Sarsaparilla bottle fragment (Archaeological Find)
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Title:
Sarsaparilla bottle fragment
Description:
Hello, my name is Isaac Emerson and I am currently a first year student at Harvard College. I followed in my father’s footsteps by studying at Cambridge, although, right now I’m struggling to see myself earning my diploma. See, soon upon my arrival at Harvard I contracted dyspepsia, a common illness at the present. It coincided with my recent poor diet due to my family suffering from financial difficulties. Luckily I was able to obtain Sarsaparilla remedy from a doctor who regularly travelled to the college. However, I am worried that I’m not going to be able to afford this professional medical care and the expensive medicine for too much longer. The mother of the family generally provides routine health care, which has meant that the poorer students that I have met who have also fallen ill have been forced to return home so that they can be treated with less expensive home remedies.
As I writhed with the pain in my stomach last night, I reached for my Sarsaparilla bottle but knocked it over, smashing it in the process. The industry for medicine has become hugely profit driven. I can even see, from my bedroom window, an advertisement of a man sitting in a lavish chair, eating from fine porcelain while pouring Sarsaparilla into his glass! It seems like medicine is being made for the rich, not the sick these days.
Source:
Baker, Perry. "Patent Medicine: Cures and Quacks" Pilgrim Society and Pilgrim Hall Museum. http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/pdf/Patent_Medicine.pdf
Society for Historical Archaeology. "Medicinal/Chemical/Druggist Bottles" https://sha.org/bottle/medicinal.htm#Sarsaparilla
Object Name:
Sarsaparilla bottle fragment
Inventory Description:
Sarsaparilla bottle fragment
Peabody Number:
2016.29.807
Intrasite:
H932 Level 2
Depth:
67-96
Class 1:
Glass
Class 2:
Bottle Glass
Class 3:
Colorless bottle glass
Quantity:
1
Height (cm):
3.5
Width (cm):
4
Depth/Thickness (cm):
0.2