Brown glass bottle containing Lydia E. Pinkham's tablets, 72 tablets

Brown glass bottle containing Lydia E. Pinkham's tablets, 72 tablets, in original box with reorder slip, "New! Improved Formula", Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company, Lynn, Massachusetts, 1951-1959

Lydia E. Pinkham (1819-1883) was an American entrepreneur who turned her homemade herbal remedies into a thriving business. Born into an abolitionist Quaker family, she was an early advocate for women’s health, as well as their right to vote and engage in commercial activities. When her husband’s businesses failed in the 1870s, she began selling her “Vegetable Compound” as a remedy for all manner of “female complaints” ranging from menstrual cramps to infertility, menopause to a prolapsed uterus. What started in her kitchen grew into a major enterprise, generating nearly $300,000 annually by the time of her death.

Though dismissed as quackery by many in the medical profession, her products gained widespread popularity, boosted by effective marketing that highlighted their efficacy as being made by women for women.

The original recipe included herbal ingredients long used by indigenous peoples of North America to treat gynaecological complaints, including unicorn root for period pain, black cohosh for menopausal symptoms and life root as a uterine tonic for a range of conditions affecting the ovaries or uterus.

This bottle of tablets, dating from the 1950s, contains an “improved formula” consisting of iron, extract of Jamaica dogwood, pleurisy root and liquorice.