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Patent medicine used in America dates back to the early days of the Republic, when drugs imported from Europe were sold by postmasters, goldsmiths, grocers, and tailors. Their use expanded during the Jacksonian era as Americans rebelled against traditional doctors and enthusiastically endorsed quackery. Increasing urbanization and industrialization also fed the market for patent medicines, as new drugs were needed to combat epidemics. But these sales, by mid-century, were due to two non-medical events.
Patent legislation in 1793 made it possible for manufactures to protect their product against counterfeiters. But most manufacturers did not seek patents on the formulas for their medicines, since these were often combinations of common products like alcohol and vegetable extracts which they preferred not to reveal. Instead, they sought patents on the shape of the bottle, promotional materials, and label information.
The number of newspapers published in the country grew from 200 during Jefferson’s administration to over 4000 at the time of Lincoln’s presidency. The Penny Press, begun by Benjamin Day in 1833, was marketed at a mass audience and cost just one cent per issue. To recover revenue lost from subscription prices, Day and others sought profits through advertising. Patent medicine was the perfect product to advertise in penny papers since its sensational claims buttressed the sensational bent of the news and stories in them.
"Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound" was the most successful patent medicine of the century, and Mrs. Pinkham’s face was known across the country. Like most Americans, she was convinced that Divine Providence had stocked the promised land with vegetables and herbs unknown elsewhere, which could cure disease. Mrs. Pinkham received the basic formula for her nostrum as payment for a debt owed her husband. As a result of severe economic hardships for her family, she began heavy promotion of the medicine in Boston newspapers in 1876, and her son attached his mother’s picture to the product. Thus was born modem advertising. Mrs. Pinkham was popular with her female followers for her feminist bent, and for the fact that she encouraged them to write her for advice. An analysis of the compound by the AMA in 1914 revealed it was 20 percent alcohol, with the rest made of vegetable extracts.
Women were attracted to Mrs. Pinkham because______.