Snake Oil Then and Now: What Patent Medicine in 1906 San Francisco Can Teach Us About the Wellness Industry

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Patent medicine is an unregulated proprietary product made and marketed under a patent and available with prescription. By the middle of the 19th century patent medicines had become a major industry in America. This paper examines the use of patent medicine and other personal wellness products within an urban San Francisco neighborhood before and after the Great Earthquake of 1906. The consumption patterns of wellness products evolved in step as neighborhood demographics shifted from skilled family laborers toward a mostly unskilled single male labor pool. This research examines how demographic-targeted advertising influences personal health decisions and additionally provides an analogue to contemporary trends in the marketing and consumption of wellness products.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2022 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology