William H. Helfand Collection, 1493-2006, bulk 1800-1900

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Summary

Creators:
Helfand, William H.
Abstract:
The William H. Helfand Collection contains more than 7,000 European and American prints and ephemera relating to health professions including medical, dental, and mental wellness. The materials date from the 1490s to the early 21st century and contain many social and political cartoons that satirize health practices and practitioners. Noted illustrators represented include French artists Honore Daumier, Gustave Dore, J. J. Grandville, and Emile Vernier; British caricaturists Thomas Rowlandson, George Cruikshank, and James Gillray; and the American cartoonist Thomas Nast.
Extent:
approximately 7,100 items
Language:
Primarily English and French.

Background

Scope and content:

The William H. Helfand Collection contains more than 7,000 European and American prints and ephemera relating to health professions including medical, dental, and mental wellness. The materials date from the 1490s to the early 21st century and contain many social and political cartoons that satirize health practices and practitioners. Noted illustrators represented include French artists Honore Daumier, Gustave Dore, J. J. Grandville, and Emile Vernier; British caricaturists Thomas Rowlandson, George Cruikshank, and James Gillray; and the American cartoonist Thomas Nast.

Materials are arranged geographically in four series: American, British, French, and Other and Unknown Origin. Approximately 2,500 items are cataloged individually, with title, date, artist, and type of print method provided (if known). Additionally, countries are provided (if known) for items in Series IV.

The collection contains materials as diverse as portraits, caricatures, goigs (Catalan prayer sheets), stamps, product advertisements, periodical illustrations, and many others. These items offer a wealth of information regarding medicine, health, pharmaceuticals, patent medicines, quacks and quackery spanning over five centuries, as well as social perspectives on both the practices and practitioners in these fields.

Biographical / historical:

William Helfand (1926-2018) was a scholar of the histories of medicine, pharmacy and art, and collector of prints and ephemera related to all three. He started his career working in his father's pharmacy about the same time he started collecting images, as he says, "of things medical." Unable to afford paintings, he bought prints, and then also began buying trade cards, posters, sheet music, bookplates, and any other paper bearing medical text and images. When he joined the multinational pharmaceuticals firm Merck & Company, his collecting continued. In his tenure at Merck he rose to senior vice president of international operations and spent a few years living in Paris, a desirable location for a young print collector.

Helfand was a Trustee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a member of the Board of the Library Company of Philadelphia, and a former president of the Grolier Club of New York. He held degrees in Chemical Engineering (University of Pennsylvania, 1948), Pharmacy (Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, 1952), and was awarded honorary degrees of Doctor of Humane Letters by the Albany College of Pharmacy, Union University in 1981, and Doctor of Science by the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science in 1976.

Helfand authored five books about his medical and pharmaceutical ephemera, including Pharmacy: An Illustrated History (with David Cowen, Harry N. Abrams, 1990) and The Picture of Health (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1991). He published a number of essays, monographs, and articles on the history of pharmacy and on prints, caricatures, posters, and ephemera relating to pharmacy and medicine and was featured in publications such as Pharmacy in History,Medical History,Revue d'Histoire de la Pharmacie, and other journals. Helfand's popular 2002 exhibit at the Grolier Club in New York City, "Quack, Quack, Quack: The Sellers of Nostrums in Prints, Posters, Ephemera and Books" was accompanied by a book of the same name. A 1995 exhibition of Helfand's material at the Philadelphia Museum of Art was titled "Potions, Pills, and Purges: The Art of Pharmacy," and another exhibition there entitled “Health for Sale: Posters from the William H. Helfand Collection” was also accompanied by a book of the same name.

In 1986 Helfand received the Pepys Medal of the Ephemera Society, London, for outstanding contributions to the field of ephemera studies. He also received the Kremers Award of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy in 1972, and the Urdang Medal for distinguished historical writing from the same organization in 1989. Helfand retired in 1987 after more than 33 years with Merck & Co., but continued to collect and write about prints, posters, and ephemera. In 2006 The Ephemera Society of America awarded Helfand its highest honor, the Maurice Rickards Medal, for his extraordinary accomplishments in promoting ephemera studies.

Acquisition information:
This collection was donated to the Huntington Library by William H. Helfand between December 2012 and September 2013.
Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in the following four series:

  • Series I. American
  • Series II. British
  • Series III. French
  • Series IV. Other countries and unknown origin

Items are arranged geographically and described in the following format:

  • Title. Date
  • Artist. Type of print. Country (when known and when applicable).

Items are housed individually in sleeves or folders, and are located in 110 boxes.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Note:

Finding aid last updated on October 10, 2018.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
Website