PINKHAM, LYDIA ESTES

Lydia Estes Pinkham (1819–1883) was a life-long resident of Lynn, Massachusetts. In 1875 she became a successful businesswoman by marketing a homemade herbal remedy known as Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound. By spiking a combination of two herbs with a generous dose of alcohol, Lydia Pinkham produced a bottled remedy for women. Promoting it was a cure for "female complaints," she took advantage of the advertising media available to her. Her remedy was an immediate success and one of the earliest products made for female consumers. At the time of her death the business was grossing $300,000 per year, a large sum for her day. The business continued to thrive, and Pinkham's remedy was purchased by generations of American women.

Lydia was the tenth child in a Quaker family of twelve. Born into middle class circumstances, she graduated from Lynn Academy and became a schoolteacher. Taking after her parents, champions of the anti-slavery movement and other reform, Lydia was a passionate social crusader. As a young student she was involved in the women's suffrage movement and was a member of the Lynn Female Anti-Slavery Society. She never gave up her support for women's right to obtain a medical education.

At one point her family ran into financial problems because of her husband's failed business ventures. Pinkham began to market the homemade herbal remedies for women that she had privately produced for years, several of which were based on Native American lore. One of her remedies was very popular among neighbors, and was in demand. She aggressively labeled her product "A Sure Cure for PROLAPSIS UTERI or Falling of the Womb, and all FEMALE WEAKNESSES, including Leucorrhea, Painful Menstruation, Inflammation, and Ulceration of the Womb, Irregularities, Floodings, etc." Her product was patented in 1876, and included false unicorn root, true unicorn root, life root, black cohosh, pleurisy root, and alcohol. By the 1890s it was the most widely advertised over-the-counter patent medicine in America.

Pinkham was an ardent believer in the powers of her remedy and made many promises to her customers in her advertising. She marketed directly to women because she believed only women could understand female health problems.

Pinkham's desire to become a businesswoman involved more than just the need to make money for supporting her family. She also hoped to reform medicine and reduce the needless suffering she felt male doctors often caused their female patients. Pinkham believed her remedy, in addition to diet and exercise, was an effective alternative to medical treatment.

Focusing on women's needs and pursuing a massive advertising campaign including church newspapers, the front pages of commercial newspapers, leafleting in theaters and parks, and a smiling picture of the maternal Pinkham on every label, Lydia Pinkham marketed one of the most successful women's products ever created. She became one of the first role models for American businesswomen—she was successful, she embraced the model of motherhood, and she showed how social reform and business could work successfully together. Lydia Pinkham died in 1883.

See also: Advertising

FURTHER READING

Burton, Jean. Lydia Pinkham is Humane. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1949.

Dictionary of American Medical Biography, s.v. "Pinkham, Lydia Estes."

Encyclopedia of American Biography, 2nd ed., s.v. "Pinkham, Lydia Estes."

Pinkham, Lydia E. Lydia E. Pinkham's Private Textbook. Lynn: Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine, n.d.

Stage, Sarah. Female Complaints: Lydia Pinkham and the Business of Women's Medicine. New York: Norton, 1979.