RS155a Dr. Kennedy’s Family Medicines Stamp

Donald Kennedy, M.D., was practicing medicine near Boston in the early 18S0’s when he decided to engage in the proprietary medicine business first marketing a dandruff cleanser. This was soon followed by Dr. Kennedy’s Medical Discovery–a preparation that was said to have been able to grow hair on bald heads. Kennedy learned from none other than Mrs. Abigail Cummings, wife of the originator of Vegetine (see H. R. Stevens monograph) that the dandruff cleanser would grow hair–at least so said Mrs. Cummings, so the same recipe was used for Kennedy’s Medical Discovery. Later Kennedy, whose qualifications as a physician are questionable, introduced his Rheumatic and Neuralgia Liniment about 1862. Other products included Kennedy’s Salt Rheum Ointment and Kennedy’s Scrofula Ointment. He introduced Kennedy’s Prairie Weed in 1878, and the firm, with his son joining it, continued to prosper for many years.

(Holcombe, Henry w., Weekly Philatelic Gossip 26: 77-79, April 2, 1938)