Ely’s Cream Balm was a patent medicine introduced to the market sometime in the late 1870’s. Originally manufactured by Alfred, Charles and Frederick Ely in Owego New York, the brothers would later move the operation to New York City where it was ultimately acquired by the Wyeth Chemical Company about 1915.
Newspaper advertisements for Ely’s Cream Balm touting it as a cure for catarrh began appearing in the spring of 1879. One of the earliest I can find was published in the April 25, 1879 edition of an Ann Arbor, Michigan newspaper called the “Courier-Register” It was headlined:
The ad went on to lay out the Balm’s early sales pitch.
The effect is truly magical, giving instant relief, and as a curative is in advance of anything now before the public
The disagreeable operation of forcing a quart of liquid through the nose, and the use of snuffs that only excite and give temporary relief are already being discarded and condemned.
CREAM BALM has the property of reducing local irritation. Sores in the nasal passages are healed up in a few days. Headache, the effect of Catarrh, is dissipated in an almost magical manner. Expectoration is made easy. Sense of taste and smell is more or less restored. Bad taste in the mouth and unpleasant breath, where it results from Catarrh is overcome. The nasal passages, which have been closed up for years, are made free.
Great and beneficial results are realized in a few applications of the Balm, but a thorough use of it, in every instance, will be attended with the most happy results, and generally a decided cure.
Fifty cents will buy a bottle, and if satisfaction is not given, on application the proprietors will cheerfully refund the money. Trial size, ten cents. Ask your druggist for it.
ELY BROS., Owego, N.Y., Proprietors
Recognizing that a picture’s worth a thousand words, later that first year the Ely’s introduced what would become their long-time trademark.
Other early advertisements, described how it all worked.
DIRECTIONS, Insert with little finger a particle of the balm into the nostrils; draw strong breaths through the nose. It will be absorbed. ELY’S CREAM BALM effectively cleanses the nasal passages of Catarrhal virus, causing healthy secretions, allays inflammation, protects the membrane from additional colds, completely heals the sores and restores the sense of taste and smell. Beneficial results are realized by a few applications. A thorough treatment will cure Catarrh, Hay Fever, etc.
According to a 1904 publication entitled “The Favorite Medical Receipt Book and Home Doctor,” the Balm’s formula consisted primarily of vaseline.
Later, in the July 1901 edition of “Myers Brothers Druggist,” the company introduced a liquid form of Ely’s Cream Balm for use in an atomizer. Comprised of basically the same ingredients, it was described like this in an item published in the September 1913 edition of the “Pacific Pharmacist.”
This preparation which is sold as a “remedy for catarrh, catarrhal deafness, hay fever, cold in the head,” is a pinkish liquid having the odor of thymol and menthol. It was analyzed by the chemists of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, who reported that it “appears to consist essentially of liquid petrolatum (vaseline) with small quantities of thymol and menthol.”
The “Pacific Pharmacist” item then went on to say:
The chemists further asserted that a bottle of Ely’s Liquid Cream Balm, costing 69 cents contains about half a cent’s worth of liquid petrolatum.
Nonetheless, due to a heavy dose of advertising, Ely’s Cream Balm remained on the market up through most if not all of the 1940’s.
According to a February 9, 1899 item found in the “Owego Record, in September 1872, six years before introducing their Balm, the Ely Brothers purchased the Owego, New York drug store of Platt & Hull. Originally located on the corner of Lake Street and Front Street, it was almost certainly here during the mid to late 1870’s that the formula for Ely’s Cream Balm was concocted before ultimately hitting the shelves sometime in the fall of 1878.
A year later, a story in the “Daily Owegon” that was reprinted in the September 23, 1879 edition of the “Try States Union,” optimistically summed up the brothers’ first year in business like this:
The simplicity of the remedy and its application, together with its efficiency is fast bringing it before the public as a valuable standard medicine. We have an honest pride in having this remedy emanate from our village, and witness its growth and development with much interest. It is a notable fact that Cream Balm has superseded all other catarrhal remedies in and about its place of discovery and manufacture, which is the best endorsement that can be given. The novelty of the application and preparation at once attracts attention, and gives encouragement to the already discouraged sufferer. The attractive and tasty style in which it is placed in market shows originality. Every part of its “tout ensemble,” embracing the minutest detail, is prepared with the strictest care and uniformity, and the package as it is displayed upon the druggist’s case at once engages the attention of the observant…
… Now if we have spoken enthusiastically of the merits of Cream Balm, it is because we believe it to be but an honest reflection of the general opinion, and a just tribute to the proprietors of it, who by experiment, (or perhaps as much by chance as by experiment), compounded an article for the relief of eight-tenths of our citizens, who are more or less afflicted with catarrh and its kindred diseases. We believe also that we see in this a business enterprise that will result in the advantage of Owego, as we are sure that any undertaking that is successful is the benefit of the whole people, indirectly at least; so we wish them success and trust that their second year will loom up still brighter than the first, at which time we will be pleased to give a further report of their success.
As part of the same story, the “Tri States Union” attributed much of the company’s success to advertising.
Ely’s Cream Balm was discovered hardly one year ago by Ely Brothers, at Owego, N.Y., and by reason of its rare qualities in the treatment and cure of catarrh, and the judicious manner in which its proprietors have used printer’s ink it has attained an immense sale in many states in the Union.
A quick review of newspapers.com suggests that the “printer’s ink” reference was not all that far from the truth. In 1879, their first full year in business, the company ran newspaper advertisements in seven different U.S. states including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as well as four more in the upper mid-west, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan. A year later that number had more than doubled and by 1885 their advertisements were appearing in almost every one of the then 38 U. S. states.
In fact, this advertisement featuring their trademark appeared in the February 19, 1885 edition of Canton, South Dakota’s “Canton Advocate,” and South Dakota would not become a U. S state for another four years.
With business having expanded to a national level the Ely Brothers moved their operation to New York City, initially settling in lower Manhattan at 235-238 Greenwich Street sometime in early 1887. This ad exhibiting that address appeared that year in the December edition of the “American Magazine.”
Their stay on Greenwich Street was short-lived and by June of 1888 the company had settled into their long time home at 56 Warren Street, in Manhattan’s Tribeca.
It was here, in the mid 1890’s that they introduced a cough remedy called Pineola Balsam to complement their Cream Balm. The company’s trademark application indicated they had been using the Pineola name since January 1, 1895.”
It was certainly in use by 1896 as evidenced by this full page advertisement that appeared that year in the “World Almanac and Encyclopedia.” The ad, touting both Ely’s Cream Balm and Ely’s Pineola Balsam suggested among other things that the two preparations be used in conjunction with each other.
The results that follow catarrh, due to the dropping of poisonous matter into the throat, are irritations of the bronchial tubes and soreness of the lungs, accompanied by a cough. In all such cases we recommend Pineola Balsm to be used in connection with Cream Balm.
Throughout the early 1900’s the company continued to operate under the Ely Brothers name. That said, N.Y.C. Copartnership and Corporation directory listings suggest that Charles left the business in 1900 and Frederick in 1910 leaving Alfred as the only brother still associated with the business by 1911.
“Ely Brothers (Alfred G. only)” was last listed in N.Y.C’s Copartnership and Corporation diretory in 1915 after which it was apparently acquired by the Wyeth Chemical Company (not to be confused with Wyeth & Brother of Philadelphia) and renamed the Cream Balm Company. In New York’s 1916 general directory both the Cream Balm Company and the Wyeth Chemical Company were listed with the common address of 17 Battery Place, with Stanley Jadwin named as president of both companies.
This October 12, 1922 N.A.R.D. Journal advertisement named the Wyeth Chemical Company as the distributor of Ely’s Cream Balm in addition to several other patent medicines of the day.
In 1926, the Wyeth Chemical Company, along with the rights to all of their preparations including Ely’s Cream Balm, were acquired by a holding company called American Home Products Corporation. According to “Poors” 1926 Industrial Section:
American Home Products Corporation…incorporated February 4, 1926, in Delaware, by interests identified with Sterling Products, Inc., and Household Products, Inc., together with interests identified with Wyeth Chemical Co. and affiliated companies. Acquired Wyeth Chemical Company and affiliated companies engaged in the manufacture and sale of preparations known as Jad Salts, Wyeth’s Sage & Sulfer, Tiz, St. Jacobs Oil, Hamburg Breast Tea, Hamburg Drops, Burdock Oil, Rowles Red Pepper Rub, Rowles Menthol-Sulpher, Ely’s Cream Balm and Dioxol…
After the acquisition it appears that Ely’s Cream Balm continued to be produced and distributed under the Wyeth Chemical Company name. As you might expect, by this time the word “cure” had disappeared from their advertising but that said, the message stayed pretty much the same, as evidenced by this January 31, 1931 ad published in the “Buffalo News.”
Most Ely’s Cream Balm advertisements disappear during the mid-1930’s however, the product continued to be included sporadically on advertised drug store price lists during the 1940’s. As late as 1949 you could get their 50 cent size for 43 cents as advertised in the January 8th edition of Albany, Oregon’s “Democrat Herald.”
The subject bottle has a 1-1/4 inches x 3/4 inches rectangular cross-section; is 2-1/2 inches tall, and contains half an ounce. I suspect it’s their 10 cent trial size simply because I can’t imagine anything smaller that still permits getting a finger in there for a dab.
The embossed location of Owego, New York also appears on the bottle which leads me to believe that it dates on the earlier side of the company history, before the operation fully relocated to New York City. What I suspect are later versions, are simply embossed “New York.”
Finally, other examples recently offered for sale on the internet exhibit “Ely’s Cream Balm Liquid” in their embossing. This suggests that the subject bottle, embossed Ely’s Cream Balm,” contained the balm in its original form and not the liquid form introduced about 1901.
On a final note, the building that housed the Ely Brothers from 1888 to 1915 at 56 Warren Street still exists to this day. Located between Church Street and West Broadway, according to Streeteasy.com.
56 Warren St. is on one of the most beautiful Tribeca blocks, an intimate building with 8 residential and 2 commercial stores (owned by the cooperative). Built in 1881 and now a landmark, 56 Warren St. mixes modern living with Old New York charm….. It was designed by John B. Snook and Son, the same firm that designed the original Grand Central Terminal.
Here’s a recent view, courtesy of “Google Maps”
