This is a late 1700s recipe for relief of 'piles', including eggs, balsam, gum arabic, sugar, dandelion, rhubarb, castor oil, elm bark, and sennar.
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This recipe from the late 1700s includes smartweed, coltsfoot, honey, and liquorice. No mention is made of what this remedy is for.
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Benjamin Vaughan letter to Dr. Page about bloodletting, 1801
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
Benjamin Vaughan wrote this letter to Dr. Page on April 9, 1801 describing the treatment of a patient using the practice of bloodletting, or phlebotomy.
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Medicinal recipe for Phthisis Pulmonalis, Hallowell, 1802
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
This recipe for a pain relieving concoction was prescribed to a woman with phthisis pulmonalis, a form of tuberculosis. The prescription was written by Dr. Benjamin Vaughn of Hallowell for Elizabeth Atkins of Mount Vernon on 19 October 1802. The prescription included both opium pills and laudanum, which is a tincture - or alcoholic extract - of opium. Highly addictive, laudanum was popularly prescribed in the 19th century as a narcotic painkiller and sedative.
Other ingredients include purpurea digitalis, also known as foxglove flower; vitriol which is a sulphuric acid; and antimonial wine, an acidic wine with high metal content. The cream of tartar & flowers of sulfur were used to combat constipation, or costiveness, a side effect of opioids.
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Mali Agat (Pigwacket Abenaki), also known as Molly Ockett (circa 1740-1816), was a Wabanaki “doctress” from the Pigwacket homeland, who was widely known among Native people and settlers in northern New England and southern Quebec.
She was part of a large and interrelated network of families who inhabited and traveled in the north country of Wabanaki homelands—now parts of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Canada. She maintained traditional Wabanaki ways, practicing Indigenous herbal medicine, cultivating traditional ecological knowledge, and weaving with traditional fibers.
Agat created this birch bark box which came into the possession of Mrs. John Kimball of Bethel. Despite the label attached to this box stating that Mali Agat was, “the last of the Anasagunticooks on the Androscoggin,” Abenaki descendants continue to live in their traditional homelands in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Canada.
Mali Agat lived a long life; some claimed she lived over one hundred years.
This document provides proof that Dr. William B. Gooch received payment of $1.50 for a visit and medicine for the wife of Richard Webber, a pauper. The receipt is signed by David Buxton, who received the payment for Dr. Gooch.
The Cumberland Overseers of the Poor in 1830 bound out for indenture two of Richard Webber's children, David and Isaac.
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Expenses for treating family with smallpox, Portland, ca. 1825
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
An undated statement from Enoch Moody to the City of Portland specifies the cost of supplies and attendance on a family sick with smallpox at the Portland City Hospital from August 18 to October 1.
Enoch Moody was a grocer in Portland, who apparently supplied food for the family. The document includes more than food, however. The first expense listed in for "removing them," presumably from home to the hospital. Later, "Emma Steward went to the Hospittal."
He paid someone to clean a home where the family had been sick, took additional people to the hospital, paid to have some people returned home.
On October 20, he wrote, "Mrs. Dixson was buried to day."
The City Hospital on Munjoy Hill, apparently built to serve smallpox and perhaps other infectious disease patients, was built in 1824.
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Advertisement from the "Cumberland Gazette," August 28, 1789, for Br. Josiah Flagg Surgeon Dentist. He offered to both work on teeth and paint miniatures.
He rented space in Peleg Wadsworth's store on Congress Street.
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Josiah Pierce, a newly enrolled student at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, writes to his father, Josiah Pierce of Baldwin, about his first month at college when he contracted a serious case of influenza and the measles.
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First Meeting of the Corporators of Maine General Hospital, Portland, 1869
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
Signed document calling for an initial meeting of the Corporators of Maine General Hospital to accept the organizing Charter, to be held at the home of Dr. John T. Gilman on Free Street, Portland, on Saturday, September 17, 1869. Written on lined paper watermarked with the profile of George Washington.
Maine General Hospital was the predecessor of Maine Medical Center.
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This is an open letter to the citizens of Maine describing the activities of the Sanitary Association, a charitable organization created to assist Maine soldiers during the American Civil War.
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George Washington Pierce, a Portland lawyer, wrote to U.S. Rep. John Anderson, who represented Maine's 2nd District from 1825-33, to gain his support for a bill to obtain a Marine hospital in Portland.
Anderson, like Pierce, was a Democrat.
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Maine General Hospital surgical amphitheater, Portland, ca. 1895
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
The MGH surgical amphitheater, completed in 1885, was located in a separate building behind the hospital's east pavilion and connected by a ramp. The operating theater could seat 200 and was located on the second floor of the amphitheater. Skylights 35 feet above the operating floor helped supply the lighting. The space beneath the sides of the amphitheater was used for an orthopedic clinic and for isolation needs. Note the gauze strainers on water faucets, conditions of the floors, few instruments, wooden handled knives, lack of gloves, gowns donned after removal of suit coats, and bottles for antiseptic solutions. The surgeons pictured here are Dr. George H. Cummings and Dr. Herbert Henry Brock.
Maine General Hospital is the predecessor of Maine Medical Center.
This surgical suite and medical staff at Eastern Maine Medical Center on State Street in Bangor is pictured in 1974.
Eastern Maine Medical Center was known as Eastern Maine General Hospital from 1987 to 1969. EMMC is now a member of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems.
Women staff, or possibly patients, at the Maine State Sanatorium in Hebron are dressed in protective jumpsuits.
The nurses at the tuberculosis-treatment facility generally worse standard nurses' uniforms and patients wore either sleepwear or street clothes. The protective jumpsuits may have been worn by nurses or other staff when cleaning the rooms and labs at the facility.
An early photo of Maine General Hospital, designed by architect Francis Fassett. Fassett originally planned for four wings and a central building. When the hospital was dedicated in October of 1874, only one of the wings was complete. The central building followed in 1876 and the west wing in 1892. While many additions have been built in the intervening decades, this original structure is still visible from the Western Prom.
The first patient admitted at this brand new hospital was Henry S. Harding, on November 9, 1874. Most likely, he spent his time on one of the 20-bed, 30-by-80 foot wards, each bed having a gas jet, a venting register, and a shared heating unit. For the sake of cleanliness, the walls had a hard sand finish and simple, dark woodwork. The patient would have had a view of the city from any of the very large twelve windows on the ward. Mr. Harding was not discharged until the following May and was "not relieved" of his condition according to the MGH Patient Discharge Book.
Maine General Hospital is the predecessor of Maine Medical Center.
Queen's Hospital administration building, Portland, ca. 1930
Item Contributed by
Northern Light Mercy Hospital
On December 12, 1918, Portland's new Queen’s Hospital opened its doors. By 1927, the hospital acquired additional buildings, including the former Payson house on the corner of State and Deering Streets. The neighboring buildings were connected by runways and passages. The connected buildings were designated as pavilions, named after the four Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The hospital administration moved into the Payson house, renamed St. John's Pavilion, to make room for the expanding Nursing School.
Stevens' plan of Maine State Sanatorium, Hebron, ca. 1908
Item Contributed by
Maine Historic Preservation Commission
John Howard Stevens, a Portland architect, drew a plan of the entire site of the Maine State Sanatorium in Hebron, a private tuberculosis treatment facility.
The Stevens' architectural firm designed many of the buildings at the facility, which opened in 1904.
Cottage, Maine State Sanatorium, Hebron, ca. 1909
Item Contributed by
Maine Historic Preservation Commission
The Women's Cottage at the Maine State Sanatorium in Hebron. The facility at Greenwood Mountain served patients with tuberculosis, who slept in the open air in cottages like this one.
The state bought what had been a private facility in 1915 and opened other TB sanatoria in Fairfield and Presque Isle. This facility was renamed the Western Maine Sanatorium.
Three patients at the Western Maine Sanatorium in Hebron in a picture obviously posed to show the ranges of states of physical health.
The facility treated people who had tuberculosis, a pulmonary disease that previously was known as consumption because patients lost so much weight.
The photo is labeled, "Curtis ? Lane 1929." The "?" is Merle Wadleigh, in whose album the photo appears.
Jennie Y. Small of Denmark reported on her temperature, appetite and overall health to Dr. Estes Nichols, medical superintendent of the Maine State Sanatorium in Hebron. She was about 26 years old.
Small, a former patient at the tuberculosis hospital, apparently was continuing her treatment at home and reporting in regularly to the doctor. She noted that she continued to sleep outside at night.
Fresh air, a high calorie diet and rest were the main ingredients of the treatment at the sanatorium.
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Mrs. Charles (Lutie) Eaton of Kennebunkport wrote a plea to Dr. Estes Nichols, superintendent of the Maine State Sanatorium in Hebron, to ask him to operate on the nose of her son George, a tuberculosis patient at the hospital.
Mrs. Eaton noted that George, who was 16, had done well at the hospital, but that the family had no further money to pay for his care. She hoped for an operation at as small a cost as possible and to continue George's care at home.
The privately run hospital frequently received requests for reduced rates.
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Excerpts from home movies taken of the Western Maine Sanatorium, a tuberculosis treatment facility in Hebron.
The film was part of the estate of Dr. Lester Adams, long time superintendent of the facility.
This section of film shows the facility, the medical staff and a number of patients on sleeping porches and in sleeping rooms and children in the dining room. It is not clear if all the children are patients at the facility.
Bill Sinclair produced the film and E.O. Irish was the cameraman.
A two-page statement of meal times and types of food served to patients at the Maine Sanatorium for Pulmonary Diseases at Hebron.
The hospital, incorporated in 1901, was a private sanatorium for treatment of tuberculosis. Dr. Estes Nichols was the superintendent and medical director.
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An empty patient ward at Maine General Hospital.
Maine General Hospital is the predecessor of Maine Medical Center.
First ambulance, Eastern Maine General Hospital, 1900
Item Contributed by
Eastern Maine Medical Center
The first ambulance owned by Eastern Maine General Hospital in Bangor was drawn by a horse and is shown on with sleigh runners. It was donated to the hospital by Flora B. Hinman.
Postcard of Eastern Maine General Hospital featuring the Phillips-Oliver Building that opened in 1910.
Eastern Maine General Hospital is now known as Eastern Maine Medical Center.
In 2006, the new East Tower of Maine Medical Center was constructed to provide a new facility for mothers and babies on the former site of the New England Rehabilitation Hospital. Abutting the Richards Wing and absorbing most of what was once Charles Street, the East Tower was designed deliberately to accommodate future expansion. The new location formed a central nexus, the logical place for a new main entrance and lobby. The Bramhall Street lobby, built in 1956 for the then-new Maine Medical Center, was renamed the South entrance and became the primary entrance for outpatient services.
Dr. Salustiano Fanduiz (1868-1941), and 1892 graduate of the Maine Medical School at Bowdoin College, remained in Brunswick where he maintained a practice for 11 years.
He attended to patients in Harpswell and was paid by the town to assist several of the poor residents. In 1903 he returned home to the Dominican Republic.
Maine General Hospital medical staff, Portland, ca. 1874
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
Members of the original medical staff of Maine General Hospital, which opened its doors in 1874. Pictured in the front row, from left: Israel T. Dana, M.D.; Seth C. Gordon, M.D.; John T. Gilman, M.D.; William Warren Greene, M.D.; and Stephen H. Weeks, M.D. In the back row, from left: Charles O. Hunt, M.D.; Horatio N. Small, M.D.; Frederic H. Gerrish, M.D.; and Augustus S. Thayer, M.D.
Maine General Hospital is the predecessor of Maine Medical Center.
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Maine Legislature authorized the governor to accept the services of women as army nurses.
(Only 7 years had passed since Florence Nightingale began nursing British soldiers during the Crimean War. She was the first woman ever to do so under government authority.)
It should be noted that no professional training was available to any of these women.
They relied on their past experience in caring for ill and injured family members and neighbors in order to look after the soldiers who were entrusted to them. Although the nurses were rarely present during battles, they were almost always on the scene within days, and often for weeks and months thereafter.
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News office storefront, Portland, ca. 1918
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media
Alexander Boothby in front of a newspaper storefront (likely the Portland "Evening Express") in Monument Square. The posters in the window outlined Spanish Flu casualties, WWI peace talks, women's division recruitment, war bonds and the Red Cross. The poster's content date this image between the Armistice in November 1918 and the Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919.
The American Red Cross was a comparatively small organization at the outset of World War I, even still when the United States joined the war in 1917. The American Red Cross successfully encouraged membership and support to meet the challenges it faced during the war, as well as the Spanish Flu Pandemic.
Between 1917 and 1919, the organization increased tremendously. According to the American Red Cross, "by the war’s end, nearly one-third of the U.S. population was either a donor to the Red Cross or serving as a volunteer."
The staff of the Red Cross office in Portland with their "100 percent strong, we belong" banners that indicate all staff members renewed their Red Cross memberships.
The staff are, from left, Aristeen Timberlake, Alice G. Gibbs, director of Roll Call; Helen Nickerson, Rose Pearl Danforth, executive secretary of the Portland chapter; Lillian Josselson, and Nilda Bartlett.
Aristeen Timberlake, a daughter of Jessie and Leonard Timberlake, was about 13 when the photo was taken.
The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad supported the Red Cross blood drive in 1952 with a blood drive special. On May 5, 1952, the effort collected 100 pints of blood in Houlton.
The blood pressure readings for Williams and Baulier were taken by Red Cross staff nurses Sarah Hayes and Marie Cronin.
Light grey seersucker uniform with white detachable collar and American Red Cross insignia and pin.
Worn by a volunteer at Dow Air force Base during World War II.
Maine General Hospital student nurses, Portland, ca. 1895
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
Maine General Hospital Training School for Nurses, class of 1896. Fourteen students graduated in 1896, though only one of the students, Lenora Turner, (back, far left) is identified. The MGH School of Nursing later became the Maine Medical Center School of Nursing, with the final class graduating in 1967.
Maine General Hospital is the predecessor of Maine Medical Center.
Alida Leese was the first Director of the Maine General Hospital Training School for Nurses. In 1902, a residence facility constructed for student nurses was named the Alida Leese Nurses' Home in her honor.
Maine General Hospital is a predecessor of Maine Medical Center.
The Alida Leese Nurses' Home accommodated 58 nurses when it opened in 1902. The building was razed in 1965 to allow for construction of the Maine Medical Center's Centennial Wing, later known as the Richards Wing.
Alida Leese was hired in 1885 as the first superintendent of nurses and head of The Maine General Hospital Training School for Nurses. Applicants, who were required to be between 22 and 34 years of age, in sound health, and unmarried, also had to provide a letter attesting to their good character.
Maine General Hospital School of Nursing students, Portland, 1941
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
The Maine General Hospital School of Nursing class of 1941 on the stairs at the Eastland Hotel at Christmas time. The school's graduations were frequently held at the Eastland Hotel, located on High Street in Portland. Molly Kane, R.N., at center, was the director of nursing.
Maine General Hospital is the predecessor of Maine Medical Center.
This cape was worn by Jean Douglas, who graduated from Eastern Maine General and was employed at Mount Desert Island Hospital for many years.
This image of the U.S. Hospital in Washington, D.C., formerly the Union Hotel, is taken from the book, Official Portfolio of War and Nation edited by General Marcus F. Wright, copyright C.J. Stanley 1907, p. 470.
Rebecca Usher on history of military hospital, Pennsylvania, 1863
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
Writing to Nathan Webb, her future brother-in-law, Rebecca Usher relayed the history of the U.S.A. General Hospital in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Usher (1821-1912) of Hollis was a nurse at the hospital. Webb, a Portland lawyer, later married Usher's sister, Jane (Jennie) Usher.
Usher described the beginnings of the hospital, which grew out of a soldiers' aid society in Chester. She wrote, "The ladies showered luxuries of all kinds upon the soldiers, & the surgeons found that the men were in many instances being killed with kindness." The women, however, turned against the doctors and tried to turn the soldiers against the doctors as well, Usher wrote.
Adeline B. Tyler, a widow who had studied nursing and who became an Episcopal deaconess, was called by the U.S. surgeon general to take charge of the hospital. Because the local aid society was ousted from the hospital, supplies had to come from elsewhere. Many came from Massachusetts, Tyler's home state.
Usher wrote about a rumor that the hospital was to be closed.
She also asked Webb for news of Maine regiments and mutual acquaintances who were in the service and discussed other family and political issues.
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Mail truck at the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Oakfield Station.
Mercy Hospital laboratory technician, Portland, ca. 1943
Item Contributed by
Northern Light Mercy Hospital
In 1943 the Mercy Hospital Laboratory purchased a new pH Meter and an Auto Analyzer, an instrument designed to measure different chemicals and other characteristics in a number of biological samples quickly, with minimal human assistance.
This image was featured in Life and Remembrance, a publication that chronicled the transition from the Queen's Hospital to Mercy Hospital.
In 1948, Mercy's new School of X-Ray Technology accepted its first students, with Patricia Kane as the first graduate. Under Sister Mary Emily Burns R.N.R.T., supervisor of the hospital’s X-Ray Department, the school achieved accreditation by the American Registry of X-Ray Technicians in 1957.
Several new drugs and medical techniques were introduced during the period. In 1956, Mercy opened a Diagnostic Tumor clinic. In the early 1960s, Mercy could take advantage of advances in cardiac surgery and preventative health breakthroughs. By the mid-1960s, cardiac training for nurses included work with defibrillators.
Sumner Cobb writes from Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky, 1918
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
Sumner Cobb served stateside during WWI. He was stationed at two military bases during his time: Camp Devens in Massachusetts and Camp Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. He didn't face dangers of overseas warfare and life in the trenches, but was at risk of contracting the Spanish Flu. It was spreading throughout the home front at the end of the war. He wrote about it frequently in his letters home between September and October 1918.
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Sumner Cobb writes about the Spanish Flu, Louisville, KY, 1918
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
Sumner Cobb was the only one of family's sons to serve stateside during WWI. He was stationed at two different military bases: Camp Devens in Massachusetts and Camp Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. He wrote home from Louisville often, and frequently about the Spanish Flu that was spreading through the U.S. In this letter, he recounts to his mother the death of a fellow soldier who was from Portland, Oregon and also had the last name Cobb.
It does not appear as though Sumner ever contracted the illness.
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Herb catalog, United Society of Shakers, New Gloucester, 1864
Item Contributed by
United Society of Shakers
The "Catalogue of Herb, Roots, Barks..." was published by the Sabbathday Lake Shakers in 1864. The catalog was one of the first printed catalogs produced by the Sabbathday Lake Shakers, although they had been in the herb business since 1799.
Previous information about the herb business had been printed as single sheet listings of herbs and seeds packaged for sale to the public. Purchasers of the herbs could use the listings to order herbs or purchase them from the Shakers as they made their way around Maine and the region on their extensive trade routes or the public could buy herbs at stores where the herbs had been consigned. The herbs were sold in paper wrapped cakes, four cakes to a pound.
The 155 varieties of medicinal and culinary (sweet) herbs, roots and barks named within the 1864 catalog represent the Shakers keen interest in the use and sale of herbs. The large number of medicinal herbs are reflective of the Shakers' knowledge of Samuel Thomson's "The Thomsonian Materia Medica" and the whole system of medical care that it stood for.
The herb industry was centered in the herb gardens at Sabbathday Lake and the processing of the herbs and seed took place in the Dry House, the Garden Seed House and the Herb House. The 1824 Herb House still stands at SDL although the present day herb industry is headquartered in the 1821 Sister's Shop.
Please note: Researchers using the facsimile should pay close attention to the definitions of the abbreviations and the section of "Synonyms." New Gloucester and West Gloucester are both referring to the same location, the present day Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, Route 26, New Gloucester.
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This artificial leg was one of two used by Civil War veteran Wesley Martin, originally from Presque Isle. Martin was born on July 3, 1846 in Presque Isle.
Martin served in Co. I of the 7th Maine and Co. I of the 1st Veteran Infantry, which succeeded the 7th Maine. He was wounded at the age of 19 in Spotsylvania and was taken prisoner by the Confederates who amputated his leg.
He died on January 8, 1930 and is buried alongside his wife, Laura Howe, in the Ashland Municipal Cemetery in Ashland.
Wesley Martin, a Civil War veteran who lost his leg while in a prisoner of war camp at the age of 17, owned two peg legs - one for dressy occasions and one for every day.
Martin was born in Presque Isle on July 3, 1846 and passed away on January 8, 1930. He is buried along side his wife, Laura Howe, in Ashland Municipal Cemetery, Ashland.
This box of heart-shaped children's pills was used by Kenneth E. Dore, a family physician in practice from 1938 to 1974.
Emily Dore Fletcher, his daughter, recalls, "He had a huge black bag and when you opened it a row of brightly colored pills, like candy, popped right out at you. My father had a key to Bill Oliver's pharmacy. He would just go in and take what he needed."
Notice about Vaccinations, Scarborough, 1902-1903
Item Contributed by
Scarborough Historical Society & Museum
Smallpox,a potentially fatal infection was known to be spread by air not water so during times of potential outbreaks public meetings were banned by health officials. This poster was a formal notice of such. Vaccinations were done at the expense of the town. This poster was from 1902 and the cost to the town was recorded in the Town Report of 1903 for the previous year.
Dr. Wesley W. Frost, a "Clairvoyant and Botanic Physician" from Springvale, wrote to Mrs. Moulton on July 23, 1886, explaining his diagnosis of hair.
The letter likely went to Susan E. Moulton, wife of Lorenzo Moulton of Parsonsfield.
Frost wrote that the "trouble" was caused by sluggish action of the liver and kidneys. He went on to explain the situation, which resulted in poor digestion.
Frost concluded, "Think the case can be helped Notice head for terms of treatment." The terms were "Five Dollars per month, payable in advance; all medicines found."
Moulton (1840-1905) may have been seeking advice for herself, Lorenzo (1830-1894), or, perhaps, her mother-in-law, Mary Moulton (1811-1892), who lived with them.
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A handbill advertised that Mrs. R. S. Greenlaw was coming to North Turner on December 10, 1861 and had taken rooms at L. J. Pollard, by the North Turner Bridge.
Mrs. Greenlaw "administered" vegetable remedies and was a clairvoyant.
John Y. Merrill's 1861 diary mentions consulting with Mrs. Greenlaw and various other spiritualists who visited the area in the years following his wife's death in 1860.
This insulin syringe was used by Kenneth Dore M.D. during his practice in Fryeburg, Maine(1938-1974). During this time, little could be done for the diabetics. Emily, his daughter, remembers an elderly lady who walked in with a thumb tack stuck in her toe. Firmly believing that his practice was an opportunity for education, he often shared anecdotes with this purpose in mind. After the patient left, knowing she was a diabetic, he told her and her sister Ellen, "Now girls, you wait. In another year, she'll be back. Sure enough, a year later, her foot needed to be cut off."
Alcohol use permit for Dr. Giguère, Lewiston, 1922
Item Contributed by
Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine Libraries
This permit is an approved request for the use and distribution of alcohol for medical purposes. It was awarded to Dr. Eustache Napoléon Giguère of Lewiston from the federal government for sterilizing his medical instruments and treating patients.
The production and sale of alcohol was prohibited in the United States between 1920 and 1933. However, during the Prohibition era, certain exceptions were granted to the complete ban on the consumption of alcohol.
Catholic priests and Jewish Rabbis, for example, were allowed to administer wine as part of their religious rites. In addition, doctors, like Giguère, could obtain sterilizing alcohol, and prescribe liquor for medicinal purposes, if they obtained permits such as this one.
There is no evidence that Dr. Giguère's permit was used for anything other than legal purposes, but in many instances nationwide, doctors were extremely liberal with their prescriptions for whiskey, brandy and other hard alcohols.
Prohibition was very unpopular with Catholic populations across the United States, and in fact much of the impetus for the movement had come from the anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment of the day. Maine's Franco-American population was also well-placed to circumvent the law, since Canada was a popular destination for smugglers.
Eustache Giguère (1893-1975) was a physician who practiced in Lewiston at St. Mary's Hospital (now St. Mary's Regional Medical Center). His daughter, Madeleine helped to establish the Franco-American Collection at the University of Southern Maine.
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Advertisement for liniment suitable for humans and animals. Lists ailments the liniment cures and names of people offering a testimonial.
George S. Berry of Damariscotta offered for sale Berry's Vegetable Bilious Bitters for liver problems and as an "invigorator."
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This bottle of geniune balsam is still unopened with the original cork still in place. The label says this most valuable remedy is for man and beast, the cheapest and best, and is a cure for ailments such as coughs, colds, sore throat, sore chest, asthma, kidney difficulties, cuts, wounds, etc., etc. There is a story on the label from a gentleman who had recently buried his wife from consumption and who considered himself past help with the same disease. He claims he was entirely cured with this Balsam, and lived hale and hearty, 30 years after the cure, with a second wife. The bottle sold for the price of 50 cents, and was manufactured and prepared by Chas. W. Mitchell of Guilford, Me.
This remedy was sold from the Ross Drug Store which opened for business on August 15, 1904, on Main Street in Guilford, by Edmund Packard and Eugene E. Ross.
Mabee Drug Store was a well-known business at 37 Water Street from the earliest years of the 20th century into the 1970s when later owners acquired a Rexall franchise. According to an online genealogical source the long-time proprietor, Jacob Pike Mabee, was born in Eastport on November 8, 1872 and died in Lubec on April 28, 1962.
During an earlier era local pharmacies routinely made up their retail medications. For example, Parke, Davis & Co., a major United States drug manufacturer based in Detroit, sold the principal active ingredient in Paregoric, opium (the source of morphine), by the pint in various strengths “designed for preparing the tincture by direct dilution.” Generally available without a prescription before 1970, paregoric was discontinued in the U.S. in 2011.
Mabee bought its Duraglas brand medicine bottles from Owens Illinois Glass Company. The bottle pictured here bears a trademark which the manufacturer began using in 1940.
Henry Pope Clearwater, Ph.D., known to the world as Dr. Clearwater, established a successful mail order patent medicine business in the early 1900s. His advertisements often included the following quote: "I will pass this way but once! If therefore there is any Good which I may do any Happiness I may give or Gladness I can create, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again."
A three pill cure for Rheumatism was Clearwater's most successful product. But the lawsuit U. S. vs Henry Clearwater (H. P. Clearwater and Pope Laboratories) resulted in the "Misbranding of Clearwater's Combination Medication" in 1942. As a result the sales of other products declined and the business was liquidated when Clearwater died in 1952.
Henry Pope Clearwater, Ph.D., was born in Hallowell in 1879 and graduated from Hallowell schools. He then studied under Hallowell pharmacist Major John Quincy Adams Hawes until he was able to pass his pharmacist's examination.
He bought the Hawes drugstore and started to specialize in medicine for the relief of heart troubles. His Heart Cure Company was so successful that he sold the drugstore in 1905 and moved across Water Street to the Masonic Building.
By advertising in magazines, newspapers and on radio he created a successful mail order medicine business. A new Hallowell Post Office was built in 1933 to handle as many as 25,000 circular letters a day.
Sales slowed in the late 1940s and the business was liquidated after Dr. Clearwater died in 1952.
Henry Pope Clearwater, Ph.D., known to the world as Dr. Clearwater, was forced out of the mail order pill business by the Federal Government in 1942. From 1942 until 1948 he relied on Oint-Ease as his primary source of income. Oint-Ease was a muscle relaxing liniment that had been formally called Joint-Ease. Sales records show that Oint-Ease was sold in drugstores nationwide. His 1940s order book is a record of large and small pharmacies across the nation.
Dr. Clearwater died in 1952 and the business was liquidated.
All Humbug, Dr. Clearwater patent medicine advertisement, Hallowell, ca. 1935
Courtesy of Sumner A. Webber, Sr., an individual partner
Henry Pope Clearwater, Ph.D., was a pioneer in the mail order patent medicine business. He formulated a cure for rheumatism consisting of three pink pills.
The first pill contained ferrous carbonate, magnesium dioxide, sulfur and a compound of zinc. The second pill contained cascara and the third pill was aspirin and starch.
The U.S. Government took Dr. Clearwater to Federal Court in 1942. As a result, the court ruled his labeling was misleading and the pills were useless in the prevention and treatment of rheumatism and arthritis.
He entered a plea of nolo contendere and was fined $150.
After that, he only sold "Oint Ease," a liniment applied as a muscle relaxer. Sales declined and the business was liquidated after Dr. Clearwater died in 1952.
A box of homeopathic medicines that probably belonged to Dr. Ira Towle of Fryeburg.
The box was prepared by Francis E. Boericke, No. 34 S. Street, Philadelphia, Homeopathic Chemist. He was part of the firm Boericke & Tafel.
A medical kit that belonged to Dr. Ezekiel F. Bascom of Portland.
It includes a tooth key, syringe, brass scarificator, lancets, surgical tools, eyeglasses, and a packet of Dr. Bascom's Dyspeptic Bitters, among other tools.
Dr. Jonathan Haskins used this surgical kit during the Revolutionary War while he served on board the Bonne Homme Richard under John Paul Jones during the action with the Serapis.
It contains a metal tongue depressor, a tortoise shell cased knife, scissors, a suture needle and two probes.
Belfast's City Drug Store advertised Dana's Sarsaparilla as a reliable remedy for the liver, kidneys and diseases of the blood.
Due to a lack of government regulation in the period, virtually any substance could be advertised as a "remedy."
This changed largely due to muckraking journalists like Upton Sinclair, which exposed a need for the government regulation of food and drugs. Such eventually led to the 1906 "Wiley Act," and its 1938 revision, the "Food Drug and Cosmetic Act".
Dana's Sarpsarilla was brewed and bottled in Belfast, Maine from 1889 to 1917.
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This is a very early shipping box used to send one dozen bottles of Moxie to the Jameson & Wotton store.
Moxie was a patented medicine created in 1876 by Dr. Augustine Thompson in Lowell, Massachusetts. After a few years soda water was added to the beverage and it was marketed as soft drink. The drink's original name "Moxie Nerve Food" is clearly visible on the front of the box. It was purported "to strengthen the nervous system" and was "also a delicious beverage." The shipping box label tells us that it was manufactured by the Moxie Nerve Food Co. of New England, located in Boston, Mass.
Augustine Thomson, whom the locals called "Moxie," bought property for a summer place on Friendship Long Island in 1906.
David Horace Buxton established a mercantile business in Abbot in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which he operated until his death in July of 1941.
He formed the Buxton Medicine Company in 1894 for the manufacture and nationwide distribution of Buxton's Rheumatic Cure.
Sales were boosted by directly distributing the Cureall to drug and general stores with a specially constructed wagon, now on display at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont.
Buxton had other interests besides those of his business and held the office of town treasurer, State Representative, Justice of the Peace, postmaster and town clerk over a span of 40 years and was also the manager of the Abbot Hotel. The store pictured here burned in 1906.
Foley's Honey and Tar Compound bottle, St. Albans, ca. 1895
Item Contributed by
St. Albans Historical Society
Foley’s popular “cough syrup” retailed during the late 1800’s until the mid-1960’s. It was made in Chicago, Illinois and boasted that it was “sold everywhere. “ O. W. Bigelow sold it in his store in St. Albans in the late 1800’s. During the 1918 influenza epidemic newspaper ads touted the mixture as the answer to those suffering from the flu. In the early days the syrup of 7 % alcohol, along with other ingredients, was given to infants with a dose being five to ten drops.
The horse and buggy advertise Dr. Ahak's remedy. It is parked in front of D.W. Heseltine & Co. Apothecaries at Congress and Myrtle streets, Portland.
Maine General Hospital pharmacist, Ethel I. Stewart, fills a prescription for a ward patient. Ward supplies were sent from the pharmacy to each ward daily in "Ward Baskets." The pharmacy filled 85-100 special orders per day per unit.
Maine General Hospital is the predecessor of Maine Medical Center.
