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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.

Castoria (back)

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Instantaneous Cure Bradley S Reed
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1. Castoria (back)

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Pathological Medical Imagery Throughout the foundation of modern medicine, displays of medical advertising techniques, such as patent medicine trade cards, have materialized the selling of pain remedies. This page will publicly inform how medical corporations validate their products during the 19th and 20th centuries with Pathological Medical Imagery. The illustrations will cover a range of emotional tactics, bright displays of color palettes, and transparent symbolic messages that entice consumers to purchase the product. - By Bradley S Reed To create a contextual association, the meaning of patent medicine trade cards is medical ephemera, thus classifying these cards as having a short life. However, archivists and curators like UCLA's Russell Johnson made an effort have preserved these significant artifacts. Gathering such medical relics has helped historians find clarity throughout the history of American health systems. In an additional exposition, the anchor image of the little girl to the right can hallmark the use of Pathological Medical Imagery (PMI) in American health systems. The bright color of the red cloak pops out on the trading card. Preserving that Hood's Sarsaparilla will help cure a variety of illnesses. There is plenty more PMI in the displayed annotations. PMI uses habitual tactics of bright snapshots to convey the consumer to purchase the product. Consequently, there is an unfair indication against illness prevention and more toward medical capital. Hence, the obsession with "cures for all" medical products.

To go further into using PMI, please take a moment to look over the image to the left by clicking on it. After briefing viewing, I'd like to point out how the mother elephant is nursing her baby with Castoria. Castoria is a medical product displayed and has several vital uses to cure. It is relevant in the Castoria medical trade card noting the nurturing effect of motherhood. The attraction of many benefits implies that mothers put their complete trust in these products in America before the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. However, it mainly explains on the front of the Castoria card that class separations exist. For example, it uses "peasant to a high-born lady," which presents the perception of motherhood during this period.

To the right is a cropped photo of the Castoria medical trade card. It is a close-up view of the child being fed the Castoria medicine in a human baby bottle. The baby has a positive emotion and seems excited that its mother is giving them Castoria. This complements the use of PMI because the consumer would imagine their child to feel the same way if they used the product.
This is Morse's Indian Root Pills medical trade card. The primary function of the medicine is to cure headaches. This medical trade card has creative imagery. It is vividly showing one kitty helping another kitty. The PMI in this replicates that the medicine will help you when you need a hand-up. It displays the use of innocent animals as something close to most consumers. The purposeful bright colors of blue and red attract the consumer's attention. In addition, it adds to the use of items that could be found in kitchens during the period. The product is your friend.

Over time, the developing motives of how PMI helps sell products go against moral inquiries. Simultaneously, using PMI by blanketing the image with emotional symbols and fashioning consumer obsession is immoral. The medical advertising tactics during the 19th and 20th centuries were confidently clever. The capacity to apprehend how PMI draws clients to purchase medicines because of looking at these medical trading cards is splitting against righteous sales. Therefore, the use of Pathological Medical Images should be publicly known, and campaigns should educate consumers on these techniques.
Aesthetic Advertisement Billboards, commercials, social media postings, and flyers are some of the most vital techniques employed by companies and businesses used to enhance their reputation and sell their products today. As technology has advanced, so have the opportunities to relay messages to the public today, making advertising and marketing much easier. In and around the time of the 20th century, proprietors and companies had to come up with original ideas and plans not only for buyers to comprehend what they were purchasing, but also to convince them to buy their product. During this time, trade cards emerged as the best way to market products. One may think, what use do trade cards have in advertising, but having such a limited medium forced designers and creators of these cards into coming up with precise and objective ideas to best display their products. The trade cards advertising Imperial Granum, Castoria, and Bell-cap-sic, are prime examples of how well products could be advertised with such simplicity yet much sophistication. Although all three of these trade cards advertise different products, the pattern followed in creating them becomes obvious once they are analyzed. Imperial Granum utilizes bright colors and pleasing artwork to catch the attention of its viewers. Upon first glance, it might seem that the artwork on the card was intended solely for the aesthetic pleasure of the card viewer, but in reality, by incorporating children by means of the artwork, it becomes clear that Imperial Granum is a product made for children. The artwork portrays calm and happy children with enough energy to be climbing on shelves and eating food. Even without reading the text on the card, one might be intrigued just by looking at the art. Castoria parallels Imperial Granum with a popping image on its front. Unlike Imperial Granum, Castoria’s message is not as obvious just by examining the artwork. Having two elephants playing in a serene setting did not seem like it had to do anything with advertising or medicine and first. Conveniently, the creators of the card added some context right below the image to help the viewers understand what the art depicts. Although it seemed as if the elephants were just playing, the art illustrates the idea of a mother tendering love, care, and remedy to her baby by way of the medication Castoria, relaying a heartwarming message. Finally, and additionally similar to Imperial Granum and Castoria, Bell-cap-sic also implements the use of art to illustrate the product and message it aims to portray. In contrast to the other trade cards, Bell-cap-sic’s illustrations do not seem to have a connection to the product being advertised, but it doesn’t necessarily have to. By capturing the viewers attention aesthetically, they are inclined to take a look at the rest of the card. Furthermore, the card uses the phrases “Cure like a magic touch” to continuously advertise the product, taking a slightly different route than the previous two cards. Moving on to the back of the trade cards, each of the three cards used the open space to include a detailed yet concise description of the product and other potential relevant information. Playing an essential role, the text on the card includes information about the proprietors, setting of the product, what the medication remedies and more. Considering the lack of technology available and the other limited obtainable resources regarding advertising and marketing, trade cards seem like a companies best bet. Being so accessible, portable, quick, easy, and cheap to make, proprietors of these products really made the most of trade cards employing many different strategies to get their message out to the general population.
Aaron Ezra Kohanbash's Patent Medicine Trade cards The three trade cards that I chose to use all portray advertisements in similar yet different ways. First, the picture depicts an advertisement for tablets that are used to cure headaches, colds are various other pains. The proprietor and designer of the card aims to catch the attention of its viewers by making it aesthetically appealing while having the card be sufficiently informative to what it is trying to portray. The card sets out to show the convenience of carrying these specific tablets by having them held in a hand, showing its small size and its portable nature. By using a beautiful blue and white contrast, colors which pop and catch the eye of its viewers, people are bound to stop and take a look at what they have in front of them. Furthermore the advertising trade card includes specific information essential to the understanding of the product. The transparency of the advertisement as well as its clear portrayal of what the product is used for set up the company and product for much success. Similarly, the next of the three trade cards I chose to analyze is Bell-cap-sic. Bell-cap-sic is an advertisement for the medicine obviously named Bell-cap-sic which serves as a relief for back aches, colds, and other pains or illness. They use a picture of dogs which can be a sign of healing and remedy, parallel to the function of a therapy dog. There is also a quote “Cure like a magic touch” which can be depicted as a way of advertising in an easy and effortless way. The back of the trade cards uses a brief description of how to use the medicine, and what it cures. In addition to all of this there is the name of the seller, Mark N Sullivan, who is a prescription druggist. There is also a picture of a bell which serves as their trademark.

The final of the three cards that I am using is called Castoria. The picture shows a full grown elephant feeding a baby elephant, a type of medicine. The medicine says the name Castoria. The baby elephant looks ecstatic to have the medicine and if he is ecstatic to be healed this shows that people should be ecstatic when having this medicine. The card has the word “Castoria” written on it on it which is important because it's the name of the medicine that is being advertised. The back of the card has the types of diseases that Castoria can cure including pains, burns and swellings. At the bottom there is a name and a seller in which I am assuming is the name and the address of the seller. While All three cards are a form of advertisement they all have their similarities and differences when the pictures are juxtaposed and put together. One similarity that all three of them have is that the cure and the form of treatment is crystal clear. “217 Tablets” and “Castoria” have a similarity in which they both use bright vibrant colors while Bell-cap-sic uses darker more neutral colors. On the other hand while “217 tablets” uses a picture of the pill, the other two trade cards use pictures of animals to enhance their form of advertisement.
Patent Medicine Trading Cards : Advertisements for various medications
This tradecard  shows the Electric Nerve Pencil, a device used to cure headaches, toothaches, and any kind of nerve pain in the body. We can notice that on the front of this card there is a young girl holding a bird on her finger. This bird symbolizes freedom and on the tip of her fingertips we can come to a conclusion that the merchant of this card is trying to show a calming, relaxing effect, which the Electric Nerve Pencil will give you. This is a great way of C.E. Carter showing juxtaposition in his work, using media to convey his merchandise with a deeper meaning.
This next trade card  While depicting this card we can notice they have made the font levels on the card very high, using big bold letters in capital case to grasp the attention of the viewers. C.E.Carter invented the Electric Nerve Pencil and stated it was a Japanese Remedy which cured all of the worst nerve pains. With this information plastered over the back of the trade card and big lines surrounding around the pen, it is very appealing to the eyes which in turn makes the audience more interested about learning more about the item and even purchasing the piece.
This second trade card that I am using is a card named Castoria, which shows an image of a full grown elephant, feeding a baby elephant using a medicine named Castoria. The details of the card depict that the baby elephant is very excited to be receiving this medicine which shows the audience that if the elephant is excited to receive it, then it must be good. The name being plastered on the front of the card is very important for their advertisement because it is the name of the their medicine. At the bottom of the card it gives more details and information which I am assuming holds an address or more information on how to purchase the Castoria medicine.
The back of this trade card  shows different forms of illnesses and diseases that Castoria can cure which includes burns, upper/lower pains, and swelling. This card shows simplicity and effectiveness at its finest, the back is very simple giving the audience not much to comprehend but still getting their message through. The back only holding text with information about the product and the front showing visual imagery of how the card will make your animals feel. This card shows a great value in how simple things can be very effective.
This last trade shows a young girl smelling a flower and looking off into the distance. The young girl on the front of the card is very youthful in which connects to the card because it is a medication for treating a cough or for women's suffer. At first glance of the card, you notice the girl and how she looks healthy this in turn, grasps the attention of the audience and brings them in to learn more about the product, this is a great advertisement strategy. The flower she is holding is a lily flower which symbolizes purity and rebirth, exactly what this
Finally the back of this last trade card which hold a lot of information and text. This information on the back of the card is split up into 3 different sections that include diseases and dosages, a 12 month calendar, and two paragraphs on the right which hold information on when women suffer and how to treat a cough. The display may seem like a lot of text at first but it is written very simply, giving the readers an easier time depicting the card and making it easily accessible to their audience. The back of this card also states the companies name at the bottom in a bigger font/text than the rest of the back of the cards text. This little change makes a big difference with the company name being easy to view by just first glance, it does not appear to be mixed in with the rest of the information. This is a great example of juxtaposition.
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