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JEREMAH CURTIS & BENJAMIN A. PERKINS: BITTERS & MEDICINE In 1848 Jeremah Curtis and Benjamin A. Perkins would become partners in a medical business. The business was located at No. 1 West End Kepduakong Bridge Banger, Maine. The business was called Curtis & Perkins Proprietors. By 1849 they started bottling Jeremah Curtis's mother-in-law Mrs. Charlotte N. Winslow's syrup which she compounded from sulfate or morphia, sodium carbonate, spirits fueniculi and aqua ammonia. Mrs. Winslow was a physician and a nurse for children for about 30 years. This medicine was made for infants and was named Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup. Below is a photo of this bottle. It is embossed. MRS. WINSLOW'S / SOOTHING SYRUP / CURTIS & PERKINS. The bottle is five inches tall and has an open pontil. This business also manufactured CURTIS & PERKINS / CRAMP & PAIN KILLER. Below are photos of their CURTIS & PERKINS / WILD CHERRY / BITTERS. The bottle is inches 6 5/8 tall and has an open pontil. At some point in the 1865 Jeremiah Curtis & Son had a limited partnership with John I Brown & Son to form Curtis & Brown. Below is a 34 page receipt booklet from J Curtis & J Brown from 1876.
Below is a trade card.
In time the name was changed to Anglo American Drug Company and was now run by J. Curtis and his son George N. Curtis. Below is a photo of a smooth base MRS. WINSLOW'S / SOOTHING SYRUP / CURTIS & PERKINS / PROPRIETORS / THE ANGLO AMERICAN DRUG CO. / SUCCESSOR TO. In 1911 the American Medical Association put out a publication called Nostrums and quackery. One section was called "Baby Killers" which incriminated Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup along with other medicines. The Lafayette Drug Co. from New Jersey, New Jersey was still manufacturing Mrs Winslow's Syrup and the pruduct was still being sold in 1945. The food and Drug Act of 1906 made them elimate the morphine from the contents. Also elimating the word smoothing from the bottle. References: Dr. Cannon Medicine chest articles. History of Drug Containors and their Lables by George Griffenhagen and Mary Bogard. Frank & Frank Jr. (Wicker) Bottle Collection. |
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