Finding Aid for the J.W. Marsh Collection of Cancer Cure Ephemera Biomed.0481

Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections

Title: J.W. Marsh collection of cancer cure ephemera

Source: Joslin Hall

Identifier/Call Number: Biomed.0481

Physical Description: 1 unknown (1 collection)

Date (inclusive): 1876-1878

Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Language of Material: Materials are in English.

Unprocessed collection. Material is unavailable for access. Please contact Special Collections reference (spec-coll@library.ucla.edu) for more information.

Property rights to the physical objects belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

[Identification of item], J.W. Marsh Collection of Cancer Cure Ephemera (Collection 481). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.

Purchased from Joslin Hall from the Franklin E. Murphy, M.D. Fund, 2017.

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

UCLA Catalog Record ID: 8179800 

"A small collection of late 19th century ephemera promoting cancer and other patent cures, all sent to Dr. J.W. Marsh of Manchester Center, Vermont. Marsh was a member of the Eclectic Medical Society; he joined in 1896 and was listed as Vice President of the Vermont Chapter in 1900. Eclectic medicine founded by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque [1784- 1841], a botanist and professor at Transylvania University. He based the practice partly on the Native and early American use of medicinal plants, combined with other natural substances and physical therapy, and wrote, lectured, and (of course) sold his own medicines. The practice gathered steam in the 1830s and 1840s and peaked in the 1880s and 90s. This collection includes: *2 sided trade card of Dr. A.H. Brown of New Haven, 'Cancers Successfully Removed without the use of knife or caustics' -- 2-sided printed letter, dated in ink February 16, 1876 and signed by Brown, enclosing a sample box of a compound for curing cancer and including directions -- handwritten letter on the stationary of Dr. S.P. Stoddard of New York City, dated March 9, 1878, explaining he is going 'west for a few months to work on some cases but his compounds will be shipped as usual from his office -- a handwritten letter on Dr. Stoddard's stationary dated March 27, 1878, discussing a compound he is sending -- an 1876 3-page brochure for Dr. Stoddard's 'Haemorrhoids and Piles' treatment, available at his offices in New York, ('competent lady assistant for females'), at great length and with much use of dramatic typefaces..."--Bookseller's description, 2017.