Title
The Kickapoo Indians’ Tape-Worm Secret
Author
Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company, New Haven, Connecticut
Image
Description
This is an original paper-labeled bottle for The Kickapoo Indians’ Tape-Worm Secret, produced by the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company of New Haven, Connecticut. The bottle is clear glass with a broad-shouldered apothecary form, wide mouth, and cork stopper. Its surviving wraparound label is visually striking, featuring stylized worm imagery and the bold sales claim that the remedy was “Sure to get head, body, and all.” Another notable detail is the printed price of $5.00, prominently displayed on the label.
As a display piece, this bottle captures the mix of fear, spectacle, and shameless advertising that defined the patent medicine era. Rather than presenting a sober pharmaceutical identity, it leans fully into theatrical marketing. The label was designed to grab attention immediately and to play on one of the most visceral anxieties a patient could have: the idea of harboring a tapeworm.
Condition
Clear glass bottle with surviving original paper label and cork stopper. Label shows noticeable loss, rubbing, edge wear, and age toning, but remains highly legible and visually strong for display. Bottle itself appears structurally sound with expected age wear.
Gallery
Historical context
The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company was one of the better-known proprietary medicine firms of the late 19th century, operating out of New Haven, Connecticut and aggressively marketing its products through traveling shows, advertisements, and printed promotional material. By the 1890s, the company had become widely established, selling a range of heavily promoted remedies under a romanticized and commercialized “Indian” branding model.
Tapeworm remedies occupied an especially lurid niche in the patent medicine trade. They were sold on disgust, fear, and the promise of dramatic expulsion. Whether the treatment was safe, effective, or anything close to scientifically respectable was often another matter entirely.
Curious Facts, Ephemera, and Trivia
The label slogan is the best part: “Sure to get head, body, and all.” That is pure old-school patent-medicine showmanship. No elegance. No restraint. Just a direct promise to evict your intestinal squatter in one complete miserable piece. It is exactly the kind of line that makes these bottles better than modern packaging, which now has all the charm of an insurance denial.
The printed $5.00 price is also unusually eye-catching and suggests that the label itself functioned partly as an advertisement piece, not merely an identification label.
Excerpt
No partial relief—no fragments left behind. The worm is expelled complete, head, body, and all, by the action of this celebrated remedy.
Why it is in the Cabinet
This one belongs in the Cabinet because it hits several sweet spots at once: quack medicine, gut horror, strong label graphics, and a sales pitch shameless enough to deserve preservation. It is the kind of object that immediately stops people and makes them laugh, cringe, and lean in closer.
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