Quassia Cup
notes: label: Description
content: Quassia (1692-1787) was an obeah (healer) from the Guinea region of West Africa who was enslaved and taken to Surinam, a Dutch sugar colony on the Caribbean coast of South America. While investigating local plants with medicinal properties, Quassia learned of a tree that when, when made into an infusion, promoted appetite and assisted digestion. Daniel Rolander, a Swedish botanist who visited Surinam in the 1750s, met Quassia and acquired some samples of this tree. These samples eventually reached Carl Linnaeus, in Stockholm, and that noted botanist named the tree Quassia. Nineteenth century medical texts touted the benefits of water drunk from quassia cups.
label: Description
content: A torn paper label on this example reads in part “QUASSIA / OR / TONIC CUP / The U.S. Dispensary . . .”
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Schrader's Pharmacy, through Harry L. Schrader
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.302607.111
label: catalog number
content: 302607.111
label: accession number
content: 302607
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Quassia Cup
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood, quassia (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 in x 2 3/8 in; 12.7 cm x 6.0325 cm