Antique 1930s Oil Eucalyptus Label 🌿 from Portland Pharmacy

What Was Oil Eucalyptus For? 🌿 OIL EUCALYPTUS U.S.P. Label, Lents Pharmacy, The Rexall Store, Portland, Oregon

Size: 2 1/2" x 1 1/2" ~ Little to no wear.

Step back in time with this 1930s Oil Eucalyptus Label from Lents Pharmacy of Portland, Oregon. It's a little unused drugstore bottle label printed in dark green on cream paper, with the pharmacy's name in a sweeping script under an interlocked LP monogram, and it tells you exactly how folks used eucalyptus oil back then: breathe it in over a pan of hot water, or take eight drops on a lump of sugar.

🏷️ Every Word on the Label

• OIL EUCALYPTUS U. S. P.
• For inhalation of vapors, add a few drops to a pan of hot water.
• Average Adult Dose: 8 drops, well diluted in sweetened water or on lump of sugar. (Keep bottle tightly closed)
• DISTRIBUTED BY, NET CONTENTS, FLD. OZS., left blank for the pharmacist to fill in
• Lents Pharmacy, The REXALL Store, S.E. Foster Rd., Portland, Ore., with a lettered telephone exchange, Su.

The back is blank, with the printing showing through. That old lettered phone exchange is a nice touch, from the days before all-number dialing.

🏘️ Lents, Oregon

Lents Pharmacy was located at the northwest corner of 92nd and Foster, right in the heart of old Lents, and one of the photos here is an old street scene of Lents with the pharmacy on the corner. The neighborhood was platted as the Town of Lent in 1892 by Oliver P. Lent, the streetcar came out from downtown along Foster Road, and by 1912, when Portland annexed it, it had grown to nearly 10,000 people. The Lents Town Center still sits on 92nd near Foster today.

💊 The Rexall Store

Rexall started in 1903, when Louis K. Liggett talked 40 independent drug stores into putting up $4,000 each in United Drug Stores, selling under the Rexall name. After World War I it became a franchise, so a hometown druggist like the one at Lents could keep his own store and hang out the Rexall sign. By 1958 there were 11,158 Rexall stores, more than one in five drugstores in the United States.

🐨 Eucalyptus, from Botany Bay to the Drugstore

Eucalyptus was first "discovered" at Botany Bay, Australia, by Sir Joseph Banks during Captain Cook's voyage of discovery in 1770. As early as the First Fleet in 1788, the surgeons Dennis Considen and John White were distilling eucalyptus oil from the peppermint gum, Eucalyptus piperita, growing on the shores of Port Jackson, to treat convicts and marines. Considen wrote that it was "equal if not superior to our English peppermint," and it was that familiar smell that first made the surgeons trust it. Joseph Bosisto started the commercial industry near Dandenong, Victoria in 1852, with the encouragement of Ferdinand von Mueller, the government botanist and Director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, who promoted eucalyptus as a disinfectant, possibly influenced by the rich traditional knowledge of the Australian First Peoples, and who made the blue gum known all over the world, and by the 1880s surgeons were using eucalyptus oil as an antiseptic during surgery. Eucalyptus inhalation was also recommended for colds, flu, and tuberculosis, and the oil was in especially big demand during the influenza pandemic of 1918 and 1919.

There's some old lore in it, too. Eucalyptus forests were once said to clear malarial districts of their "noxious odors" with their "fragrant emanations." That idea faded once the mosquito was found to carry malaria, and the real reason turned out to be that the thirsty trees drained the marshy ground where mosquitoes bred.

🖼️ Display

Pharmacy labels have become highly sought-after collectibles. Imagine the unique character and historical significance of this antique advertising label adorning your wall, a piece of home decor that not only tells a story but also adds a touch of vintage charm to your space. It's a great gift for a pharmacist, a nurse or anybody from Lents.