Art News

“Advertising for Health” on View at the Wolfsonian-FIU in Miami Beach

Sign, Dr. Morse’s Indian Root Pills, c. 1910 - Published by Comstock Company, Morristown , NY, Commercial color lithograph. The Wolfsonian–Florida International University, Miami Beach, Florida. Gift of William H. Helfand, XC2009.07.12.1

MIAMI BEACH, FL.- The Wolfsonian–Florida
International University presents Advertising for Health, an installation that
explores nearly a century of advertising for medicine, pharmacy, and public
health.
The installation features rare advertisements, printed
ephemera, and posters from a recent gift by William H. Helfand, a recognized
author and print collector.
Together with a selection of printed
materials and objects from a rarely-exhibited segment of The Wolfsonian’s
collection, these works reflect, through their design strategies, changing ideas
about health in the Americas and Europe between the late nineteenth century and
the Second World War. The objects on view also encourage reflection on the
“pursuit of health” in the present by conveying the lively history underlying
issues that remain current today.