Patent Medicines

I think that I have found an interesting topic. Glen, a retired chemistry teacher, was cataloguing our patent medicine collection. Glen is thorough—picky even. He read each inclusion within the packaging of each medication and he was blown away with some of the ingredients in these things. At the recent B.C.M.A. convention (in Osoyoos) in the display design workshop, we used this exhibit as the basis for designing a really flashy exhibit complete with “snake-oil salesman” voice over and projected flashing ingredient labels. I know that this fantasy exhibit (we called it ‘Not to be Taken Internally’) is never going to happen but I thought that some of these inclusions might be interesting to share. Blogging about them is just about the only way that I can do this because they are inside cardboard boxes which are in a static display inside a locked glass case. So, next week, when I am back at the museum, I will get started.