Cartoon: “A ‘Canteen’ Compromise" depicts Lydia Pinkham serving her patent medicine

Lydia Pinkham (1819-1883) was born into a prominent Quaker family in Lynn, Massachusetts. The economic recession of the 1870s forced Lydia to be enterprising, and she and her family made and marketed an herbal-alcoholic "women's tonic" for menstrual and menopausal problems. This appealed to those who sought an alternative to the "heroic" medicines of the era with their calomel (mercury-based) medicines, and the clinical focus on purging, blistering, and bleeding. With mass marketing beginning in 1876, "Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound" became one of the best-known patent medicines of the 19th century. The principal ingredient of Lydia Pinkham Vegetable Compound was 18% alcohol, with some herbs thrown in for good measure (White WA III. Just What the Doctor Ordered: Biochemical Analysis of Historical Medicines from Downtown Tucson, Arizona. Intl J Hist Archaeol 2021;25:515-43). (Source: Puck (magazine) 1906;59(1520), April 18. Courtesy of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Public domain.)