Patent Medicine Receipts,Invoices, and Billheads - 1848-1900

Time to share some more items from my collection of 19th-century patent medicine ephemera!

Here are links to (just) some other items:

Dr. T. B. Cox's Stomach Restorative (here)
Subway Sandwiches and Victorian Painkillers (here)
Chamberlain's Colic and Flatulence Remedy (here)
Politics and Elections - Quack Medicine Style! (here)
Poor Man's Friend and Holloway's Ointment (here)
Civil War Era Patent Medicine Almanacs (here, here, and here)
That's What She Said! (Civil War Style) (here)
The Best Lincoln Book You've Never Read? (here)
Dr. Blosser's Catarrh Cigarettes (here)
Berry's Barb Beater (here)
and more!

Today I offer some patent medicine receipts, bill heads, and invoices...they can actually be quite instructive...they give an idea of the variety of medicines available...when raw ingredients are listed among invoices, prices can be compared across time periods and geography, etc...when a particular industry buys drugs, one gets an idea of the kind of therapies they require...and more!

Enjoy!

Below:

1) 1848 handwritten receipt of payment from Dr. S[eth] Arnold's Balsam from a "Rev. P. Start"...surely, the trusted minister was also a trusted man of medicine in the village?











2) 1861 invoice from P. D. Orvis's Wholesale Drug House, including an order for Herrick's Pills, Ayer's Pills, and other raw ingredients (including Bermuda arrow root)






















3) 1865 invoice and receipt of payment to and from Sterling Iron/Railway and the P. Schieffelin Drug House...note the purchase of Tobias Horse Liniment! Also note the revenue stamps on the invoice and the receipt!






































4) And my favorite, a 1900 "Lincoln Tea Co." receipt...you can read more about Lincoln Tea in previous posts (here, here, and here).