She may have been Madame Porter or simply a stock graphic but this prim-looking lady adorned advertising images for Madame Porter’s Cough Balsam. The small advertisement in a children’s magazine proclaimed this product was “Pleasant, Reliable, Effectual. Successfully used for more than FIFTY years” and was from a company in New York. Somehow I doubt that the product was “pleasant” but what cough medicine is.
They used a plain woman, wearing a white bonnet and wearing clothing very similar to what Amish and Mennonite women wear to portray both a lady and a mother.
This drawing of a lady looks a bit like a wood cut or modern rubber stamp and could be used in so many ways. This vintage illustration was included in the children’s magazine Golden Days for Boys and Girls from November 28, 1891.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
