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  • 1.  Interpreting part of a 1903 ledger mentioning a medicine

    Posted 27 days ago
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    I'm transcribing a ledger of meeting minutes from an orphanage dated 1903. Some of the children are sick and there is a mention of a medicine. I'm hoping someone here can help me decipher what this says. Photo included.

    "There had been two bottles of Duo Cros [?] mixture donated one by herself, and one by" ....

    Part of 190s orphanage meeting minutes

    Thank you for taking a look. Any advice is appreciated.

    Jodi



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    Jodi Wright-Gidley
    Director
    Galveston County Museum
    Galveston TX
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  • 2.  RE: Interpreting part of a 1903 ledger mentioning a medicine

    Posted 27 days ago

    Hi Jodi,

    Without more of the script for an example, it looks like it might actually be "Dr Cros mixture."

    Maybe.

    Aaron



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    Aaron Hain MLS
    Collection Specialist
    The Mob Museum- National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement
    Las Vegas NV
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  • 3.  RE: Interpreting part of a 1903 ledger mentioning a medicine

    Posted 26 days ago
    Yes, I agree! It helps to have another set of eyes on it. Thank you.

    --
    ____________________________
    Jodi Wright-Gidley
    Director
    Secretary of the Galveston County Historical Commission
    Galveston County Museum 
    722 Moody/21st Street, Galveston, TX
    409.766.2340






  • 4.  RE: Interpreting part of a 1903 ledger mentioning a medicine

    Posted 27 days ago

    Interesting find! Old handwritten records can be tricky to interpret, especially when they include medicine names that are no longer in use. Without seeing the image, it's difficult to be certain, but it could be the name of a proprietary medicine that was common in the early 1900s. You might also try comparing the handwriting with other entries in the ledger to see how the writer formed similar letters. Hopefully someone with experience in historical pharmacy or early 20th-century manuscripts can recognize it. Good luck with your transcription!



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    Circle Translations
    Translation Services
    Vilnius VI
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  • 5.  RE: Interpreting part of a 1903 ledger mentioning a medicine

    Posted 26 days ago
    Hey Jodi -

    I'm wondering if that first word might be Dr or Drs -- 1903 was the height of patent medicine use in the US, and a lot of those concoctions used "Dr" or "Dr's" (which your scribe might have written as Drs or Docs) in the product name. I poked around a bit but didn't find a specific nostrum that looked like it would fit the second word (because that is a rabbit hole I dare not dive into or I'll be here all day!) - but that's my best guess :)

    Good luck -

    Judy

    Judy Fort Brenneman
    Greenfire Creative, LLC

    *we help you tell the story*

    greenfire-creative.com

    Electric Lemons: Interpretation and the Art of Writing





  • 6.  RE: Interpreting part of a 1903 ledger mentioning a medicine

    Posted 26 days ago

    Hi Jodi -- I agree with the others' initial interpretation. However, if you were to provide a larger sample of the writing, it would be easier to compare how individual letters are written so we could be a bit more definitive -- best, Mary LaGue



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    Mary LaGue
    Registrar
    Taubman Museum of Art
    Roanoke VA
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  • 7.  RE: Interpreting part of a 1903 ledger mentioning a medicine

    Posted 25 days ago

    Hi Jodi,

    Thank you for sharing this fascinating sample. Looking at the word before "mixture," it seems to start with a lowercase "L" rather than an uppercase "C". I'm reading it as le followed by either an r or an n ending in os. As others have mentioned, it's hard to get a good read on the letters with only a small sample of the author's handwriting. Do you know if there was a doctor on staff at the orphanage where the ledger came from? Perhaps he had a patented medicine he prescribed for his patients.



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    Keith Martin
    Exhibit Coordinator
    Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism
    Little Rock, Arkansas
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  • 8.  RE: Interpreting part of a 1903 ledger mentioning a medicine

    Posted 25 days ago

    Hello! Is it possible to send an image of the entire letter? I love transcribing! It could be Dr. Bros but the capitol B (sentence below, Mr. B) is much different. 

    "There had been two bottles of Drs 6 mos mixture"



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    Darsita North
    Curatorial Specialist
    S'edav Va'aki Museum (formerly Pueblo Grande Museum)
    Phoenix AZ
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