Warner’s Safe Cure: Artist’s Album (1888) – Part I

If you have been following this blog for even a short amount of time, you have undoubtedly come to the conclusion that collecting Warner’s Safe Cures extends beyond just the bottles. Warners collectors are blessed with an enormous array of advertising paper and other ephemera produced by one of the great proprietary medicine companies of  the late 19th and early 20th centuries. H. H. Warner missed few, if any, opportunities to plaster the reading public with his brand, whether by almanacs, newspaper ads, posters, cookbooks or puzzles and games. This list is extensive.

Having said that, the question becomes which examples of his advertising best informs us of the enterprise. By my way of thinking, his almanacs and other publications give us one of the most complete pictures of his pitch to an American public desperate to cope with disease in an age where real, medically competent physicians were indeed rare. Among his publications, one of the best has to be his Artist’s Albums. I say “albums,” because there were actually two. While one of the two is distinctly more rare than the other, both are terrific examples of his marketing. The version with Santa Claus going down the chimney (above) is the more common of the two, while the version with the boy sitting on the log (below) is rare.

Unlike other Warner’s Safe publications that were printed by Mensing & Stecher, the Artists’ Albums were printed by Cosack & Company of Buffalo, New York. The back cover of both albums featured a box of Log Cabin Sarsaparilla.

Apart from the terrific graphics, the Artists’ Albums feature the most comprehensive catalog of the Warner’s Safe Cure inventory as it existed in 1888. The featured products included Safe Cure, Rheumatic Cure, Diabetes Cure, Nervine, Tippecanoe – The Best, Asthma Cure, Safe Pills, Benton Hair Grower, Animal Cure, Log Cabin Sarsaparilla, Log Cabin Hops & Buchu Remedy, Log Cabin Cough & Consumption Remedy, Log Cabin Hair Tonic, Log Cabin Extract, Log Cabin Plaster, Log Cabin Rose Cream, Log Cabin Liver Pills and Safe Yeast.  Each of the products was discussed and a facsimile of the package was included. The next part of this post will feature some of those articles.

The Artists’ Albums were issued at about the time that Warner’s medicine empire reached its peak. Over the period of the next five years, Warner went from proprietary medicine mogul to financial collapse and public humiliation. These publications provide us with a glimpse of the types of products pitched to our great grandparents.

Special thanks to Jon Moran for reminding me of the uniqueness of the Artist’s Album and providing me with scans of its contents.

Warner’s Log Cabin Remedies (Part II)

Warner’s Log Cabin Remedies consisted of an entire line of products designed to appeal to that portion of the American market that had embraced the nation’s pioneering spirit as a virtue. The Log Cabin Remedies only existed for five years and were phased out in 1892 when the company was sold to British investors.

During their short lifetime, the Log Cabin Remedies offered consumers relief from almost every known malady. All of the bottles are rated from Good to Rare by Warner’s collectors and those with labels add a premium to the value. By far, the most difficult to find is the Scalpine, which appeared with both a Scalpine label and a Hair Tonic label at various times. On the other end of the spectrum, the Extracts and the Sarsparillas are the most frequently found. The Log Cabin Remedies were as follows:

HOPS & BUCHU REMEDY – (Large Size)  – promised to cure dyspepsia (indigestion) and disorders of the stomach, flatulence, pain after eating, liver cough, constipation, vertigo, sick headache, dizziness, bad taste in the morning or coated tongue, hot and dry mouth, pain in the left breast, palpitation of the heart, irritability, vexation of the mind, lump like feeling in the throat after eating, belching wind, sore stomach, heartburn, irregularity of the bowels, etc.

SARSPARILLA – (Large Size) – promised to cure all blood disorders, scrofula, kings evil, salt rheum, erysipelas, humors of all kinds, scald head, general debility, malaria, ulcers, chronic catarrh, rheumatism, neuralgia, syphlitic and mercural boils, pimples, pain in the back, dizziness, constipation, congestion, liver torpidity, biliousness, tired feelings, skin eruptions, female irregularities, dyspepsia, indigestion, liver complaints, common kidney derangements, dropsy, etc.

SCALPINE – (Large Size) – would remedy all scalp disorders, dandruff, itching, humors, scald head, ring worms, checks the falling out of hair and increases growth, softens harsh brittle hair, restores gloss, stimulates hair growth, and prevents baldness, prevents premature grey hair.

[NOTE: Remember, Warner was also marketing Benton's Hair Grower, which would seem to be a product that offers similar hair-related promises.]

COUGH & CONSUMPTION - (Small & Large Size) – promised to cure consumption, coughs, colds, lung troubles, after effects of pneumonia, bronchitis, pleurisy, and all diseases leading up to consumption, dependent upon the congestion or inflamed condition of the mucuous membranes of the throat and air passages.

EXTRACT – (Small & Large Size) – was intended to remedy rheumatism, neuralgia, burns, scalds, sprains, bruises, insect bites, chapped hands, chilblains, pain in back, lungs, sides, and limbs, swollen or stiff joints, contracted tendons, inflamed breasts, corns, toothaches, sunburn, face aches, sore throat, mumps, frost bites, stings, curry sores, etc.

[NOTE: I had to find out what "chilblains" and "curry sores" were. Chilblains are defined as "inflammation of the hands and feet caused by exposure to cold and moisture." Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the definition of curry sores is lost to history.]

ROSE CREAM – promised to cure catarrh, rose cold, hay fever, influenza, cold in head, sniffles, deafness, discharges from throat, nose and head.

PLASTERS – were intended for rheumatism, chronic aches and pains, backache, sore and tender bowels and congestion of the stomach, liver, lungs and kidneys.

With a line of products like the Log Cabin Remedies, it’s hard to imagine that you would need any other products. For H. H. Warner, however, the Log Cabin Remedies merely complimented his Safe Cure line. It’s impossible to say whether any of the Log Cabin Remedies attracted customers that would otherwise have purchased products in the Safe Cure line, but, given the fact that both income streams enriched Warner, the question is academic.

Warner’s Safe Remedies: Benton’s Hair Grower

At some time prior to 1888, Warner acquired the exclusive rights to a product called Benton’s Hair Grower. Unlike his Safe Cures, Tippecanoe and Log Cabin products that appeared in bottles with distinct embossing, Benton’s Hair Grower was packaged in a small, short clear bottle with a wide mouth. The contents of the bottle, which the 1888 Artist’s Album characterized as “a gelatinous substance” looks like a cream colored parafin. And yet, despite the understated appearance, its advertising had that characteristic Warner panache.

According to Warner, Benton’s Hair Grower had been on the market for many years with “hosts of friends” in every section of the Union. The advertising provided the potential user with a timetable of what he (or perhaps she) could expect from the product. Benton’s would remove dandruff (6-14 days), stop hair falling out (14-30 days), start a growth of hair (30-60 days), grow hair 3-6 inches (6 – 12 months), restore hair to original color ( 3 – 6 months), grow hair in 75 out of 100 cases no matter how long bald. In addition, this wonder of medicine was “free from Mineral or Vegetable Poisons” (whatever that means). The package appears to have a “before” and “after” picture as a motivator.

Benton’s was offered in three strengths: single for $1.00, double for $2.00 and triple for $3.00. For those customers cursed with “very tough and hard” skin, the double or triple strength was suggested. Through the courtesy of Jack Stecher, I acquired the above bottle of Benton’s; however, it does not have a label or box, so I cannot tell whether it is the single, double or triple strength. It is unclear how long Warner marketed Benton’s Hair Grower, although one would suspect that it would have competed for the same customers to whom he was trying to sell his Log Cabin Scalpine and Hair Tonic.

Warner’s Log Cabin Remedies (Part I)

By 1887, H. H. Warner was hitting his stride as his patent medicine empire was flourishing around the world. Grover Cleveland was in his first term in the White House and the coming Panic of 1893 was but a spectre on the distant horizon. In that year, Warner introduced a new major line of medicines that he dubbed “Log Cabin Remedies.”  Undoubtedly, these Log Cabin Remedies were designed to appeal to an American public smitten with westward expansion and the apparently limitless possiblities for America’s manifest destiny.

The Log Cabin Remedies came packaged in a colorful red, white, blue and yellow container and included Log Cabin Sarsparilla, Hops & Buchu Remedy, Cough & Consumption Remedy, Extract, Rose Cream, Hair Tonic, Scalpine, Plasters and  Liver Pills. The pills sold for 25 cents, the Rose Cream for 50 cents and the remaining large sized Remedies for $1.00. In addition, the Cough & Consumption Remedy and Extract came in a small size for 50 cents. The base of the amber bottles bore the embossing “PAT’D SEPT. 9 87″.

I have included two back covers from the 1890 and 1892 Warner’s Safe Almanacs that featured Log Cabin Remedies. It is interesting to note that Warner makes the explicit disclaimer that “We Do Not Cure All Diseases From One Bottle.” That would appear to suggest that the consumer should expect to invest in more than one bottle and perhaps more than one variety of Log Cabin Remedies. Also, take a close look at the detail of the Hops & Buchu Remedy label. It says:

The Most Radical Opponents of

Alcoholic Beverages

 Can Use This Remedy as it is a

 MEDICAL PREPARATION

NOT A BEVERAGE

Sounds like Warner was even making a play for those confirmed teetotalers in the market. He never missed an angle.