Rosie's Ramblings

March 3, 2000

Hello Out There,

Boy did I ever open a can of worms when I wrote about Lydia Pinkham last month. One visitor very kindly reported to me that my story was not quite right.

He wrote:

"Those items were not promotional (other than the fact that nothing put out by the company failed to have an advertisement for the company and most often had the ubiquitous portrait of Lydia herself). When Bill Gove took over as second vice president of the company in the 1910's, he added a twist to the advertising scheme of the company. As many as three titles of the "helpful" booklets were produced each year. By 1920 the printing (done by the company itself on the third floor) was producing 11 million copies. One million of these were mailed directly to rural areas where door-to-door distribution was impractical. The other ten million were mailed in bulk to local druggists who were contracted to arrange for door-to-door distribution. In order to check that they were in-fact being distributed, Gove inserted inside the back cover a questaionnaire to be filled out by the recipient. It asked such questions as: Where did you find this booklet? This way Gove could guarantee that distribution had occurred and that the booklets weren't just dumped on a counter. However, to make sure that the ladies would send in the questionnaire, a different free gift was offered in each title. None of the gifts were made by Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Co., but were purchased from many manufacturers. The needle case you have, I believe, was offered in the booklet titled "Home Dressmaking"(unfortunately these books were rarely dated). There were also two other sewing kits that came in a metal tube, with needle holder and spools of thread; of course with an advertisement embossed on the outside. The Lydia Pinkham Vegetable compound is actually still being made and sold! The company was sold to Cooper Laboratories in 1968. They closed the manufacturing plant in Lynn, Mass. and moved operations to Puerto Rico (close to the source of the ingredients), ceased all advertising, and concentrated on selling the compound to a fixed customer base of mostly elderly, black women in the Southern U.S. to a profit of $700,000 annually."

Thank you so much Mr. Rusch-Fischer for the additional information. I am sure you will want to visit his website at http://www.tribbler.com/tatman/.

My first addition of the month is a recent local find. It is an book advertising A. Seidensticker Jeweler and Optician of Hamilton, Ohio. Inside is a 1912 calendar and the cutest little "Betsy Ross" needle packet. The packet is so pretty that I've included an enlarged version of it in the picture. I wish I could report how it made its way from Hamilton, Ohio to Paducah, Kentucky, but I am afraid that story is lost. This needle book and another, "Worcester Salt", are on my new Advertising page. Advertising needle books are as a rule, not among my favorites. "A Seidensticker" is more appealing to me than "Worcester Salt", but that is just my personal preference. One advantage to needle book collecting is that there are many different kinds to collect.

I have also added a "World's Fair" page. This month it features an incomplete needle book from the Columbian Exposition along with a brief discussion of the 1893 extravaganza. I will be adding more to this page in the future.

Finally, be sure to see a personal favorite of mine, "Air Traveler", on the Horseshoe page. You can find the Horseshoe, Advertising, and World's Fair pages by clicking on "Rosie's Special Exhibits". A record number of people visited Rosie's this month--367! Keep your comments, questions, and offers (of needle books for sale) coming. I enjoy responding to all e-mail.

Happy Hunting,

Rosie

ps. Can you believe the Prima Ballerina horseshoe book sold for $148 on eBay this month?

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