Blood Bitters 'n' Swamp Root

March 25, 2008 9:17 PM

Time, Tide, and Tonics: The Patent Medicine Almanac in America."Almanacs have been a part of American life since its very beginning. One of the first books printed in English America was an almanac [pdf]. By the mid-18th century the almanac had become, after the Bible, the book most likely to be found in ordinary homes. Produced annually, almanacs provided practical information and entertainment."
posted by katillathehun (6 comments total)

I've been wanting to do a post on The People's Almanac . . . reading this as a kid in the late 70s raised my IQ 50% relative to my TV-watching peers.

Much of the content of The People's Almanc is now available here.
posted by tachikaze at 9:58 PM on March 25, 2008

The website of the 413th yearly issue of the Dutch Enkhuizer Almanak.
posted by jouke at 1:25 AM on March 26, 2008

Hey, this post pleases me. My farmer grandparents had The Farmer's Almanac on the shelf. I don't have anything sharp to say, but couldn't hold back as 2 is too low a comment count. Keep it up, friend.
posted by thedaniel at 2:38 AM on March 26, 2008

Some of the growers I know still plant by the almanac.
posted by Miko at 8:31 AM on March 26, 2008

I suspected this was a National Library of Medicine exhibit before I even hovered over the link and saw the URL. They have amazing stuff--and it's our tax dollars at work!

There is always a physical exhibit at the NLM too, so if you are ever in Bethesda, MD, you should really stop and see it (and see if you can get a tour of the facility, which is kind of a neat place).

A list of online exhibits by date is here. They don't seem to have a list of physical exhibits, but here's the current one and here's a page about NLM's Exhibition Program.

I'm a medical librarian. I toured NLM about seven years ago, and I will never forget: the tour group was walking down a nondescript hallway, and we passed a bank of windows looking into a messy room full of computers. As we walked past, I tapped the tour guide on the shoulder, pointed to the room, and said, "Medline?". She smiled and nodded. I had been teaching people to use this massive database for years. I stopped and stared. It had never occurred to me that it existed in a physical form!
posted by gillyflower at 9:04 AM on March 26, 2008

i heart almanacs
posted by Stewriffic at 6:08 PM on March 26, 2008