Another Look at 'Health for Sale'

HEALTH -- May 6, 2011 at 6:36 PM EDT

Another Look at 'Health for Sale'

By: Sarah Clune

You may have seen our story this week on a new exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art called "Health for Sale: Posters from the William H. Helfand Collection." It takes visitors on a colorful tour of medical history, by way of some 50 health-related advertisements.

Subjects range from a French witch peddling toothpaste to stark warnings about the dangers of venereal diseases.

The posters draw from the personal collection of William H. Helfand, who's been amassing medical fine prints, drawings, caricatures, trade cards, posters and ephemera since the mid-1950s.

We thought some of you might like a closer look at some of these oddly interesting posters, which you can browse above.

Find more coverage on our health page.

Beginning October 24, 2012, PBS NewsHour will allow open commenting for all registered users. We hope that the elimination of our moderation process will enable a more organic discussion amongst you, our audience. However, if a commenter violates our terms of use or abuses the commenting forum, their comment will be removed. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.