GB 0120 SA/WWP - The Widow Welch's Pills

2 boxes, 1 outsize item

GB 0120 SA/WWP 1787-1966 Collection (fonds) 2 boxes, 1 outsize item Members of the Kearsley family and business

Catherine Kearsley and her husband were printers and booksellers in London in the late eighteenth century. They began the commercial production of Widow Welch's Female Pills, which they claimed to have as a family recipe, in 1787. There seems to have been some contention over who was manufacturing the true Widow Welch's Recipe, since the collection includes a handbill claiming that Mrs Smithers, as the granddaughter of the Widow Welch was the only person entitled to the preparation. It continued to be a popular patent medicine until the company ceased trading in the late 1960s.

Purchased from David Bluett in November 2005.

Papers relating to The Widow Welch's Pills, 1787-1966, comprising records of C and G Kearsley Limited, London, manufacturers of The Widow Welch's Pills 'justly celebrated for all female complaints'. Including family material and business records.

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

English

1 outsize item

The Wellcome Library Ephemera Collection contains an early 20th century leaflet advertising Kearsley's Widow Welch's Pills.

Compiled by Anya Turner.

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

June 2008 Kearsley , Catherine , fl 1787 , printer, bookseller and remedy manufacturer Industry Manufacturing industry Social problems Quackery Systems of medicine Traditional medicine Pathology Diseases C and G Kearsley Ltd, patent medicine proprietors Female diseases

Purchased from David Bluett in November 2005.

Papers relating to The Widow Welch's Pills, 1787-1966, comprising records of C and G Kearsley Limited, London, manufacturers of The Widow Welch's Pills 'justly celebrated for all female complaints'. Including family material and business records.

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

• anglais

• latin

English

The Wellcome Library Ephemera Collection contains an early 20th century leaflet advertising Kearsley's Widow Welch's Pills.

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

• anglais