Warner’s Safe Cure: Victorian Newspaper Ads

 

In many of my posts,  I’ve talked about the various forms of advertising used by H. H. Warner to sell his miraculous cures. Warner clearly knew the power of advertising and rarely missed an opportunity to get his brand before the public. From trade cards to almanacs to a wide variety of premium items like his dominoes or his prize map, Warner bombarded the Victorian public with his brand and was rewarded by an ever-swelling demand.  I’m sure that if radio and television had existed at that time, he would have run commercials touting the value of his Safe Cures.

I’m certain that in the back of my mind, I expected that he must have engaged in extensive newspaper advertising and,  from time to time, I had seen a copy of the occasional Warner’s Safe Cure ad. However,  access to that genre of advertising seemed virtually impossible absent a willingness to sit in front of a microfilm reader and scroll randomly through newspapers of the day in hopes of finding the occasional Safe Cure ad.

Recently, and almost by accident, I stumbled across the access that had, for so long, eluded me. I was engaging in my other passion, genealogical research, when I learned about online access to vintage newspapers. More important though than just access was the ability to search them by names and subjects. Holy cow, I thought, if this will work for family surnames, I wonder if it will work for advertising?  To my delight, it did. My searches for Warner’s Safe Cure yielded enumerable results. While my searches turned up every mention of Safe Cure, many of which were included in countless testimonials (a topic for another day), a significant number of hits were ads taken out by Warner hawking his Safe Cure and Tippecanoe.

In this and future posts, I hope to unveil some of these ads as yet another facet of the Warner Safe Cure empire. Before doing so, I would be remiss if I did not credit the folks at Footnote.  Footnote is a web based search engine that allows you to access original documents through partnerships with the National Archives and the Library of Congress among others.  There is a membership fee, but it is modest considering the time and effort that is saved by searching document collections from the comfort of your home rather than planted in front of a microfilm viewer in the library. Let me also give the disclaimer that most, if not all, of the newspaper images I will be posting are long out of copyright and are subject to fair use. Now, having said all that, let me throw a few gems your way. First, this ad appeared in the Chicago Tribune on December 7, 1902:

This is a great ad and vintage Safe Cure. Like most all of Warner’s advertising for Safe Cure, it attributes all bodily problems to the malfunction of the kidneys. It also incorporates a tried and true device of Warner and other advertisers of the period, the testimonial.  If Safe Cure can help 92-year old Rebecca Smith, it will do wonders for you. It also offers the reader a free trial bottle. How can you lose?  Let me throw another your way as a teaser. In future post, I will talk more about these wonderful tidbits of Warner history. This ad appeared in the Fort Wayne Sentinel on February 16, 1883:

This ad resembles text that appears in some of Warner’s Safe Cure almanacs and strikes a familiar Warner theme – “Beware of Fraud.” The wonderful thing about these ads is that they appear, even now, among the news items that people of that era were reading. Indeed, many of the ads I came across were designed to look like news stories to enhance their credibility. I hope you will enjoy these ads as much as I have.

Warner’s Safe Cure: Newspaper Advertisements

It seems that virtually every medium available to H. H. Warner carried his pitch to the patent medicine buying public. In the age the preceded broadcast media, newspapers were the principal way to reach out to the public at large. Fortunately, copies of those newspapers including their advertisements still exist and I have been able to pull out a few of the Warner’s Safe Cure ads that ran from the early 1880′s until into the 1920′s.  As you will see, many of the ads take on a familiar formula and incorporate testimonials that proclaim that Warner’s Safe Cure saved the user from certain death. Although the ads are not limited to Safe Cure, many of them continue the pitch that Warner made when he first introduced his line of Safe Cures – the kidneys are the key to good health.

The above advertisement is the earliest I have found to date. It ran in the Fort Wayne News on June 11, 1880. Notably, it mentions parenthectically “Formerly Dr. Craig’s Kidney Cure”.  Clearly, Warner had not established himself and wanted to ride the coattails of Craig. The ad also lists the early Safe Cures including: Kidney & Liver Cure, Diabetes Cure, Nervine, Bitters and Safe Pills.  With an almost biblical flourish, it says “Read! Save Thyself.”

A close look at the ad reveals that it looks almost amateurish. Most of the print is typeset, but the graphics look almost hand-drawn. Needless to say, it would be a few years before Warner would have a full marketing department at his disposal.

Warner’s Safe Cure: The Rochester “A” List (Part II)

Although the Warner’s Safe Cures manufactured by the Chambers Works are early examples of the Safe Cure bottles, they are not the earliest.  After Warner acquired  the rights to Dr. Craig’s Kidney Cure, one of his first bottles was the shoulder-embossed Safe Cure (pictured above). While I would not consider this bottle to be rare, they have become harder to get.  The same is true for the Rochester Safe Cure. Only in Rochester was Safe Cure called “Safe Kidney & Liver Cure”. In all the other foreign offices, it was simply referred to as “Safe Cure.” For a short period, the Rochester bottle was also embossed “Safe Cure”.

While neither the shoulder-embossed Safe Cure nor the Rochester Safe Cure make the “A” List, there are some that do. For example, this aqua Kidney & Liver Remedy. While the amber is relatively common and the clear would likely be considered more scarce, aqua is down right rare.

 The same might be said of two  other Rochester variants, both of which are considered mold errors. The first is the “No Safe” Safe Remedies Company. For whatever reason, the bottle manufacturer omitted the word “Safe” from the mold leaving the bottle embossed “Warner’s Remedies Co.”  While the unlabelled Warner’s Safe Remedies Co. bottles are considered common, the Warner’s Remedies Co. are rare. The second variant is made rare, not be the omission of embossing, but by the addition of it. It is the half pint Nervine with “8 OZ” embossed just below the neck. Here again, the half pint Nervine is considered fairly common, but in this case, the glassmaker probably used a half pint Safe Cure mold and slugged out the word “Cure,” replacing it with “Nervine.” The result is a fairly rare variant.

Another very difficult Rochester find is the Warner’s Safe Remedy sample. While the Safe Cure sample appears regularly, the Safe Remedy sample comes around far less often.  Find one that’s labelled and you have a real gem. This is also true of the labeled Safe Diabetes Remedy sample.

Most discriminating bottle collectors turn their noses up a screw top bottles. However, not all screw top medicines are considered equal. Take, for example, the Warner’s Compound bottles sold by the Warner’s Remedies Company. These very late Warner’s are highly prized by Warner’s collectors due to their rarity.

The other significant category of Rochester Warner’s are the Log Cabin Remedies. They are the subject of Part III of this series.

Warner’s Safe Cure: The London Samples

Warner successfully marketed his products through a variety of promotions, which flowed from his headquarters on St. Paul’s Street in Rochester. The volume of this promotional material is amazing and I have previously covered many of these materials, including his free samples. It would be impossible to say how many of the free samples were shipped out of the Rochester Office.

While the Rochester Office was undoubtedly the principal source of promotional materials for the Warner empire, free samples were distributed by at least one other Warner foreign office, London. However, unlike the amber cylindrical free samples from Rochester, the London Office distributed a minature version of the actual safe cure bottle. The London Samples appeared in two colors, light amber and a kelly green. Of the two, the green is the most rare, although the amber version is also considered rare. Unlike their American cousins, the London samples are difficult finds for Warner’s collectors and can command upwards of $1000 each.

The rareness of the London samples begs the question of the quantity that were distributed from the London Office. Although it is entirely my supposition, I wonder whether the London Samples were not mailed out to prospective customers, but rather were used by Warner’s sales agents who visited potential retailers. It is a question that will not be answered absent the discovery of some, yet unknown, documentation from the London Office. For now, it is better to relish these very desirable Warner’s Safe Cures.

Thanks to Jack Stecher and Ed Ojea for the photos of the Free Samples.