Women’s History Month Cameo: Lydia Estes Pinkham
March 16, 2010
by Anna Belle Pfau
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Lydia Pinkham (1819-1883)
According to Doris Weatherford in American Women’s History, Lydia Estes Pinkham was the first American woman to become a household name through advertising. This is hardly the extent of her claim to fame, of course, for she was also known for her medicinal remedies and business savvy.
Though she herself came from an affluent family, Pinkham’s marriage was marked by financial insecurity, and her husband eventually served time for being unable to pay debts during the Depression of 1873-1879. Like many women throughout American history, financial hardship created an opportunity for Pinkham to utilize her existing talents, and she started a small business with her four children.
Like many herbal and medicinal remedies of the time, getting the business going was the biggest part of the enterprise. It wasn’t until Lydia Pinkham herself posed for a picture that would grace the cover of her products that she found success in an overcrowded market loaded with sham artists and literal snake oil salesmen. Her image on the product lent trustworthiness to it. That and the fact that her products were marketed to women to address womens’ health issues catapulted her products to market prominence.
From there she developed a business empire that included several popular health books and even a commercial “advice column” that served her successful newspaper marketing attempts. Her children continued to help her run her business until calamity stuck. Lydia Pinkham died in 1883, two years after both her sons succumbed to tuberculosis, a disease she could not cure. Products bearing her name are still sold today, more than 125 years after her death.
Additional Sources:
Gretchen Carlson
Claudia Poccia
Jacki Zehner
I like this biography of a woman pioneer in the world of business. Women need $$$ and they need to be involved in the flow of $$$. Without that sort of control there is no equality. Kristoff and WuDunn said so much in Half the Sky but the same is true in the West. That’s why I find today’s women CEOs so important!
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