A documentary series about American home medicine

What was really inside the family medicine cabinet?

Every week we take one bottle, powder or habit off the shelf of an American home between 1850 and 1930, and tell its true story from the catalogs, newspapers and medical journals of the day.

Watch on YouTube See all episodes

Sears catalog page listing borax, laudanum, paregoric and sweet spirits of nitre — Borax, laudanum and paregoric, side by side. Paregoric is sold as “always useful, both for children and adults.” Sears, Roebuck & Co., Catalogue No. 104, Spring 1897.

Cover for episode 1: Opium for babies, 1897

Episode No. 1 · November 11, 2026 Out now

What the 1890s Drugstore Sold Without a Prescription

Opium for ten cents, a syrup for the cradle, cocaine drops for a toothache. A walk through the drug pages of the 1897 Sears catalog, and the long road to the labels we read today.

Watch on YouTube Chapters and sources

The episode list

A new episode every Wednesday

No. 1What the 1890s Drugstore Sold Without a PrescriptionOut now
No. 2What Childbirth on the Frontier Was Really LikeNov. 18
No. 3What a Country Doctor Carried on Horseback in 1890Nov. 25
No. 4Mary Ingalls, 1879: Was It Really Scarlet Fever?Dec. 2

Cover for episode 2: What Childbirth on the Frontier Was Really Like — Wednesday, November 18What Childbirth on the Frontier Was Really Like

Cover for episode 3: What a Country Doctor Carried on Horseback in 1890 — Wednesday, November 25What a Country Doctor Carried on Horseback in 1890

Cover for episode 4: Mary Ingalls, 1879: Was It Really Scarlet Fever? — Wednesday, December 2Mary Ingalls, 1879: Was It Really Scarlet Fever?

How each episode is made

Our standards

From the original documents

Catalogs, newspapers, medical journals, pharmacy references and government records from the period. Every episode lists them.

Real archive images

Public-domain photographs, engravings and advertisements from the Library of Congress, the National Library of Medicine and other archives, each credited on screen.

Checked line by line

Each script is checked against its sources before production. No invented quotes, people or numbers.

Narrated with an AI voice

Scripts are researched and written in-house and narrated with ElevenLabs voice technology, with a pronunciation guide for period names.

Everything on this channel is history, not medical advice. If you’re unwell, please talk to your doctor.