Lydia Pinkham

The Face That Launched a Thousand Ads

Sammy R. Danna

Lydia Pinkham was one of the 19^th century’s most remarkable businesswomen, her influence spreading beyond the late 1800s and her native New England. A champion of equal rights for women and blacks at a time when such causes lacked widespread support, Pinkham was ahead of her time on other issues. Chief among them was the well-being of women struggling with serious health issues related to their menstrual cycles and other so-called “women weaknesses.” But as the teetotaling Pinkham and her namesake company soared to entrepreneurial heights by selling her patient relief in the guise of an alcohol-laced potion known as the Vegetable Compound, generations that followed have been left to wonder: Was she worthy of her female customers’ trust or just an opportunist?

In Lydia Pinkham: The Face That Launched a Thousand Ads, historian Sammy R. Danna offers the latest book-length biography that explores all sides of the Lydia Pinkham phenomena. Danna illustrates how remarkable an American historical figure she was, who with associates masterfully used and reinvented the marketing tools of her day, while battling the misogyny of the medical establishment. But Danna also asks whether she was just a grandmotherly version of the pitchmen who roamed from town to town with their snake oil elixirs. Students and scholars in the fields of women’s studies, American culture, and the histories of medicine, advertising, and business will see Lydia Pinkham in a new light.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 146 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-0-8108-8908-8 • Hardback • March 2015 • $116.00 • (£89.00)

978-0-8108-8909-5 • eBook • March 2015 • $110.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Women, Biography & Autobiography / Business, History / United States / 19th Century, Business & Economics / Advertising & Promotion

Lydia Pinkham

The Face That Launched a Thousand Ads

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Lydia Pinkham was one of the 19^th century’s most remarkable businesswomen, her influence spreading beyond the late 1800s and her native New England. A champion of equal rights for women and blacks at a time when such causes lacked widespread support, Pinkham was ahead of her time on other issues. Chief among them was the well-being of women struggling with serious health issues related to their menstrual cycles and other so-called “women weaknesses.” But as the teetotaling Pinkham and her namesake company soared to entrepreneurial heights by selling her patient relief in the guise of an alcohol-laced potion known as the Vegetable Compound, generations that followed have been left to wonder: Was she worthy of her female customers’ trust or just an opportunist?

In Lydia Pinkham: The Face That Launched a Thousand Ads, historian Sammy R. Danna offers the latest book-length biography that explores all sides of the Lydia Pinkham phenomena. Danna illustrates how remarkable an American historical figure she was, who with associates masterfully used and reinvented the marketing tools of her day, while battling the misogyny of the medical establishment. But Danna also asks whether she was just a grandmotherly version of the pitchmen who roamed from town to town with their snake oil elixirs. Students and scholars in the fields of women’s studies, American culture, and the histories of medicine, advertising, and business will see Lydia Pinkham in a new light.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 146 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-0-8108-8908-8 • Hardback • March 2015 • $116.00 • (£89.00)

978-0-8108-8909-5 • eBook • March 2015 • $110.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Women, Biography & Autobiography / Business, History / United States / 19th Century, Business & Economics / Advertising & Promotion

Author

Sammy R. Danna is professor emeritus of communication at Loyola University Chicago and the author of more than 90 articles, book chapters, and monographs. He is also researching and writing on the soda fountain’s role in America history.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: A Family Rises in Times of Fortune and Despair 1
Chapter 2: Lydia Stands Up, Stands Out
Chapter 3: Of Bloodletting and Poisons
Chapter 4: Of Patent Medicines, Abuses and All
Chapter 5: The Compound Takes Root
Chapter 6: Portrait of a Woman Who Led the Way
Chapter 7: In Death, Lydia Still Lights the Way
Chapter 8: The 1890s, Years of Triumph and Turmoil
Chapter 9: The Gospel, According to Lydia
Chapter 10: Attack of the Muckrakers, an Industry Under Siege
Chapter 11: Times Change, but the Compound Lives On
Chapter 12: Call Her Good, Call Her Bad, Call Her a Success
Index
Bibliography
About the Author

Lydia Pinkham

The Face That Launched a Thousand Ads

Sammy R. Danna

Lydia Pinkham

The Face That Launched a Thousand Ads

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