If a delicious drink for mental and physical exhaustion would hit the spot right now, then get that water and sugar ready – this #TradeCardTuesday is just for you.
This ca. 1885 trade card was created for the Rumford Chemical Works of Providence, Rhode Island. The company was founded in 1854 by George F. Wilson and Eben N. Horsford, for whom Prof. Horsford's acid phosphate was named.
The concoction, which the company began marketing around 1868, promised to cure users of “dyspepsia, indigestion, headache, mental & physical exhaustion, nervousness, hysteria, and night sweats of consumption, etc. … giving the feeling and sense of increased intellectual and physical power”.
This item is part of Hagley Library’s Helen Baker Cushman picture collection (Accession 1998.270). Cushman was the founder and manager of H.M. Baker Associates, consultants in business archives and records from 1958 to 1993, headquartered in Westfield, New Jersey.
The firm specialized in helping businesses celebrate their anniversaries. Its typical product was a publication based on the concept of a timeline which blended facts from the client firm's history with general events in politics and popular culture, giving particular emphasis to the firm's founding year and its participation in world's fairs and expositions. Originally structured as a simple clipping service, most of the illustrations were drawn from Cushman's own collection of old popular magazines, photographs, letterheads, trade cards, and other ephemera and business memorabilia.