Retro Adverts are the Best

WB Nuform Corset – 1883

Dr. Lancaster’s Dispensary promises cures for STDs and hemmeroids, as well as sore throat and a hose of other serious side effects of excess sexual activity.

Old newspapers are fascinating. When world events get me down, I read old newspapers for bad news from the past. Then, I collect all the old advertisements I can.  This corset ad is fairly straightforward. It appeared in the Courier Journal (Louisville Kentucky) November 28, 1905.

The Mormon Elder’s Damiana Wafers purport to, “restore those weakend by early indiscretions” and to cure impotency.  The provoacative drawing and the brand’s allusion to well known polygymists conjures up the promise of a cure for STDs and a remedy for the self-induced ills of self-abuse, which was thought to cause permanent harm. It also suggests performance enhancement secrets known only to men with multiple wives. From the Courier Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) in November 1883.