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Washington, D.C., circa 1921. "People's Drug Store, 7th and K." Seen here just a few days ago, as well as here and here and here. One-stop shopping for all your truss and hot-water-bottle needs. National Photo Co. View full size.
As seen in my comment here, the location of the Peoples is actually on the other corner where the Blackboard Building is. It seems kind of cross-purposes to put the graphic in both locations.
This picture is fascinating as this is the site of the office (yet to be built) that my organization (AAMC.org) is scheduled to move into in 2014. Glad to see this history preserved.
A comment on the night-time view of this same drugstore (node 6491) correctly places it at the site of the current NPR building. In the daytime photo, you can actually make out a reflection in the door of the unique windows of the Carnegie library across the street, in Mt. Vernon Square. The reflections in the plate glass on the right are of Massachussetts Avenue, and K Street on the left.
Ok, I let that one go, but the sign for briar pipes is interesting. Is it 7 Dollars or 7 cents? As a guide a pipe today is around £30, where I live. Tobacco is £10 a shot. As everything is relative, is this a dear shop or not?
[Briar pipes 75 cents. - Dave]
Look at all the stuff in those windows displays. You don't see that anymore, especially at a drug store.
Not only was surgery expensive, but in 1921, antibiotics were not yet invented, so surgery itself was more dangerous than just living with a hernia.
So can anyone tell me what "Advice Free Gas" is?
[Gas that minds its own business. - Dave]
My guess about truss ubiquity in the old days was that surgery for hernias was major and expensive, as well as dangerous. Today, I'll bet it's an outpatient procedure, although a quick search returned a number of places still selling trusses today.
What the heck was the deal with trusses back in those days? Magazines, especially pulp, had numerous ads for truss supporters.
Never see any mention of them now.
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