An enormous asset to the exploitation of patent medicines in America was the development of newspaper and periodical advertising. Such a notice told, usually in gruesome detail, how a particular concoction had restored to health some pain-racked soul on the brink of death. The medicines invariably carried a Latin or Indian name to promote cures, even if they were comprised of branch water, molasses and alcohol. One quack claimed he could diagnose cancer from a specimen of urine sent him through the mail - a procedure precedent to the sale of his cancer cure. Since quackery was pure salesmanship, what you needed on the road was a crowd.
Free entertainment can always draw a crowd.
So there developed the traveling medicine show as a vital part of the nostrum industry. By 1875, there were several hundred of these outfits. The headquarters, both factory and living quarters for employees, was located at 521 to 525 Grand Avenue in New Haven. Few of the old patent medicine lines were as well known as the Kickapoo Indian Remedies, mostly because none were so well promoted. Examples of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company advertisements and labels are posted on the Medicine Show page .