Lydia E. Pinkham (from a 1904 pamphlet)

Lydia Estes Pinkham (1819 - 1883), patent medicine manufacturer and businesswoman Image File history File links Lydia Pinkham This image was scanned by Dpbsmith from a pamphlet entitled This Treatise on the Diseases of Women is Dedicated to the Women of the World. ... Image File history File links Lydia Pinkham This image was scanned by Dpbsmith from a pamphlet entitled This Treatise on the Diseases of Women is Dedicated to the Women of the World. ... Patent medicine is the term given to various medical compounds sold under a variety of names and labels, though they were for the most part actually trademarked medicines, not patented. ...

A resident of Lynn, Massachusetts, Lydia Pinkham first began developing home remedies after the near bankruptcy of her husband. Mass marketed from 1875 on, Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound was one of the best known patent medicines of the 19th century. Descendants of this product are still available today. Lydia's skill was in marketing her product directly to women and her company continued her shrewd marketing tactics after her death. Her own face was on the label and her company was particularly keen on the use of testimonials from grateful women. Lynn is a city located in Essex County, Massachusetts. ... 1875 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Patent medicine is the term given to various medical compounds sold under a variety of names and labels, though they were for the most part actually trademarked medicines, not patented. ... A testimonial or endorsement is a written or spoken statement, sometimes from a public figure, sometimes from a private citizen, extolling the virtue of some product, which is used in the promotion and advertising of that product. ...

The product, with its 20% alcohol content, is often derided, but it did contain black cohosh. It is often suggested by the alternative medicine community that this ingredient (and a purified version, Remifemin) really do provide relief from symptoms of menopause. A report by the Natural Standard, which performs evidence-based reviews of alternative therapeutics, says: In general usage, alcohol (from Arabic al-khwl الكحول, or al-ghawl الغول) refers almost always to ethanol, also known as grain alcohol, and often to any beverage that contains ethanol (see alcoholic beverage). ... Black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) is a herbal medication included in dietary supplements designed for women which may help the symptoms of premenstrual tension, menopause and other gynecological problems. ... Alternative medicine broadly describes methods and practices used in place of, or in addition to, conventional medical treatments. ... Binomial name Cimicifuga racemosa (L.) Nutt. ...

Black cohosh is a popular alternative to prescription hormonal therapy for treatment of menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, mood problems, perspiration, heart palpitations, and vaginal dryness. Initial human research suggests that black cohosh may improve some of these symptoms for up to six months. However, most studies are not well designed and results are not conclusive.

The report gives the evidence a "B" rating, "good scientific evidence for this use." In a day when the mainstream treatment of these conditions was sometimes surgical removal of ovaries—with a mortality rate of 40%—it can be argued that at the very least Pinkham's remedy followed the sound medical principle of "first, do no harm."

Advertising copy urged women to write to Mrs. Pinkham. They did, and they received answers. They continued to write and receive answers for decades after Lydia Pinkham's death. These staff-written answers combined forthright talk about women's medical issues, good advice, and, of course, recommendations for her product. In 1905 the Ladies' Home Journal published a photograph of Lydia Pinkham's tombstone and exposed the ruse. The Pinkham company insisted that it had never meant to imply that the letters were being answered by Lydia Pinkham, but by her daughter-in-law, Jennie Pinkham. 1905 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... A cover of Ladies Home Journal from 1906 Ladies Home Journal was first published February 16, 1883 as a womens supplement to the Tribune and Farmer. ...

From a box of her medicine

Lydia's company continued increasing profit margins fifty years after her death but eventually the advent of the FDA curtailed the company's activities. Lydia Pinkhams Herb Medicine. ... The United States Food and Drug Administration is the government agency responsible for regulating food, dietary supplements, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, biologics and blood products in the United States. ...

Although Pinkham's motives were partly self-serving, feminists admire her for distributing information on menstruation and the "facts of life," and consider her to be a crusader for women's health issues in a day when women were poorly served by the medical establishment.

Lydia Pinkham Memorial Clinic in Salem, Massachusetts

In 1922, Lydia's daughter Aroline Chase Pinkham Gove founded the Lydia E. Pinkham Memorial Clinic in Salem, Massachusetts. The clinic, still in operation as of 2004, provides health services to young mothers and their children. It is designated Site 9 of the Salem Women's Heritage Trail. Lydia Pinkham Memorial clinic, Salem, MA Photograph copyright ©2004 Daniel P. B. Smith and released under the terms of the Wikipedia license. ... Lydia Pinkham Memorial clinic, Salem, MA Photograph copyright ©2004 Daniel P. B. Smith and released under the terms of the Wikipedia license. ... Salem Maritime National Historic Site Salem is a city located in Essex County, Massachusetts. ... 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Salem Maritime National Historic Site Salem is a city located in Essex County, Massachusetts. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Drinking songs

Drinking songs that consist of numerous verses describing the humorous and ribald invigorating effects of some food or medicine form almost a small genre in themselves. Lydia and her "medicinal compound" are memorialized in the folk songs "The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham," and "Lily the Pink". A sanitized version of Lily the Pink was a number one hit for Scaffold in the United Kingdom in 1968/9. True folk songs, they have no single set of verses. Some representative samples will convey their flavor:

Let us sing (let us sing) of Lydia Pinkham

The benefactress of the human race.

She invented a vegetable compound,

And now all papers print her face.

Mrs. Jones she had no children,

And she loved them very dear.

So she took three bottles of Pinkham's

Now she has twins every year.

And Peter Whelan (Peter Whelan)

He was sad because he only had one nut

Till he took some of Lydia's compound

And now they grow in clusters 'round his butt.

—The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham

Now here's the story--a little bit gory

A little bit happy--a little bit sad--

Lily the Pink and her medicinal compound

And how it drove her to the bad.

Ebenezer thought he was Julius Caesar

And so they put him in a home

And then they gave him medicinal compound

And now he's Emperor of Rome.

Ripley Twinger, the opera singer,

Would take a glass for his voice to save

He rubbed his tonsils with medicinal compound

Now they break glasses over his head.

—Lily the Pink

The original product and its modern descendents

The original formula for Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound was:

• Unicorn root (Aletris farinosa L.) 8 oz.
• Life root (Senecio aureus L.) 6 oz.
• Black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa (L.) Nutt.) 6oz.
• Pleurisy root (Asclepias tuberosa L.) 6 oz.
• Fenugreek seed (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) 12 oz.
• Alcohol (18%) to make 100 pints

As of 2004, Numark Laboratories of Edison, New Jersey markets a product named "Lydia Pinkham's Herbal Liquid Supplement." This product is neither very similar to nor utterly different from the original. Listed ingredients, with asterisks marking those present in the original compound, are: Motherwort, Gentian (gentiana lutea), Jamaican dogwood (piscidia erthrina), *Pleurisy root (asclepias tuberosa), Licorice (glycyrrhiza), *Black cohosh (cimicifuga racemosa), and Dandelion (taraxicum officinale). The product is carried by the Walgreens drugstore chain. 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Edison Memorial Tower, one of Edison Townships notable landmarks. ... Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) is a convenience store and pharmacy chain in the United States that operates approximately 5,000 stores throughout the fifty United States and a U.S. insular area, Puerto Rico. ...

Time of Your Life Nutraceuticals of St. Petersburg, Florida produces a product named Lydia's Secret for Lydiapinkham.org. Said to be "based on" the original formula, it has these listed ingredients (again, with asterisks marking those prsent in the original): *Black cohosh root, Dandelion root, *Pleurisy root, Chastetree berry, False unicorn root, Jamaica dogwood bark, Gentian root, Vitamin E, Vitamin B6, Magnesium, Zinc. Saint Petersburg (or St. ...

External links

• A two-page advertisement for Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, from a early-1900s cookbook entitled Fruits and Candies
• A letter signed "Mrs Pinkham" received by a woman who wrote to her in 1910.
• Site 9, Salem Women's Heritage Trail
• Natural Standard® Patient Monograph on black cohosh
• WWII B-17 Shot Down 19 December 1943 - Robert D. Peterson Pilot