting Nineteenth-Century Patent Medicines

Abstract

Archaeologists frequently discover 19th-century patent- and proprietary-medicine bottles at sites across the U.S. The unregulated medical mixtures once contained in these vessels were immensely popular. Interpreting how and why people used them is challenging, however, and complicated by assumptions that they were lesser alternatives to physicians’ prescriptions and consumers used them as directed in advertisements. This article questions these assumptions by considering patent medicines within the context of their time. It also examines consumers’ perspectives and how culture, local context, needs, and material qualities of medicines affect health-related decisions. Patent medicines found in association with Irish-immigrant residences at the Five Points in Manhattan form a case study with broader implications. This article proposes that studies of 19th-century patent medicines would benefit from beginning with the premises that they were reasonable medical options that consumers used in ways that resonated with their own cultural perspectives and addressed their specific health concerns.