A collection of herbalist magazines
We have recently received a collection of herbalist magazines dating from the 1920s through the 1950s. They were collected at the time by William (Bill) Anderton (1891–1966) who went on to be a politician in New Zealand. But more on Bill Anderton in a minute.
The magazines consist of a run of the Medical Herbalist from 1931 to 1937. This is the magazine of the National Association of Medical Herbalists of Great Britain, a monthly that started in about 1925. Costing 3d, it expanded on the benefits of herbalism, herbal clinics and how to treat chronic diseases. This magazine absorbed a competitor title Health from Herbs in 1938, and the Medical Herbalist was retitled The Health from Herbs in August that year. We now have a run of this latter title right through to 1950. The editorial to the first issue with the new title discussed how the magazine would ‘fight for Medical Freedom’ in the face of increased institutionalised medical care. We also received half a dozen issues of The Herb Doctor and Home Physician from 1927 to 1930, an independently published title that, for example, took an anti-vaccination and anti-professional stance.
The magazines were posted all the way from San Francisco by Fatima Woods, a great-granddaughter of Bill Anderton. Bill’s family moved to New Zealand in the 1920s where Bill set up in 1921 as a ‘medicinal manufacturer’ and ‘consultant herbalist’, selling, for example, ‘Slippery Elm’ food, ‘excellent for digestive disorders’. In addition, they advertised ‘Constipation Syrup’, a laxative. Bill founded the Red Seal Herbal Company in 1923. His descendants, Fatima tells us, have continued the tradition of herbalism ever since. Bill was elected to the Auckland City Council in 1933, moving in due course to national politics, serving as Minister for Internal Affairs from 1957 to 1960.
We extend our thanks to Fatima for taking the care and trouble to send us the magazines, where they will have pride of place in our collection.
