[Dr. B.J. Kendall’s Blackberry Balsam Broadsheet]

The Most Wonderful Remedy of the Age!

This eye-catching early 20th-century advertisement offers breathless promotion for Dr. B.J. Kendall’s patented medicine, Blackberry Balsam. The cure is marketing to sufferers of cholera, cholera morbus, dysentery, and ‘All Summer Complaints’ (seasonal gastrointestinal issues resulting from higher temperatures and greater food spoilage). Text reassures the audience that Cholera Infantum ‘need never be feared’, the product comes widely recommended by physicians, and to beware false imitators. According to one source, the balsam was comprised of nearly pure alcohol and five grains of opium per liquid ounce!

The Kendall Brothers & Company of Enosburgh Falls, Vermont, began in 1880, when Dr. B.J. Kendall erected a production facility and headquarters that still stands today. Kendall made his initial fortune by developing a remedy for bone spavin in horses (also referenced in the text) that he would market for human consumption. The passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 would spell doom for the drug-laced medicine manufacturer, who would ultimately succumb to addiction himself.

Undated, but likely issued c. 1905 due to the ’25 years’ mentioned near the center of the page. Printed by the Union Card Company of Montpelier, Vermont.

Sources: Sierra Sun; Vermont History; Seven Days Vermont;