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America's Pastime: Patent Medicine Trade Cards on Pain Main Menu Introduction Student Projects The Power of Emotional Marketing: How Vintage Medical Trading Cards Used Children to Sell Their Products to Parents The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the rise of patent trade medicine cards across the country. Prominent among the many marketing strategies employed were those involving child imagery. By exploring the historical juncture between child imagery and society, new insights are gained regarding the appeal of child imagery and its employment in various marketing approaches. - By Kevin Kerr, Curran Whitney-Vazquez, Chandler Warth, Samuel Sakowski, Eden Breslauer-Friedman Clothing as Tool of Expression: Utilizing Fashion in 19th Century Marketing In analyzing our group’s medicine trading cards, we were able to convey the significance of clothing throughout its relation to medicine. Various forms of clothing demonstrate symbolism towards an indvidual’s perception on medicine as well as foreshadowing the message in which the trading cards demonstrate. The various forms of clothing and stances the individuals and characters in the trading card portray indicate symbolize towards various forms of clothing and stances to highlight the social class and hierarchy of power with its purpose in medication trading cards. The way that every individual is dressed eludes to different perceptions of varying social classes as the medical epherma is not targeted to one specific group. This persuades individuals to buy the medicines and adapt to their encouraged medicine techniques. - By Brittney Abdi, Alan Torres, Jolene Matian, Zoe Rosenberg, Javier Perez Mejia Humanity, Animals, and Religion: The Metaphorical Sense of Rebirth and Apotheosis of Purity. In the late 19th and early 20th century, America saw a rise in Patent Medicine leading up to the civil war. It was a lucrative trade that encouraged individuals to cultivate their own brand and medicinal products. The rise in Patent Medicine could be explained by a multitude of factors, such as rapid increases in industry and manufacturing, urban living, the absence of drug regulation, and the lack of accessibility and distrust of contemporary medical practices. During this period, Patent medicine companies vigorously marketed their products through small, colorful cards that featured illustrations , along with information about the medicine's supposed benefits and ingredients. To persuade consumers to purchase their products, patent medicine companies utilized a variety of marketing techniques. Some of the most popular ones being the portrayal of humanity, animals, and religion to convey the notion of rebirth and purity. - By Dominic Castillo, Vanessa Jiang, Stephen Liu, Leo Martinez, Selena Quispe The Utilization of Youthful Figures, Both Humans and Animals, in Medical Trading Cards The UCLA Library Digital Collections consist of a diverse collection of Patent Medicine Trade Cards that depict historically meaningful and strategic methods of medical advertising, specifically focusing on irregular and alternative medicines. The following trade cards investigate the significance of youthful figures in medical advertisements, as seen in both humans and animals. - By India White Cloud, Shanya Rostami, Andreas Tunney, Noah Orshansky, Netaniel Daee, and Justin Vayakone The Appeal of Youth and Family in Patent Medicine Trading Cards Medical Ephemera has had a long history of using emotional tactics to appeal to its intended target audiences. One of the most prevalent motifs is that of youth and children. Through visual and written rhetoric, this theme appeals to many family oriented communities and their values. From reliability to rejuvenation, for many people children can represent what they want in a medicine. However, this era of trade cards was particularly deceitful towards audiences by using this rhetoric, yet had a significant impact on marketing tactics that are still seen and thriving today. - By Lauren Tanaka, Allison Bushong, Mollie Brown, and Garrison Hallum Innocent Imagery: A Technique of Patent Medical Trade Cards The evolution of curing pain and uplifting human welfare greatly interested the public. To help combat this suffering, medical corporations turned to advertising through Patent Medical Trade Cards. These small cards significantly helped sell medicines throughout the 19th and 20th centuries in the United States of America. Specific techniques and styles, such as Innocent Imagery, assisted in attracting the consumer to purchase the drug. For instance, harmless animals, delicate flowers, and emotional characters were critical sources of visualizing innocence. -By Lauren Heiberg, Sean Eshraghi, Bradley Reed, Camila Ramirez-Leng and Shayan Mansourian Youth as a Marketing Tactic to Relieve Pain Our group page dives into the way patent medicine trade cards have utilized youth and innocence as a marketing tactic to improve their advertisement. We have focused on UCLA library’s collection as a whole and chosen to individually select a few of the cards that best match our theme all together. This project has allowed us to study the advertisement techniques of medical cures and solutions of its time as a group. We hope our findings are as insightful to you as they are to us - By Tara Kahrobaie, Rebeca Daee, Talia Fouladian, Ashley Kohen, Nathan Darougar, Saman Khalifian The Children of Medicine: An Appeal to Consumer Emotions Our group page explores the intricacies of 19th century marketing strategies that heavily revolved around depictions of children and the youth in an attempt to psychologically appeal to the emotions of consumers in hopes of converting sales. However, we also discuss how problematic this can be, especially when the product advertisement itself is deceiving and may even pose a threat to the lives of consumers. Though effective, using the youth to advertise products can be unethical and as a result, there were different legislations enacted to combat this and different marketing strategies have evolved in conjunction with it. - By Johnny Thai, Margarita Balbuena, Ryan Nelson, Chuntao Qiu How Depictions of Women and Children Sell Medication In this page, we examine the usage of women and children portrayed on patent medicine trade cards to advertise and sell medication. Throughout this page, we employ the collection of patent medicine trade cards from the UCLA Library Digital Collections, analyzing the images and text to gain a deeper understanding of this form of advertising. - By: Jacquelyn Bakshian, Abby Kim, Tyler Maghen, David Sagizadeh, Shana Simanian, Mia Tumbaga The Influence of Innocence and Purity in Patent Medicine Trade Cards This page will explore how themes of innocence and purity were primarily utilized in patent medicine trade cards in order to generate enticing advertisements to consumers at the time. Themes of purity, innocence, and femininity entwined with the audience's perception of an ideal person, and this page will dissect how these themes were utilized to create an impactful advertisement for medical ephemera. —By Lesley Sierra, Alejandro Haro, Taylor Sullivan, Karina Tairyan, Jennifer Lay, Parinaz Kyavar The Healing and Appealing Powers of Purity and Femininity Our group page focuses on the use of femininity and purity in advertising as a means to demonstrate the efficacy of the advertised medications. Through close inspection of various Patent Medicine Trade Cards from the UCLA Biomedical Library Special Collections, our group has gained an understanding of advertising strategies and the use of cultural norms to demonstrate medicinal efficacy. Women, ideas of femininity, and purity found in nature are the central themes of our scalar book and reveal advertising strategies of medications in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These cards as well as our own individual pages will explore the complex and historically relevant themes of femininity and purity through the lens of advertising strategies of medications and medicinal products in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. - By Stephanie Zager, Ella Kitt, Megan Sparrow, Corey Gear, Neda Afsharian Parental Protective Instincts: Child Imagery in Patent Medicine Trade Cards In the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century, pharmaceutical companies established marketing strategies in which they value child imagery upon the medical trade cards. By evaluating and uncovering new insights regarding the appeal of child imagery, the selection of six cards from the UCLA’s Patent Medical Trading Card collection will elucidate its marketing values and how it appeals to buyers. By Chelsie, Adrian, Micaiah, Princess Animals used In Medicine Trade cards Our presentation focuses on the use of animals in Patent Medicine trade cards, as advertisements , essentially animals are used are marketing tools. By using animals as the main focus on the image, the companies are able to grasp the attention of the viewers. - By Aaron Kohanbash, Aaron Ezra Kohanbash, Elan Amona, Samuel Kohanteb, and Avner Shamtoub The Usage of Various Species in Advertising Medicinal Products The UCLA Patent Medicine Trade Cards expounds on medicine under a variety of labels and names through its collection of 247 patent medicine trade cards. With the variety of medical products on the market, companies utilized artwork to advertise their products to the general public. Specifically, various species and the attributes associated with them were one common theme among patent medicine trading cards. - By Hoyeol Lee, Fady Tawfik, Daniel Rabkin, Mia Kubal, Sarkis Vartanyan, and Daniel Pirian Utilizing Trade Cards as a Key Advertising Technique Trade card makers employed them as a medium to promote medical products, utilizing various advertising tactics to entice consumers and guarantee profitable sales. These marketing approaches included leveraging maternal connections, portraying children, emphasizing the product's "healing powers," and presenting visually appealing designs. By- Hannah Shaye, Yaelle Shaye, Leah Tabibi, Odelia Safadel, Ely Gabbaypour, and Arya Afgham 19th Century Remedies for Women's Daily Troubles During the 19th century, patent medicine trade cards often were marketed to women. These cards advertised products that intended to relieve ordinary women of troubles that they faced on a daily basis. Many of these products included cure-alls, medicine for mothers, and medicinal makeup, which addressed the frequent concerns women experienced regarding bodily health, motherhood, and femininity. – By Omotola Adesina, Gengjia Lin, Renateh Moradian, Grant Pate, and Brooke Vallone.

Carter's Backache Plasters [inscribed] (front)

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Crooked posture Javier Perez
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1. Carter's Backache Plasters [inscribed] (front)
Tall man Javier Perez
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1. Carter's Backache Plasters [inscribed] (front)
Leather shoes Javier Perez
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Clothing as Tool of Expression: Utilizing Fashion in 19th Century Marketing In analyzing our group’s medicine trading cards, we were able to convey the significance of clothing throughout its relation to medicine. Various forms of clothing demonstrate symbolism towards an indvidual’s perception on medicine as well as foreshadowing the message in which the trading cards demonstrate. The various forms of clothing and stances the individuals and characters in the trading card portray indicate symbolize towards various forms of clothing and stances to highlight the social class and hierarchy of power with its purpose in medication trading cards. The way that every individual is dressed eludes to different perceptions of varying social classes as the medical epherma is not targeted to one specific group. This persuades individuals to buy the medicines and adapt to their encouraged medicine techniques. - By Brittney Abdi, Alan Torres, Jolene Matian, Zoe Rosenberg, Javier Perez Mejia
Beginning in the 19th century, physicians believed the relief of bodily pain was a net positive. This led to medical discourse on subjects ranging from acute pain treatment to palliative care for the dying. Opiates, which contained morphine and opium, were the standard course of treatment by pharmacists for acute pains (e.g. headaches) and severe cases (e.g. cancer). By selecting six cards from UCLA’s Patent Medical Trading Card collection, we seek to demonstrate how clothing plays a significant role in advertisement strategies for such products. Different styles of clothing are symbolic, or send a specific message to the trading card’s audience. For instance, they could be used to market to a specific social class who may purchase the pharmaceutical product. Additionally, the color or cut of clothing may be part of a marketing strategy based on sex appeal, family values, patriotism, or other tropes. Helping a customer differentiate one medicine from another through subtle messages in clothing and related imagery is central to building a clientele base.

Carter's Little Liver Pills:
Throughout the trading card, the image depicts a woman dressed in a beautiful article of clothing that is very colorful and has old-fashioned ruffles on her long dress. She is looking off into the distance with her hands crossed further depicting her polite, ladylike mannerisms and gestures in an old-fashioned sense. Her dress is very colorful demonstrating red, white, and blue colors, which are American old fashioned colors. This is significant portraying a very old-fashioned style which relates to the old-fashioned medicine techniques encouraged on the back of the trading card. In addition, her lady-like, oldfashioned mannerisms also contribute to the foreshadowing of the old-fashioned medicine style which is highly promoted throughout this trading card. The trading card also depicts a colorful large hat which is interpreted as an old-fashioned hat style that many women used to wear in past generations. This shows the significance of fashion to the woman in the photo. Overall, this relates to our theme due to the fact that it shows a higher social class of a woman who values fashion and her appearance throughout society at the time. It additionally, highlights the woman’s perception on medicine as preferably what can be trusted and has already been tested including tactics in which people know are good and that consist of ingredients in the medicines that individuals are familiar with, which explains her old-fashioned perception.

Dr. Isaac Thompson's Eyewater:
Dr.Isaac Thomposon’s eyewater trading card illustrates itself with a woman in high-quality clothing utilizing his eye treatment on a cat suffering from eye issues. This display of high-quality characteristics shown by her dress and the method of applying the medicine to the cat in a delicate manner alludes to the idea that the treatment Dr. Isaac Thompson is providing is also high quality. The example of a well-mannered woman who only utilizes high-quality products like her dress, her jewelry, and her furniture makes the medicine the woman is holding also be considered high quality, which was a method of convincing people to buy this treatment as it was shown as an inexpensive product with high-quality standards for the elites and the ordinary individuals of society also.
Antikamnia Tablets:
The Antikamnia Tablets illustrate the usage of clothing to the womens femininity with her low cut and white dress. The low cut dress symbolizes the womens sense of confidence and catches the audience eyes by highlighting her figure. This trade card uses a beautiful young women and dresses her in a white dress in order to encourage the audience to buy the tablets because of the femininity and grace depicted throughout the imagery. In the past, low cut dresses were daring and not widely accepted by society which made this card stand out and potentially reach more of the audience. Additionally, along with her white dress she is smelling a white lily flower further elude to her purity and innocence that portray her strength.

Carter's Backache Plasters [inscribed]
Carter's Backache Plasters [inscribed] depicts a tall old man, with a crooked back, holding onto his back while looking down at a child who is standing up straight. The child responds with “grandpa you ought to put on one of Carter’s Backache plasters.” While the patent medicine trade card’s central objective is to promote the pain relieving medicine for back pain, the image plays a role in enforcing such message to the audience via humor. The clothing specifically in this image helps form a distinction in age between the child and the grandfather. The clothing worn by the grandfather may have been common during the time of the card but not entirely cheap given he is wearing a suit jacket trench coat. Furthermore, the pitch black shiny leather shoes were definitely a fashion at the time of the card’s production. The clothing both characters are wearing can also be seen as bulky but such may be due to the fact that the card was produced in New York–a state where it is customary to wear warm clothing due to the extreme weather, snow. In either case the clothing can be attributed to the general population and thus clothing could be way of perpetuating that this medicine was a solution to the everyday adult common man’s back pain issues. The size of the clothing worn by the grandfather can also be seen as a stereotypical reference to the saying that all tall people will be prone to back aches especially as they age. Thus, clothing in this tradecard helps target a specific audience and hint to the medicine's function in a humorous manner to lure the general eye.

Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup
“Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup” trading card features a mother reading in bed with two young children. They are wearing similar nightgowns with long, white sleeves and a lace-rimmed collar. Nightgowns were seen as a sign of status in the 19th century, as many individuals could not afford an entire separate wardrobe for clothes only to be worn while asleep. The white, modest cut was a mark of elegance. Only an improper woman would be caught in a colorful, scandalous night dress. However, the white linens played a utilitarian role as well. In an era where clothing had to be dried by hand this material was the simplest to clean. Accordingly, the outfits represent a middle-class, respectable family that others should seek to emulate. Mrs. Winslow's product can ensure this happens by soothing tooth aches that would otherwise disrupt this harmonious scene.

Brown's Household Panacea
Brown's trading card for “Household Panacea” displays a poor man in distressed clothing is carrying a hot furnace with a smile plastered on his face. One can conclude this man is impoverished because he wears mis-matched shoes, distressed blue jeans, and a ripped brown jacket. While all social classes in the 21st century wear denim, in the 19th century it was a signal of the working class because they were considered durable while doing manual labor. The clothing on the man contribute to several marketing strategies. First, it creates a humorous image that may draw-in a more light-hearted audience. Burning metal would typically be too hot to touch without severe burns, yet Brown is making a tongue-in-cheek reference that the drug is so effective the man could still walk around smiling. Additionally, it is implying that all socio-economic classes could afford Brown’s product, even someone in as dire economic conditions as the man on the card. The cost effective nature of the product would have been highly sought after by 19th century Americans who despised the cost of doctor visits who performed painful treatment such as blood-letting.
Advertisement strategies, Children and Pain "Children and ailments" . These cards depict children and are themselves promoting medicine to treat some of their common ailments. In the cards, a solution is presented to address some sort of pain. During this time, target audiences were usually depicted on the product's advertisements. They are representative of the UCLA Patent Medicine Trade Cards Collection because they have to do with pain and documenting some of these treatments used in earlier U.S medicine. Likewise, they both are ephemera, trade cards that were cheaply produced to live a short life (promptly be discarded) and made with the intention of promoting products during their given time. These most likely survived due to accidental storage or in the rarest of cases collection. Either way, they both provide us with information about medicine politically, scientifically, and economically during their times. -By Javier Perez

In early U.S. medicine, treatments were available with little to no regulation. Relieving pain had become a popular issue that led to the creation of many pain treatments. Opium one of the major ingredients in a wide array of these products, allowed for increased abuse of opium throughout the country and resulted in drug regulations like Food and Drug Act of 1906 which required medical products to list their ingredients. Other treatments involving certain tools or alternatives would soon be found scientifically ineffective and required to be removed from commerce. Thus, regulations at the time and their descriptions can be used to determine when some of these cards were created.

These specific trade cards were made of low-quality materials with the intention of promoting both the product and the brand. While color and print style varies by card this specific set of cards prominently, in large font, display the brand name and the name of the medication as a form of marketing strategy. It can be concluded that these cards were mass-produced to reach a large audience.
In order to coneviently attract customers to these medications intended mainly for children ailments, font sizes are seen to be used to list these common ailments in a larger font size to make it more noticeable to the eye and so that the consumer can promptly match their problmes to the proposed solution, medication.
Children were used for symbolic and for artistic purposes. In Carter's Liver Pills the baby may have been depicted as a form of fancy art style given he is holding a guitar in an angelic manner. The fact that the baby is playing a guitar in itself is not realistic and thus gives it a way that its a marketing style. The baby in this case may be symbolically showing that by taking the pills the consumer with the headache will be back to a relaxed state just as a baby in no time. In Carter's Backache plasters the child is used for humor purposes and for setting the age of the adult character. By the children looking up to the adult which he claims to be his grandpa, the viewer automatically views him as old and can connect his back complaints to the typical–age and height. In other words, in this case the scene depicted is that of a common issue which many can relate to or automatically can connect to from viewing the image. In other words, humor and knowledge commonality is used to reach the audience.

On these cards, we can also find the pricing of certain medications as well as the price to acquire the card. These notes in turn help economists make a connection with how inflation has occurred over the years as well as how the value of medicine has changed over time. Even their general descriptions on the back of the cards reveal the medical treatment trends at the time, regulations in marketing and production of medications, and advertisement strategies.
Generally speaking, these cards tend to depict the customer populations they are intended for as well as tend to depict children. Children at the time may have been a way to express relief, comfort, joy, and innocence. Likewise, font sizes and phrases are used to target the audience. In either case, the depictions and artistic styles were meant to allude to the customer and propagate the brand.