But there is much more to Lydia Pinkham than her patent medicine (18% alcohol). Lydia Estes Pinkham was born on February 9, 1819, in Lynn, Massachusetts. Her family left the Quaker religion because of their cold reception of African –Americans and turned to the Universalist Church. There, Lydia joined the Female Anti-Slavery Society and organized a debating society that welcomed everyone and every idea, called the Freeman’s Institute.

Her work as an unpaid visiting nurse led her to develop a compound to relieve all manner of female complaints. She went on to market Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound to great success. Advertising copy encouraged women to write to her newspaper with their questions and all were answered, even years after her death!

Her concern for the education of women regarding their reproductive health led her to write two books, one on “facts of life” and another on the complete system of reproduction.

While many discounted her tonic as quackery, we now understand the medicinal qualities of the herbs that were included in her recipe. A modified version is still sold, without the solid shot of alcohol. Lydia Pinkham died in 1883. Her legacy lives on to this day at the Lydia Pinkham Memorial Clinic in Salem, Massachusetts.