A small booklet with a surprisingly ambitious mission: teach history and fix your digestion.
This early 1900s promotional pamphlet from Dr. Miles Medical Company disguises itself as a lesson in famous military victories — Saratoga, Sherman’s March, Appomattox — but tucked between the battlefields are glowing endorsements for Dr. Miles’ famous Liver Pills and Laxative Tablets.
Apparently the road to historical enlightenment runs straight through the medicine cabinet.
These clever little booklets were handed out by druggists more than a century ago as advertising you might actually keep and read. Today they survive as wonderfully odd pieces of patent medicine marketing and antique paper ephemera.
Proof that even in 1910, companies knew the secret to good advertising:
Give people something interesting… then sell them a remedy.
