The 19th-Century Roots of a Cincinnati Pharmacist
A bound collection of medicine bottle labels is an unusual trade catalog
Old medicine labels are a great source of information. Ingredients and their sources. Dosages. Manufacturer’s name. Symptoms and medical indications.
Circa the late 1870s to early 1880s, manufacturing pharmacists and chemists Wm. S. Merrell & Co. used their labels in a creative way. In so doing, they effectively gave themselves a double dose.
A Cincinnati firm, Wm. S. Merrell & Co.’s medicine bottle labels already contained a trove of information. Why not then use those printed labels as “text”, in a trade catalog? And that’s just what they did.
What we are talking about — [William Stanley Merrell, M.D. (1793–1880)]. [Trade Catalog of Wm. S. Merrell & Co., Manufacturing Pharmacists and Chemists, Cincinnati]. [Cincinnati: Wm. S. Merrell & Co., c.1878–1881]. [54]ff. Pamphlet. 4¾ x 3½ inches. Printed on rectos only. Wrappers, marbled paper spine; sewn.
Wm. S. Merrell & Co. manufactured so-called eclectic medicines derived from roots, leaves, and herbs. The company’s medicinal fluid extracts are described on the label of each herbal preparation.
In their trade catalog, the information for each drug is arranged visually, in a hierarchy, for easy reading. The labels are color-coded and add more visual interest. There are 42 “green label leaves” for fresh herbal drugs, two “black label” leaves, and 10 more leaves with other product descriptions.
Each green label is overprinted in red with the words “Specimen of Our Green Labels.” A note about the overprinting appears in the margin of each label. “The Red Lines [of text] are placed across the face of this Specimen Label to prevent its use on other preparations.”
This overprinting was a prudent practice. Wm. S. Merrell & Co. prided itself on selling “officinal extracts.” These were up to USP (United States Pharmacopeia) standards. The company did not want these specimen labels to adorn counterfeit drugs.
The labels in this trade catalog are arranged alphabetically. The green labels include Baptisia or Wild Indigo, Black Haw Bark, Epilobium, Indian Turnip, Lobelia Herb, Pleurisy Root, Stramonium Leaves, and Unicorn Root. The black labels are for Ergot and Rhamnus Pursh.
Other medicines in the catalog include imported “German Tinctures,” the company’s own “Homoeopathic Tinctures,” and constipation granules.
An 1878 testimonial letter for Tincture Gelsemium is printed in the catalog. Manufacturer William S. Merrell, M.D. died in 1880. In 1881, the company’s name was changed to the William S. Merrell Chemical Company. The catalog, thus, can be dated c.1878–1881.
Refs. Bulletin of the Lloyd Library of Botany, Pharmacy and Materia Medica. Bulletin No. 12 (Cincinnati, 1910), p(viii). Kremers et al. History of Pharmacy (Philadelphia, 1950), p316.
Rare Americana is the Medium publication for Ian Brabner, Rare Americana. American History via rare books, early letters, diaries, manuscripts, ephemera, graphics — bought, sold, discussed.
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