— Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 16, 1864, p. 3.
In an 1856 advertisement in the Almanac of the New York Tribune, the cider is said to prevent sickness of all kinds, and cites two “well known” New York gentlemen who had benefited from it. In the Tribune‘s 1863 Almanac and Political Register, one may read of a particularly startling way to take your medicine:
...To cure [Catarrh], add to half a pint of water some ten drops of Dr. T.B. Talbot’s Medicated Pineapple Cider; take some of the mixture in your hand and snuff it up your nose…
No, thank you. I would rather just drink it, please.
The pineapple had been known in Europe since Columbus brought it back from his travels. The term pineapple was already being used in English (first recorded use in 1398) for what we now call a pinecone. The Spanish introduced the pineapple to Hawaii and the Philippines in the early 19th century, but large-scale cultivation of the fruit would not occur until about a century later, in the early 1900s. It seems to have been grown in Florida and California to some extent (see here, for example, at NYPL Digital Gallery for a Florida pineapple picture dated 1870-1910). Pineapples were expensive, but increasingly available in the United States and England through the mid to late 19th century. It sold for 14-16 cents a pound in New York City in 1860, which was fairly expensive, but cheaper than celery at 50 cents for 12 stalks. Apples, in contrast, were a nickel a bag [“Wholesale Produce Markets,” New York Times, June 14, 1860, n.p.].
Pineapples are good sources of manganese and vitamin B1 (thiamine). Whereas too much manganese is said to be one of the causes of insomnia, thiamine is sometimes said to be helpful as a relaxing natural sleep aid (though it known whether this was common knowledge in the 1860s).
Is there a New York connection in all of this? Yes, of course! Dr. Talbot’s Cider was sold by B.T. Babbitt at Washington Street, New York. Benjamin Talbot Babbitt (1809-89) – perhaps a relative of Dr. Talbot’s? – was best known for his Babbitt’s Best Soap. He sold many other products too, such as baking powder, and invented more than 100 things including an artificial ice maker. A friend of P.T. Barnum’s, Babbitt was known for his flamboyant advertising. Sinclair Lewis named his businessman anti-hero George Babbitt, in the 1922 novel Babbitt, after him.
There is a Brooklyn connection (of sorts), too – Pineapple Street in Brooklyn Heights. According to Brooklyn.com, a Miss Middagh living in the Heights, in the 1850s, disliked the way in which streets had been named for her neighbours, so she took down the signs and put up her own – including Pineapple Street (she also celebrated the Cranberry and the Orange).
In addition to all this, the pineapple was a symbol of hospitality. It had been imported from the Caribbean to the US since the 18th century, but was a rare treat. Serving it to your guests was a sign of welcome and prosperity. Even Charles Dickens, in the 1860s, welcomed visitors to his home at Gad’s Hill with “the ‘cider-cup of Gad’s Hill’ – a drink composed of cider, limes, brandy, pineapple, toasted apples, lemon-peel and sugar [which] became famous as a specialty of the place.” [“Dickens at Forty Years,” Appletons’ Journal Nov. 5, 1870, p 592]. Perhaps when the weather gets cooler, I will try and recreate this cider cup (there doesn’t seem to be a recipe extant) and post it! But the final question must be: did Dickens’ cider cup cure catarrh or insomnia? Dr. Talbot’s answer would be a resounding No (provided, of course, that he was not snuffling up cider when he was asked).
Pineapple Cider ad from Harper’s Weekly, May 20, 1865 (at Scribd). The lady in the pineapple costume dates from the last quarter of the 19th century, according to the NYPL Digital Gallery, as is the picture of Brooklyn’s Pineapple Street. The Babbitt soap ad is from Wikipedia. More on the history of the hospitable pineapple here at the University of Florida.
The Vintage Medicine Cabinet 