Africa
Helmbold’s Extract of Buchu
Read all about the herb buchu and its medicinal merchandising here.One of the most (in)famous protagonists was Henry T. Helmbold (1826–1892), who started his patent medicine business in 1846 as a retail druggist with “Helmbold’s Extract Buchu—cures diabetes, gravel, brick-dust deposits, irritations of the bladder and diseases arising from exposure or imprudence, etc.” and other medicines. He opened his first store in Philadelphia in 1850, the largest and best-known in New York in 1862. By 1865 Helmbold’s buchu was the bestselling patent medicine on the US market. For this, he spent enormous amounts of money on advertising, mostly in newspapers: ∼US$ 500,000 (about 10 million US$ today) each for the years 1869–71. For the distribution of his products, Helmbold had his own 4c postage stamp (Figure 4) (The Historian, 1912; Young, 1961).
The Hottentot ad is for Helmsbold's product. It has three more pages, viewable here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri May 10, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Africa, Nineteenth Century
RIP Pigcasso
The artist's Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 08, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Art, Obituaries, Africa, Natural Wonders
Starship Africa
Your opinions solicited.The rest of the album, as a playlist, is here.
The Discogs page.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 15, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Music, Space-age Bachelor Pad & Exotic, 1980s, Africa, Caribbean
Miss Albinism of Kenya, 2018
BBC coverage here.
I cannot find any evidence that the contest continued in subsequent years.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 10, 2021 -
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Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Human Marvels, Africa
Servant carried in trunk
"Goodness knows the trunk is big enough. It's big enough for two."
Red Deer Advocate - Mar 31, 1969
Posted By: Alex - Mon Aug 02, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: 1960s, Africa, Cars
A Dummy Goes to Africa
Unfortunately, the book is not digitized, and original copies go for big bucks. But you can see more pics and read an account of the tale at the link.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Jul 21, 2021 -
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Category: Puppets and Automatons, Religion, Books, 1960s, Africa
Jungle Yachts
Our hero's Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Tue May 05, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Explorers, Frontiersmen, and Conquerors, Motor Vehicles, Africa
Shame of the Jungle
Cartoon nudity.The Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 21, 2018 -
Comments (1)
Category: Sexuality, Cartoons, 1970s, Africa, Europe
Land of Islam
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 10, 2017 -
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Category: Foreign Customs, 1930s, Africa, Middle East
Refrigerated Camels
Instead of using refrigerated trucks to deliver medical supplies to people who live in the deserts of Africa, inventors have built solar-powered refrigerators that can be carried by camels, and so the medicines are delivered via refrigerated camel.Apparently it wasn't that easy to build a camel-carried refrigerator. It had to be lightweight, but also sturdy enough to survive the motion of being on the camel as well as the extreme desert conditions.
More info: ABC News, inhabitat.com
Posted By: Alex - Wed May 31, 2017 -
Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Inventions, Medicine, Transportation, Africa
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