Who Was Lydia E. Pinkham?

 

 

     Snake oil? On the contrary, Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound actually relieved symptoms of menstrual cramps and menopause according to the testimony of thousands of women. Lydia E. Pinkham sold her medicine by mail order, and it was available at many drug stores. She faithfully corresponded by mail with her customers, and often used a customer's testimonial to advertise her product.
     The Cortland Standard carried a typical testimonial in an advertisement which appeared in the March 1, 1913 edition:


     "IN SUCH PAIN WOMAN TORE HER CLOTHES--
     "Testifies She Was Restored to Health by Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
     "Malone, N.Y. ,-- 'Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound has certainly done me a lot of good. I first heard of it when I was a girl and I always said that if I ever had female trouble I would take it.
     'I suffered from organic inflammation and would have spells when I would be in such pain that I would tear off my clothes. One day my husband got the neighbors in to see what the matter was but they could not help me. My first thought was for Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable compound and I sent my husband out for it and took it until I was entirely cured. I am a woman of perfect health and happiness came from Lydia E. Pinkham's medicine. You may rest assured that I do all I can to recommend your wonderful medicine to my friends.' Mrs. Fred Stone, Route No. 3, Malone, N.Y."

     The original recipe for Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound is found at the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health:
     Unicorn root (Aletris farinosa L.) 8 oz.
     Life root (Senecio aureus L.) 6 oz.
     Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa L.) Nutt.) 6 oz.
     Pleurisy Root (Asclepias tuberos L.) 6 oz.
     Fenugreek Seed (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) 12 oz.
     Alcohol (18%) to make 100 pints.

 

 

     Who was Lydia E. Pinkham?
     Lydia Estes Pinkham was born at Lynn, Massachusetts in 1819. She was educated at the Lynn Academy. By age sixteen, she had become an abolitionist and she joined the Lynn Female Anti-Slavery Society. In her lifetime, she would count Frederick Douglas as a friend.
     Lydia E. Pinkham was a herbalist who brewed home remedies. She used John King's American Dispensary as a source reference book.
     Her school teaching days ended when she married Isaac Pinkham in 1843. He was a shoemaker and he speculated in real estate. After the Panic of 1873, Isaac Pinkham was ruined financially. Stress from the ordeal impaired his health, and the family "fell upon hard times."
     Until this crisis emerged, Lydia had been selling her herbal medicine to neighbors, or was giving it away to help women with female complaints. Lydia and her children met the new family crisis by obtaining a patent for her vegetable compound medicine and marketing it aggressively. It quickly became one of the most popular medicines of the 19th century. A major part of her success was her business acumen to correspond with customers and write articles about herbal medicine for newspapers and magazines.
     After her death (stroke) in 1883, her family continued to market Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound. The herbal remedy for female complaints was processed in a factory at Lynn. It was a successful business, earning $300,000 gross in 1883 and as much as $3.8 million in 1925.
     The Pinkham family and staff continued to correspond with customers after Lydia's death. Most customers believed they were writing to her, and that her signed replies came from her. In 1905, the Ladies Home Journal published a photograph of Lydia's tombstone, and questioned the quality of the medicinal advice dispensed by the family business. 
     After the FDA was created, ingredients were listed on the bottle. The revelation, long suspected or already known by habitual users that alcohol was a substantial ingredient in the patented medicine, caused many women to stop using it. The company responded with medicine made of powder and pills and marketed them with the name Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound.
     The FDA never evaluated this herbal medicine but it did force an end to argumentative and spurious advertisements by the family business, such as "a cure for prolasus uteri." The family business was sold to Cooper Labs in 1968, after which pills under the name Lydia E. Pinkham continued to be sold. 
     In 2004, Numark Labs marketed a product called Lydia Pinkham's Herbal Compound. Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid carried it.

References:
 1) Wikipedia--Lydia Pinkham
 2) Cortland Standard, March 1, 1913 (pdf)
 3) Project Gutenberg--Treatise on the Diseases of Women by Lydia E. Pinkham
 4) Eskind Biomedical Library
 5) NNDB--Lydia Pinkham