Balm of America: Patent Medicine Collection

American History Museum

About the Collection
The Smithsonian Institution began to collect objects related to health and medicine in 1881. It first obtained examples of patent medicines in 1930, acquiring packages of Haarlem Oil (or Dutch Drops), Dr. John Hooper’s Female Pills, and Roche’s Herbal Embrocation. Since then the Smithsonian’s collection of patent medicines has expanded to over 4,000 products, dating from the 19th century to the present day.

About this Object Group
This group of objects features examples from this collection, found in the Division of Medicine and Science at the National Museum of American History. Each entry includes a photo of the object, the product’s name, maker’s name, place of manufacture, and a date range. Ingredients and therapeutic claims are included when indicated on the product packaging.

Browse
Browse the collection by therapeutic category. You can also use the keyword search (at right) which searches all fields of information.

More Information
Learn more about patent medicine history and how this history is revealed in examples from our collection. Questions or comments? Contact us.

Medicine 3,474 Filter by term Exclude term
Drugs 709 Filter by term Exclude term
Patent Medicines; Drugs; Non-Liquid 507 Filter by term Exclude term
Patent Medicines; Drugs; Liquid 375 Filter by term Exclude term
Patent Medicines; Drugs 112 Filter by term Exclude term
?; Patent Medicines; Drugs 96 Filter by term Exclude term
otc preparation; Patent Medicines; Drugs; Non-Liquid 95 Filter by term Exclude term
Bottles 74 Filter by term Exclude term
Pharmaceutical 67 Filter by term Exclude term
pharmaceutical 46 Filter by term Exclude term
Patent Medicines; Non-Liquid 32 Filter by term Exclude term
Pharmaceuticals; Drugs; Non-Liquid 32 Filter by term Exclude term
Seidlitz Powders; Pharmaceuticals; Drugs; Non-Liquid 31 Filter by term Exclude term
Aspirin; Patent Medicines; Drugs; Non-Liquid 23 Filter by term Exclude term
Bottle, Medicine 22 Filter by term Exclude term
Patent Medicine 21 Filter by term Exclude term
otc preparation; Patent Medicines; Drugs; Liquid 21 Filter by term Exclude term
Aspirin 18 Filter by term Exclude term
Seidlitz Powders; Patent Medicines; Drugs; Non-Liquid 18 Filter by term Exclude term
Bottle, OTC Preparation 15 Filter by term Exclude term
Drugs; Non-Liquid 12 Filter by term Exclude term
Bottle; Containers 11 Filter by term Exclude term
Pharmaceutical; Drugs 11 Filter by term Exclude term
Cod Liver Oil 9 Filter by term Exclude term
otc preparation; Drugs 9 Filter by term Exclude term
Nutritional Product 8 Filter by term Exclude term
?; Aspirin; Drugs 7 Filter by term Exclude term
Pharmaceutical; Patent Medicines; Drugs; Non-Liquid 7 Filter by term Exclude term
Pharmaceuticals; Drugs; Liquid 7 Filter by term Exclude term
?; otc preparation; Patent Medicines; Drugs 6 Filter by term Exclude term
Boxes (containers) 6 Filter by term Exclude term
Patent Medicine, Bottle of; Pharmaceutical; Liquid 6 Filter by term Exclude term
Patent Medicines 6 Filter by term Exclude term
Pharmaceutical; Pharmaceuticals 6 Filter by term Exclude term
Vitamin/Mineral Product 6 Filter by term Exclude term

Balm of America 3,497 Filter by term Exclude term
Medicine and Science: Medicine 3,452 Filter by term Exclude term
Menstruation: Symptom Relief 54 Filter by term Exclude term
Medicine and Science: Pharmacy 30 Filter by term Exclude term
Work and Industry: Agriculture and Natural Resources 12 Filter by term Exclude term
M*A*S*H Television Series 8 Filter by term Exclude term
Beauty and Hygiene Products: Oral Care 7 Filter by term Exclude term
Antibody Initiative: Diphtheria 3 Filter by term Exclude term
Cancer 3 Filter by term Exclude term
Cancer: Treatment 3 Filter by term Exclude term
Advertising 2 Filter by term Exclude term
Antibody Initiative: Influenza 2 Filter by term Exclude term
Antibody Initiative: Measles, Mumps, and Rubella 2 Filter by term Exclude term
National Museum of American History 2 Filter by term Exclude term
Antibody Initiative: Infectious Disease, Allergy, and Immunotherapy Collections 1 Filter by term Exclude term
Antibody Initiative: Tuberculosis 1 Filter by term Exclude term
Antibody Initiative: Whooping Cough 1 Filter by term Exclude term
Beauty and Health 1 Filter by term Exclude term
Division of Science, Medicine and Society: Medical Sciences 1 Filter by term Exclude term
Division of the History of Technology: Agriculture and Natural Resources 1 Filter by term Exclude term
Medicine and Science: Chemistry 1 Filter by term Exclude term
Object Project 1 Filter by term Exclude term
Object Project (tube) 1 Filter by term Exclude term