Barber Medicine company

[bostaurus]

Wondering if any one here has any bottles of Dr. Charles Newell Barber or Barber Medicine Company ? I would love to see some pictures. They are from Vermont, I believe and were probably label only.

 

[surfaceone]

Greetings Melinda,

I can see why you would be intrigued by ole CN. I found some words, but no images, don'tcha just hate that:

"An example of the road an early veterinarian took, is the story of Dr. Charles Newell Barber and his Barber Medicine Co. Charles Newell, or C.N. as he came to be known, was born on a farm in Barre, Vt., in 1852, attended public schools and worked on his father’s farm. His early work with cows prompted his desire to become a veterinarian. According to the 1892 Vermont Historical Gazetteer, when C.N. "came of age," he traveled to Manchester, N.H., where he held a "preceptorship" (an apprenticeship) under Dr. Alexander, a noted veterinary surgeon. Later, C.N. returned to Barre and established his own practice. In the 1894 Historical Souvenir of Barre, he is listed as a dairy farmer, auctioneer and practicing veterinary surgeon. He had a large practice in both Vermont and New Hampshire, was a justice of the peace, town auditor, grand juror, and was elected to the state legislature in 1900.

Soon after the turn of the century, he established the Dr. Barber Medicine Co. In an advertising booklet, he wrote, "After over thirty years of painstaking study and practice, marked with singular success, Dr. Barber presents his remedies to the public." As with other animal doctors’ products, his medicines were originally called "cures," and later "remedies."

For a small company, Barber produced a significant number of remedies – 19 for horses and six for cows. Along with the standard Spavin (one of two diseases affecting the hock joints of horses), Colic and Heave Cures, he produced Lymphangitis Cure, Opthalmia Remedy and an Appetizing Tonic (an appetite stimulant). Bovine remedies included Cure for Barrenness, Remedy to Remove Placenta and more." From.

"Dr. Barber did produce a surprising number of medicines for a small company. Nineteen remedies for horses and six for cows were manufactured. Along with the standard Spavin, Colic, and Heave Cures, he produced such unusual remedies as Lymphangitis Cure, Ophthalmia Remedy, and an Appetizing Tonic. He offered several medicines for cows which, to my knowledge, are rare if not unique to the field of veterinary patent medicines. His cow remedies included: Cure for Barrenness, Remedy to Remove Placenta, and Remedy to Relieve Stoppage and Bloat in Cows. Certainly some interesting cures, which I am sure, can be traced back to Dr. Barber's lifelong work with dairy cows.

From the collector point of view, these medicines are considered very uncommon. In over 15 years of collecting and visiting many outstanding collections, I have seen only a handful of Dr. Barber products." From this guy. Have you contacted him?

There's something in the Verfmont State Archives, but I'll be darned if I can access it. Good luck on your quest.

 

[saratogadriver]

I THINK Mom has something from this guy in her VT collection. I've emailed her and asked her to send me pics of anything she has. I remembered it being a vet remedy before I read the detailed info in the second post, so I'm pretty sure it's there.

I'll post pic/s if I get same.

Jim G

 

[bostaurus]

Thanks guys.. I like that Baum's ..there is one on eBay right now but not in as good shape.
Jim..does you mom collect VT in general?

 

[saratogadriver]

ORIGINAL: bostaurus

Thanks guys.. I like that Baum's ..there is one on eBay right now but not in as good shape.
Jim..does you mom collect VT in general?

Yep, although she's slowly phasing out the basic pharmacy bottles, unless they are from her area. We started with the pharmacy bottles back in the 70's, and have been collecting since. She has most of the good VT bottles, except for the stuff from Stoddard, which we could never afford. She has some interesting pieces (read, Sir Edgar's English Life bitters from Rutland VT for example). I too collected VT, until I moved to PA. Now I collect inks (as does my father).

Jim G

 

[bostaurus]

I started out the pharmacy/chemist too. Well, I started out with just about everything that I could get cheap. Decided to pare down after I got married. I had some nice pharmacy bottles so decided to keep that part of the collection and, since my husband was in Vet School at the time, keep the few vet meds I had. There was no time, or money,for collecting in the years that followed. That was well over 20 years ago. Now I am back to collecting and concentrating on the vet side of collecting. Every so often I see some vet med I would love to have and, for a split second, think about selling of some of the pharmacy bottles. it may happen one day.
I have sold some stuff in the past that I wish I still had now. I had a big iron pontiled umbrella ink that I traded for a vet bottle about 20 years ago. It was a fairly common vet bottle and I did not know the real value if the ink. Live and learn.

 

[saratogadriver]

She has two. The pics of them aren't the greatest, particularly the one, and I'm not sure I can make this work from work, but lets see.

 

[saratogadriver]

Well, it worked, so here's the other one, where the pic is a bit clearer

 

[bostaurus]

Wonderful. Now I know what to look for. That is a very interesting lip in that bottle.

 

[saratogadriver]

ORIGINAL: bostaurus

Wonderful. Now I know what to look for. That is a very interesting lip in that bottle.

They'll be both BIM. Mom doesn't collect machine made, with rare exceptions. I remember them being fairly late BIM though, turn of the century form.

We started out by digging dumps when I was a kid. We all had a bit of everything, until we started settling down to VT bottles about the time we stopped digging (ran out of places) and started buying. It was amazing what you could get for fifty cents at a garage sale back in the 70's. I once hit a sale where I bought 4 pontiled labeled blacking bottles, of an odd form, for 1.50 each. Along with two labeled pontiled inks, and some great local meds. All the same. SOmeone had raided an old attic or barn and didn't have a clue what they had. One of the blackings is a label from Montpelier VT that I have never seen another of.

Ah, the good old days. Now all I see are Kendall's spavin cures in the antique shops with $50 price tags!

Jim G