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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.

The Art of Trading Cards

40985 The UCLA Patent Medicine Trade Cards History and Special Collections for the Sciences Collection is a remarkable resource for anyone interested in the history of medicine and alternative healthcare. This collection contains a wide range of patent medicine trade cards that offer fascinating glimpses into the world of medical advertising and the cultural attitudes towards health and healing in the past. Moreover in this Page you will be looking at 3 medicine trade cards that could cure various diseases and to grab parents attention. - By Daniel Pirian

In these medicine cards you will notice that in the paintings they have used animals, babies, children, and other creatures as well in which it was used as a strategy to grab the patients attention and to draw their interest to these cards.

The first medicine trade card that is shown on the top left corner of the page is called “Dalley's Magical Pain Extractor The great family ointment.” This medicine trading card was made to advertise an ointment that helps cure multiple things. The ointment helps cure individuals with burns and scalds. In this medicine trading card the front page displays an image of a baby boy sitting looking at a frog while sitting on a mushroom in the rain. This image could be used to show and grab patients attention especially if they have a child that is suffering from burns and scalds. As shown in the image the child is sitting happily on the mushroom while playing with the frog that shows viewers that the medicine works fine with the child by showing the baby sitting and playing with the frog.

The second Medicine trade card in the left corner is “Dr. Mettaur’s Headache Pill.” This medicine trading card advertises headache pills that help cure headaches for individuals. The image of this medicine card shows a picture of a baby sleeping while a shaggy dog is looking over the baby, having a deep sleep. The illustrator that has drawn this medicine card has drawn this to attract various patients. The first type of patient it is trying to attract is those who have trouble sleeping due to headaches. This picture represents that taking the headache pill advertised on this medicine card could help you have a deep sleep like the baby in the illustration. The other patients that the illustrator is trying to attract are viewers who have children and babies. The illustrator in this image is trying to show these specific patients that it will also help babies sleep well by showing the image of the baby sleeping without having any issues. Therefore, this illustration is shown to attract patients who have bad headaches and trouble sleeping and parents who have babies or children who have difficulty sleeping due to their headaches.
This image on the right side of the page is a cropped image of the medicine card called "Dalley's Magical Pain Extractor, The great family ointment." The cropped image shows the baby sitting on the mushroom without having to worry about any scars. Therefore, leading viewers to view this medicine card, so they do not have to worry about burns and scalds. As shown, the baby is sitting with no burns or scalds. This leads to viewers feeling comfortable taking this ointment.
Lastly, the last medicine card shown on the left side is called “Carter’s Little Nerve Pills.” This medicine card advertises nerve pills that can help individuals stay calm. The picture on the front of the medicine card shows a young woman leaning out of an open window and looking at a bird outside. It shows flowers next to the window, and outside the window provides an unobstructed view of the peaceful countryside scenery. The view of the child shows a city with tall buildings visible on the horizon. The illustration creates a sense of calmness and appreciation for nature while acknowledging the presence of urbanization. The illustrator of this medicine card is trying to attract two different kinds of patients. The first patients they are trying to attract are adult patients with nerve issues. But the second patients that the illustrator wanted to draw patients from are parents who have children who have difficulties with nerve pain. So the illustrator made sure to paint an image of a little girl looking calm outside the window to show parents that the nerve pill works and can help children stay calm.

This page has paths:

The Usage of Various Species in Advertising Medicinal Products Chien-Ling Liu Zeleny 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
Contents of this path:
1. Innocence and Beauty: How People and Animals Advertise "Harmless Cures" The Patent Medicine Trade Cards Collection within the UCLA Library Digital Collections contains a wide variety of patent medicine trading cards. Since most medications were unknown to the wider public, trading cards served a valuable role in advertising various products. An examination of a few selected trading cards reveals how both people and animals were utilized to associate products with notions of innocence. In turn, such positive connotations make products appear harmless.-By Hoyeol Lee
2. Advertising Purifying Blood All the Way to Teeth Extraction
3. The Art of Capturing a Consumer's Eye in the Competitive Medical Market These three examples of trade cards reveal how advertising can be used to create a story and create an entertaining and meaningful experience for the consumer. The color contrasts used in the cards enlarge the part of the image that the company wants to highlight. This together gives the consumer a reason to make a purchase of the product. These techniques of attention-grabbing and some sense of mind control are utilized in advertisements to this very day, even though the platform is very much different. - By Daniel Rabkin
4. Popular Themes in Nineteenth Century Patent Medicine Trade Cards: Representations of Youth and the Family Unit in Marketing The medicine trade cards selected for this page were chosen because they each, in their own way, reflect a common theme commonly seen in medicine trade cards advertisements: the use of young children in their illustrations. Whether the illustrations would be viewed as otherworldly or viewed as very grounded in reality, the incorporation of these young children effectively worked to imply that these advertised products were safe and to market these medicines to the mothers that were responsible for selecting and purchasing the medicines in their households. - By Mia Kubal
5. When Animals and Luxary Sell Medicine: A Critical Look at Trade Card Marketing Tactics An extensive collection of trade cards that were originally employed to advertise various patent medicine items can be found in the UCLA Library Digital Collections' Patent Medicine Trade Cards Archive. Trading cards were a crucial part of promoting and making people cognizant of novel therapeutics at a time when many treatments were obscure to the general public. A sampling of the collection's trading cards reveals that animals were routinely extensively displayed in these advertisements with the intention of conjuring up images that allude to childhood and innocence. By employing such a message, these trading cards aimed to increase consumers' perceptions of the items' safety and efficacy, effectively allaying any reservations or worries they might have had. The examination of the impact that animal inclusion has on brand perception and whether it influences consumer behavior. Furthermore, a critical look at the messaging conveyed through animal imagery and its effectiveness in promoting the product. Ultimately, this exploration seeks to evaluate whether the use of animals in medical trade card advertising is effective. - By sarkis vartanyan
6. The Art of Trading Cards The UCLA Patent Medicine Trade Cards History and Special Collections for the Sciences Collection is a remarkable resource for anyone interested in the history of medicine and alternative healthcare. This collection contains a wide range of patent medicine trade cards that offer fascinating glimpses into the world of medical advertising and the cultural attitudes towards health and healing in the past. Moreover in this Page you will be looking at 3 medicine trade cards that could cure various diseases and to grab parents attention. - By Daniel Pirian

This page references:

Dalley's Magical Pain Extractor (c) Original trade card forms part of: Collection no. 311, History & Special Collections for the Sciences, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, UCLA. Scene on front of card is a fantsy and shows a tiny boy sitting on a mushroom, holding an umbrella to shield him from the rain, and a frog is jumping up in front of the boy, as if to greet him. The text across to top says: Use Dalley's Magical Pain Extractor the great family ointment.
Dalley's Magical Pain Extractor Original trade card forms part of: Collection no. 311, History & Special Collections for the Sciences, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, UCLA. Scene on front of card is a fantsy and shows a tiny boy sitting on a mushroom, holding an umbrella to shield him from the rain, and a frog is jumping up in front of the boy, as if to greet him. The text across to top says: Use Dalley's Magical Pain Extractor the great family ointment.
Carter's Little Nerve Pills [inscribed] Picture on front of card depicts a young woman looking out of a window at a bird. There is no glass and her left hand is extended out the window and resting on a ledge. There are flowering plants on either side of the window on the ledge. It appears to be in the country side and there appears to be a city with skyscrapaers in the distance. Original trade card forms part of: Collection no. 311, History & Special Collections for the Sciences, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, UCLA.