Digitalis Purpurea

Object Details

Lloyd Brothers

Description

This specimen is one of approximately 187 specimens of materia medica (crude drug material) representing plants introduced and employed by physicians of the Eclectic School of American practitioners. In the early 1920s, the Smithsonian developed three small exhibits on the so-called "alternative" schools of medicine: homeopathy, osteopathy, and eclectic medicine. In 1924, John Uri Lloyd (1849-1936) procured these specimens for the museum's eclectic medicine exhibit.

The Eclectic School, which emerged in the United States in the 1830s, arose from earlier botanical medicine movements and Native American herbal traditions. Practitioners primarily used plant-based drugs that were indigenous to the United States and developed a distinct "American materia medica." Lloyd Brothers, established in 1886 by brothers John Uri Lloyd, Curtis Gates Lloyd (1859-1926), and Nelson Ashley Lloyd (1851-1925), was a major supplier of quality botanical drugs for the eclectic physician.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Accession 71753 (1924); Gift of Lloyd Brothers; selected by Dr. John Uri Lloyd

ID Number

MG.M-01768

accession number

071753

catalog number

M-01768

Object Name

Crude Drug

Other Terms

Crude Drug; Materia Medica; Drugs; Vegetable; Leaf

Physical Description

foxglove (overall material)

Measurements

overall: 4 1/2 in x 2 in; 11.43 cm x 5.08 cm

place made

United States: Ohio, Cincinnati

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Medicine

National Museum of American History

Record ID

nmah_874117

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a6-eb9a-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa