HISTORY
of the
COMSTOCK PATENT MEDICINE
BUSINESS
and Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills
BY
Robert B. Shaw
Associate Professor, Accounting and History
Clarkson College of Technology
Potsdam, N.Y.
SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY NUMBER22
COVER: Changing methods of packaging Comstock remedies overthe years.—Lower left: Original packaging of the IndianRoot Pills in oval veneer boxes. Lower center: The glass bottlesand cardboard and tin boxes. Lower right: The modern packagingduring the final years of domestic manufacture. Upper left: TheIndian Root Pills as they are still being packaged anddistributed in Australia. Upper center: Dr. Howard's ElectricBlood Builder Pills. Upper right: Comstock's Dead Shot WormPellets.
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Shaw, Robert B., 1916—
History of the Comstock patent medicine business and of Dr.Morse's Indian Root Pills. (Smithsonian studies in history andtechnology, no. 22)
Bibliography: p.
1. Comstock (W.H.) Company. I. Title. II. Series: SmithsonianInstitution. Smithsonian studies in history and technology, no.22.
HD9666.9.C62S46 338.7'6'615886 76 39864
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Official publication date is handstamped in a limitednumber of initial copies and is recorded in the Institution'sannual report, Smithsonian Year.
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office Washington, D.C. 20402—Price 65 cents(paper cover) Stock Number 4700-0204
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| Comstock FamilyTree |
History of the Comstock Patent Medicine Business and ofDr. Morse's Indian Root Pills
For nearly a century a conspicuous feature of the smallriverside village of Morristown, in northern New York State, wasthe W.H. Comstock factory, better known as the home of thecelebrated Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. This business nevergrew to be more than a modest undertaking in modern industrialterms, and amid the congestion of any large city its fewbuildings straddling a branch railroad and its work force ofseveral dozens at most would have been little noticed, but in itsrural setting the enterprise occupied a prominent role in theeconomic life of the community for over ninety years. Aside fromthe omnipresent forest and dairy industries, it represented theonly manufacturing activity for miles around and was easily thelargest single employer in its village, as well as the chiefrecipient and shipper of freight at the adjacent railroadstation. For some years, early in the present century, thecompany supplied a primitive electric service to the community,and the Comstock Hotel, until it was destroyed by fire, served asthe principal village hostelry.
But the influence of this business was by no means strictlylocal. For decades thousands of boxes of pills and bottles ofelixir, together with advertising circulars and almanacs in themillions, flowed out of this remote village to druggists inthousands of communities in the U