Research Resource Review #3 - "Research Solutions" Document Delivery Service

Several months ago I started a series on "Getting Research Done *There* from *Here*" (original post here) in which I provided reviews of some "pay-as-you-go" or subscription services I have used and continue to use in my research.

Previous reviews (and interviews with the proprietors) included:

Review #1 - CivilWarDocs.com (here)
Review #2 - D-Day Militaria (here)

Below is a review of another resource - "Research Solutions," a document delivery service - and as with the other reviews:

Review:

When it comes to interlibrary loan or article requests, I get really great service from my local public library (and have thanked them in the Acknowledgments of all my books!), but every now and then an occasion arises when I need something quickly or hard-to-locate, including journal or magazine articles, conference proceedings, etc.

In these instances a "Document Delivery Service" really helps. Some of the larger university libraries have services of their own. An example is ESTIS - a service of the University of Minnesota libraries or the University of Michigan's MARS service. They are helpful, and I have used them myself, but they are generally restricted to materials in their own collections.

Another alternative is a private document delivery service that has access to many institutions - academic and private - and a large number of documents, is timely, and affordable.

In this case, I happily recommend Research Solutions (website here), which I have been using for years now.



I like them because they have an easy-to-follow online ordering system; they offer some flexibility in timing ("Standard" = 2 business days; "Rush" = ASAP); they send updates via e-mail every step of the way (for example, they'll let you know very quickly if they don;t have access to the document); they can deliver a PDF directly via e-mail or a hard copy via post; and they are affordable ($15 for "Standard" requests and $25 for "Rush" requests). The best part is that whenever I need to, I can always talk to or e-mail a "human" and they are very friendly and helpful.

WHENEVER you are ordering documents from a service such as this, please keep several things in mind:

Copyright fees may be required...especially for recent material. Research Solutions will charge the copyright fee to the customer so that it is paid to the rights holder or to the Copyright Clearance Center. They have no control over the copyright fee; however - in the online ordering process - you can place a limit on the fee, and if the fee exceeds that limit they will not arrange for the document delivery until you authorize the higher charge or cancel the request (you can only cancel "Standard" requests).

There are additional page charges for longer documents...but Research Solutions page fees are very fair: the first 30 pages are included in the base charge and extra page are $0.25 per page. (they can even give you color copies at $2/page).

Access to documents...is where I find that Research Solutions excels...they have access to over 100,000,000 publications...I'll be the first to admit that they have sometimes "whiffed" but I can assure that is because - as a writer of history - I often ask for very old and obscure documents. Even then, they have helped me get copies of articles in:

Period (1800s) Medical Journals
"Obscure" Conference Proceedings
Niche/Regional Historical Journals
And Much More!

They state they fill over 90% of their requests and I am sure they have achieved that or better for me.

BEST OF ALL - while most of their requests are for medical, legal, technical, or scientific documents, THEY HAVE A SOFT SPOT IN THEIR HEARTS FOR HISTORIANS:

Research Solutions ...started in the spring of 2002, when [the founders] decided to start a document delivery service. Each had dealt with similar services and inter-library loan during their academic careers, and knew there was an opportunity to provide a better service than what was available. They wanted to create one that would not only retrieve the documents their clients needed, but would do so with great customer service.

They scraped together enough money to rent a cramped one-room office and pay for the internet, and started figuring out how to find clients. At first, they worked day-jobs while doing the leg-work of starting a business in the evenings. The long hours paid off when they received their first order: four articles about French armor. An amateur historian needed the articles for his studies and came across the company in his search. His hand-typed thank-you still hangs on an office wall.

Disclaimer: this was an unsolicted review. I received no compensation for this review or interview. I have been a customer of Research Solutions and happily endorse their service.

In Which I Connect "Footlong" Sandwiches and Victorian Pain Killers!

An interesting bit of business news has been on the wires the past few days regardinga dispute between the Subway chain of sandwhich shops and Casey's general stores over the use of the word "footlong" to describe their sandwiches. A summary of the dispute can be found in an excerpt from the UPI story below (full story here):

An Iowa store chain is suing Subway restaurants for the international chain's claimed exclusive rights to using the word "footlong" in promoting sandwiches.

Casey's General Stores of Ankeny [Iowa]...is challenging Subway for the right to use "footlong" on its signs and menus, the Des Moines (Iowa) Register reported Monday.

The lawsuit is asking the judge to rule "footlong" is a generic term that does not violate Subway's trademark. The suit also seeks unspecified damages for the "frivolous" claims made by Subway.

In the end, the question comes down to whether footlong is an adjective - describing any such sandwich - or a noun, describing Subway's (or Casey's, for that matter), sandwich in particular.

Well, as with so many things, you can put this in the "The-More-Things-Change-The-More-They-Stay-The-Same" category...and - befitting this blog - there is an interesting connection with 19th-century medicine!

So, here's the story:

One of the most popular quack/patent medicines of the Civil War era was Perry Davis' Pain Killer. Davis (1791-1862) - a Massachusetts grain mill operator - developed the formula for his medicine in 1839 and began to make and advertise it. He later moved to Providence, Rhode Island, and was joined by his son, Edmund, in the business. By theearly 1850s, Davis' "Pain Killer" was a great success, with sales in New England, Canada, and the explanding American West. Davis died in 1862, leaving the company in the direction of his son. As with many patent medicines, the Pain Killer claimed to remedy a variety of ills and was composed of a questonable mixture of alcohol, opium, camphor, myrrh, pepper, and other ingredients.

Now to the "footlong" connection!

Here is the beginning of a typical wartime (1862) newspaper ad for Davis' painkiller (notice the clever wartime "The Great Union Saver" tagline and the appeals to army sutlers and "every volunteer"!):


But notice also the end of the ad (after several column inches of claims and testimonials):


That's right...they took their name "Pain Killer" so seriously that the end of every advertisment warned other medicine makers of legal action for appropriating the name.

But they didn't stop there!

In 1861, they also published a pamphlet: A Short Treatise on the Law of Trade Marks: Interesting to Manufacturers and Merchants Generally. I have an original in my own collection of patent medicine ephemera.

I've put some a scan of the front cover from my booklet above; you can read the full text at Google Books (here).

In short, Perry Davis made the claim that "Pain Killer" was a new word:

"The name Pain-killer he adopted as the name of the medicine, and to denote his manufacture. It is a compound name, formed from two distinct words; was entirely original with Mr. Davis, and never before used by any other party. He adopted this as his trade mark, and his medicine has ever since been known in commerce as Pain-killer. The most common error, and one into which many have fallen in regard to the name Pain-killer, is the supposition that it is a name common in the English language, to which every one has a right, and that no party can, in law or equity, appropriate it to his exclusive use, as designating his medicine. The fact is not so, but wholly otherwise. The name was not known in the English language until formed by Mr. Davis, and by him applied to a medicine. Neither Webster nor Worcester mention it, nor any other authority that we have consulted."

The bulk of the book is a short history of trade marks - and more important - a summary of case law in Davis' favor (in the state courts, at least). The book ends with a polite - and not-so-subtle - warning to competitors:

"Although we are not desirous of entering into lawsuits with any one, yet we owe a duty to ourselves and to the public, and that duty is to protect our rights to the name Pain-killer, as our trade mark...For this purpose we have all the law and equity on our side. We have the will and disposition, if necessary, and we have the money. In short, we have every requisite necessary to protect.our rights, and we hereby give Notice that we shall prosecute, to the extent of the law, any party using the name Pain-killer in any way as applied to a medicine. The law provides for the protection of our rights, and we must apply it when other and more agreeable means fail. J. N. Harris & Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio, are duly authorized to use our name in the prosecution for any infringement."

In closing:

First, some additional research demonstrates this booklet was by no means the end of the story; other manufacturers - in America and abroad - sought their own legal remedies to prevent solely Davis from using the term (noun!), arguing that it hurt their busines to not be able to describe (adjective!) their own medicines by the same term.

Second, this is also the reason why I am so fascinated by 19th-century patent medicines! The subject cuts across so many other areas: medicine, advertising, collecting, popular culture, philately, biography, invention, revenue, and the law! (and much more!)

Notre Dame and the Civil War Update!

Regular readers of this blog may be aware that I have another blog - "Notre Dame in the Civil War" - here.

I started the blog in late 2009 as I launched the research and writing for a book on that very subject; the book - Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory - was published just a few months ago by the great folks at The History Press, who will also be publishing the Galveston in the Civil War book mentioned in a previous post (here) on this blog.
I'm so pleased and honored that Notre Dame and the Civil War has garnered some very kind reviews (listed below). I'm especially pleased that the book has found a place among several different audiences: Civil War enthusiasts, Notre Dame alumni (bona fide and "subway"), people interested in Irish-American history, and people interested in the Catholic church - people and institutions - in American history. There's something for everyone!

If you visit the "Notre Dame in the Civil War" blog, you'll find excerpts from the book as well as lot of relevant material not in the book.

Here's a list of topics posted in the six-plus months (since my last update on this blog):

More Civil War Chaplain profiles! (here and here)

Cataloging Notre Dame's Student-Soldiers! (here and here and here and here and here and here)

"Fair Catch Corby"! (here and here)

1864 Elections - Notre Dame Style! (here)

Irish Brigade Civil War Artifacts at Notre Dame (here and here and here and here)

Other Universities Commemorate Their Civil War Heritage! (here)

and...

REVIEWS of Notre Dame and the Civil War:

Civil War Librarian (Rea Andrew Redd) (here)
Almost Chosen People/The American Catholic (Don McClarey) (here)
Confederate Book Review (Robert Redd)(review and interview!) (here)
Irish in the American Civil War (Damian Shiels) (here)
South Bend Tribune Feature (Howard Dukes) (here)

THANKS FOR ALL OF THE SUPPORT!

I'll be giving talks on the book to the Woodlands (TX) civil War Round Table in May 2011 and the St Louis (MO) Civil War Round Table in October 2011...if you think your organization would like to hear a talk on this topic, please feel free to contact me (e-mail: schmidtjamesm at gmail dot com). It makes a great topic for all kinds of groups:

Civil War Round Tables
Notre Dame Clubs
Church Men's Groups
and more!

A New Book Project: Galveston, Oh Galveston! (and the Civil War)

Galveston, oh Galveston,
I still hear your sea waves crashing
While I watch the cannons flashing
I clean my gun and dream of Galveston

Glen Campbell's song, "Galveston," was released in 1969 and reached the Top 10 on the US charts and the Top 20 on the UK charts.

Songwriter Jimmy Webb - who also penned "Up, Up and Away", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman", and "MacArthur Park," in addition to "Galveston" - has commented that the song is about a young soldier in Vietnam, yearning for home and the girl he left behind, and - perhaps - contemplating his own mortality:

Galveston, oh Galveston, I am so afraid of dying
Before I dry the tears she's crying
Before I watch your sea birds flying in the sun
At Galveston, at Galveston

It's a beautifully written song, and one can imagine a soldier in almost any war having the same thoughts...including the Civil War.

I'm pleased, honored, and humbled that The History Press - publisher of my recent book Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory - saw fit to extend me a contract for a new book project, tentatively entitled Galveston and the Civil War: An Island People in the Maelstrom.

Galveston is probably best known for the "Battle of Galveston," the New Year's Day 1863 land and naval battle in which Confederate forces expelled Union forces occupying the city.

There are some good books about the battle already, most especially Edward Cotham's excellent Battle on the Bay (1998). At his (always) excellent Civil War Books and Authors blog, Drew Wagenhoffer has a list of "The Civil War in Texas in 20 Books," a few of which also discuss Galveston's role in the war.

My goal in writing the book is to - of course - cover the battle, but to especially describe wartime life for the people of Galveston, free and enslaved.

Galveston is a little more than an hour away from my home in the suburbs north of Houston, and I look forward to the first (soon!) of several visits to the Galveston and Texas History Center, home to a wealth of manuscripts, photographs, vertical files, and ephemera.

I'll keep you updated on my research and writing on this blog. The manuscript is due on or before July 1, 2012, but you know how quickly time flies!

And now, to borrow a phrase from the old Saturday Night Live Sketch:

Now is the time on Sprockets (Civil War Medicine and Writing) when we dance (or sing):

Flatulence is Not a Laughing Matter - Chamberlain's Colic Remedy - Part III

Okay, to finish up a 3-part series on "Chamberlain's Colic Remedy" (previous posts here and here), below you will find images from a 16-page pamphlet of short stories, c. 1910, published by the Chamberlain Medicine Co.

The pamphlet was only one of many advertising vehicles used by the patent medicine industry. As James H. Young stated in his excellent book, Toadstool Millionaires:

"Public attention was assaulted by hundreds of other weapons employed by the nostrum maker. There were the ubiquitous almanacs, and the omnipresent roadside signs. There were joke-books, cook-books, coloring books, song-books, and dream-books. There were handbill ballads, like "Nellie and Her Lover" for Bliss Cough Syrup, and "The Musquitoe's Lament" for Perkins' Infallible Aromatic and Disinfecting Pastile. The Robber's Roost; or, Last Victim, boosting Herrick's Sugar Coated Pills, was a rip-roaring paperback tale set west of the Mississippi with lots of gunfire and a gal. In issuing a Moral Story, the makers of Hood's Sarsaparilla had perhaps an even better idea, for it was very like a Sunday School paper. At the other extreme was the suggestive pamphlet with titillating title, Married at Last, circulated by a consumption cure. There were pill-filled paper weights and decorated porcelain: Mrs. Grover Cleveland appeared on a china platter advertising a kidney and liver cure. Thousands of small cards were brought out in series, and the collector had his choice of dozens of themes, sentimental, athletic, poignant, comic, historical, floral, biographical, or even combinations, like the amusing caricatures of baseball players who "played" for Merchant's Gargling Oil of Brockport, New York. (In nearby Rochester a real baseball club, the Hop Bitters, contested in the National Association. )

Nostrum literature was piled on the counters of drugstores and country general stores. It was delivered to the doorstep of the home. It was sent through the mail, sometimes to special lists of addresses secured from storekeepers and clergymen, some-times "run through the post office into every man's box." The patent medicine message might be encountered in mail order catalogs and in the back pages of new novels. Perhaps it was only in fiction that the nostrum gospel reached the end sheets and flyleaves of hotel Bibles, but one is tempted to wonder."

The images below are from the front cover, back cover, and representative pages of the inside of the pamphlet, carrying a mix of "short stories" and testimonials for Chamberlain medicines. My personal favorite is the contest for a prize for the best-written testimonial, with hints for a prize-winning letter!

Enjoy!

Flatulence is Not a Laughing Matter - Chamberlain's Colic Remedy - Part II

Following up on my previous post (here) about "Chamberlain's Colic Remedy," below are images from the package insert (c. 1930s) with instructions on how to use the medicine.

The most interesting thing about the insert is that instructions were given in eight (EIGHT!) different languages: English, Spanish, German, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, and Dutch!

Almost certainly the purpose was to allow for use by the growing immigrant populations in the United States in the early 20th century.

The English, Swedish, and Italian instruction images are provided below.

Instructions are given for different indications and for different age groups.

My next post will feature images from a "Chamberlain Medicine Co." "Short Stories" advertising booklet (c. 1910).

Enjoy!

Flatulence Is Not a Laughing Matter - Chamberlain's Colic Remedy - Part I

Here are some photos of the latest addition to my patent/quack medicine collection: Chamberlain's Colic Remedy (c. 1935). The medicine was introduced in the 1880s by the Chamberlain Medicine Co. of Des Moines, Iowa. It seems to have been sold into the 1940s.

There are several reports in the early 1900s to this medicine and it is not hard to se why. The ingredients included45% alcohol, ether, chloroform, and chlorbutanol (1930s)...earlier formulations included narcotics such as morphine. This troubling report appeared in the July 1906 issue of the Homeopathic Envoy:

"Up in Vancouver "Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera and Diarrhoea Remedy" was too much for a baby. The Vancouver World published the facts with the coroner's verdict in the case. The Chamberlain people then sent a defense to the World with a large advertisement which was refused. The medicine company then sued the newspaper for libel. The newspaper is now demanding and will probably get such legislative enactment as will in future control the sale of such dangerous medicines...Ella Clark went to the Insane Asylum at Mt. Pleasant in January, 1906. She was a morphine fiend and used the Chamberlain Colic Cure in large quantities. In Shelburne Falls, Mass., there is a man who began to take the same remedy for diarrhoea and now takes from two to four ounces nightly for its sedative effect and his doctor says he is a nervous wreck."

In my next post I'll include scans of the package insert.

Enjoy.