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Lady Wildroot Cream Hair Dressing

National Museum of American History

Object Details

Wildroot Company
Description
Wildroot Hair Tonic was introduced by the Wildroot Company, Buffalo, N.Y., in 1911. Trademarked in 1932, the Wildroot brand was eventually bought out by Colgate-Palmolive in 1959. The hair tonic was primarily marketed as a dandruff remedy. Advertisements in the late 1940s and early 1950s asked, "Can your scalp pass the fingernail test?"
This bottle of Cream Hair Dressing is from 1951 through 1953. It was often featured in Nancy Sasser’s "Buy-Lines" and a similar newspaper shoppers’ column called "Jesse’s Notebook" by Jesse de Both. Advertisements suggest Wildroot stopped selling their Lady Wildroot Line around the mid-1950s.
This object is one of over 700 items from Glaser’s Drug Store of Sayre, Pennsylvania. In 1921, Simon Glaser (1860-1936), an immigrant from Russian Poland, established the drug store at 121 West Packer Avenue in Sayre, PA. His son, Sidney Glaser (1899-1992), soon joined him in the business and continued to operate the store until 1961. After retiring, Sidney Glaser retained thousands of products dating from the 1920s – 1960s, including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, personal care products, and vitamins, and donated many of them to the Smithsonian in 1985.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Sidney Glaser
ca 1951-1953
ID Number
1985.0481.322
catalog number
1985.0481.322
accession number
1985.0481
Object Name
hair dressing
hair care product
Physical Description
glass (container material)
plastic (container material)
paper (container material)
Measurements
overall: 3 7/8 in x 2 in x 3/4 in; 9.8425 cm x 5.08 cm x 1.905 cm
place made
United States: New York, Buffalo
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Medicine
Health & Medicine
Beauty and Hygiene Products: Hair Care and Enhancement
Beauty and Health
Hair Care Products
National Museum of American History
web subject
Hair Care Products
Record ID
nmah_1415537
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ad-921b-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Related Content

  • Cosmetics and Personal Care Products

    American History Museum
Lady Wildroot Cream Hair Dressing, front
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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