Brandreth Pill Factory Documents,
1863-1900
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Dr. Benjamin Brandreth's Certificate of Agency, 1863
Allcock's Porous Plasters Poster, ca. 1885
Photograph of Women Packing Pills at the Factory, ca. 1900
In 1836 Benjamin Brandreth built the Brandreth Pill Factory along the Hudson River in Ossining (then known as Sing Sing). There his patent medicine products were manufactured and distributed until 1979. Brandreth’s pills were sold throughout the United States and, eventually, all over the world. The Certificate of Agency was meant to guarantee that the products sold at a particular agency were genuine Brandreth products.
One of the reasons for Benjamin Brandreth’s enormous success was that he was an early and vigorous proponent of advertising, as the Allcock’s Porous Plasters poster suggests. The black-and-white photograph shows women workers packing pills into Brandreth’s distinctive tins at the Pill Factory around 1900.