series on the W. W. Gavitt Medical Co., the firm was different than other patent medicine proprietors in that it relied on individual agents to sell their medicines rather than town drugstores or other traditional means. Therefore a good amount of their literature did not consist of testimonials as did so many other patent medicine firms, but rather their literature was devoted to appeal to folks to become agents.Below, then, are typical inserts of company correspondence related to those appeals.
The next post will feature actual correspondence from some of their agents in small towns across America.
Enjoy!
I think some of these salesmen from the 1860s have been reincarnated today. Advertising has many similar attributes through the centuries;)
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