Medicines from Meuselbach in Thuringia: triptych display card. Colour lithograph, 1960.

Part of the 'Thüringer Wald', including the towns of Meuselbach and Meura is known as the 'Thurïnger Kräutergarten' or Thuringian herb-garden, and has been described as the cradle of industrial pharmacy. Medicines made there used the wealth of herbs and materia medica occurring naturally in the beautiful valleys and hills shown in this display card. In the 1940s some of the pharmaceutical firms were merged into the VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb) Pharmazeutisches Werk, the state-owned pharmaceutical company of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). This card was published by the Meuselbach subsidiary of that company

Centre: the country at Meuselbach with jars of: Baldrian-Tropfen (valerian essence); Haarlemer-Oel (Haarlem oil, a medicine containing herbs and sulphur, originally made in the 1690s in Haarlem, the Netherlands); Dreierlei Tropfen (Threefold drops, containing valerian and mint, for the digestion); Mariazeller Magentropfen (medicine for the stomach, recipe from Mariazell in Austria); Melissengeist Karmelitergeist (balm oil). Left wing: Hingfeng Essenz (various herbs, used as a panacea). Right wing: Echter Fenchel-Sirup mit reiner Bienenhonig (fennel syrup with honey)

Meuselbach (Thür. Wald) : VEB Pharmazeutisches Werk Meuselbach, [1960?] (Leipzig : Wezel und Naumann)

1 print : lithograph, printed in colours ; triptych, centre 56 x 42 cm, wings 53.5 x 20.5 cm, whole 56 x 83 cm (open)

Thüringer Hausmittel seit Jahrhundert bewährt. Bei Magenschwerden und Übelkeit. Hingfong Essenz. Für Jung und Alt! Echter Fenchel-Sirup mit reiner Bienenhonig.

Wellcome Collection 573704i