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Original 1913–1914 San Francisco prescriptions, still mounted on large scrapbook pages, including official U.S. Navy Medical Department stationery, Southern Pacific Sunset Express letterhead, and multiple heroin, morphine, codeine, and chloroform formulas written just before and as the Harrison Narcotics Act took effect. Numerous doctors/surgeons and pharmacies are featured.
Named physicians and standout slips
Dr. Ethel Petheram (1881–1948), a woman physician born in Iowa and practicing in California by 1913. She married Hans Jauchen in San Francisco on 4 August 1917 and died in San Francisco in 1948. Two slips in this lot are associated with her, including No. 1031, dated 14 September 1913: “One tube of Heroin 1/8 gr.” Heroin was then a legal, routinely prescribed medicine. The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was signed in December 1914 and took effect in March 1915.
Official N.M.S. Medical Department, U.S. Navy form dated 22 May 1914, tincture of digitalis in capsules, signed Reynolds Hayden, Surg., U.S.N. Hayden later served as a Navy captain and commanded the Naval Hospital at Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Southern Pacific Sunset Express (San Francisco and New Orleans) letterhead prescription for sodium salicylate, signed Jno. J. Gaynor, 1914. Named-train stationery used by a traveling physician; not an official railroad medical service.
Pharmacies and letterheads
San Francisco drugstore paper includes Geary Street Pharmacy, 599 Geary Street at Jones (Prospect 1686); Lengfeld’s Prescription Pharmacies, 272 Post Street near Stockton and 1604 Fillmore Street near Sutter; Bowman Drug Co., corner of J and Mariposa; and S. A. McDonnell & Son, Geary and Powell, opposite the St. Francis Hotel, among others.
Other printed headings include Dr. L. I. Breitstein (Schroth Building / 1592 Washington Street), Dr. James Eaves (City of Paris Building), Chas. Clark, M.D. (Pacific Building; residence 1158 Scott Street), Dr. George S. Snyder (901 Stanyan Street), D. Brandley Mire, M.D. (948 Market Street), and Dr. Arthur H. Reinstein.
Formulas represented
Heroin, morphine sulphate, codeine sulphate, chloroform, tincture of digitalis, veronal, methylene blue, creosote, hyoscyamus, belladonna, quinine, cascara, sodium salicylate, zinc and alum preparations, Jamaica rum / bay rum / alcohol hair tonic, and ordinary elixirs, liniments, and capsules. Pharmacy file numbers and period prices (often 35¢–85¢) remain visible on many slips.
Condition
Pages are age-toned, foxed, and worn at the edges, as expected for working 1913–1914 pharmacy paper. Slips are permanently mounted and have not been soaked or lifted, save for two that are loose. Some overlapping, some torn corners.
