Trade card:"Who Said 'Hood's Sarsaparilla'?"

Around the turn of the 20th century, these three healthy, cherubic faces tugged at the heartstrings of many mothers, urging them to buy Hood's sarsaparilla. Made from the roots of a tropical plant and known today as a soft drink, sarsaparilla originally earned its reputation as a medicine. Thought to cure sour stomachs, fevers, and headaches, among other ailments, Hood's was one of the many all-purpose patent medicines available in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In an age when medicine was unregulated and prescriptions were not required, one of the best ways to advertise a tonic was on a trade card. The development of chromolithography in the 1860s led to an explosion of trade cards in the United States, and elaborate, colored designs and lengthy product descriptions became the norm. Given away, often with free samples, trade cards became fashionable collectibles as well as important advertising pieces. Charles I. Hood, whose sarsaparilla was a national best-seller, established his own drugstore in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1870 and became known, thanks to his trade cards, as a prolific advertiser.