The Art of Bleeding

From a WWII health pamphlet designed by Theodore Geisel (AKA “Dr. Seuss”).

Much like a baby’s skull, The Art of Bleeding has a soft spot — spot in question being a fondness for of old safety educational films.  Above is a prime parodic example in which catnip tidily substitutes for the bogeyman LSD.  Odd fact: creator  Jason Willis is actually one of the kids in the “Halloween Safety” [...]

It’s 1966 and three men “and a girl” (Raquel Welch in skintight wetsuit) explore a vaguely psychedelic soundstage representation of a macrocosmic human body.  Physiology can be fun!

Please enjoy these delightful images from It’s Great To Be Alive, a vintage safety manual uploaded by How to Be a Retronaut.  Our favorite is the result of hide-and-seek in a pile of leaves.      

We can’t just get enough of those Naughty, Naughty Roentgen Rays. The above commercial, from 1930s Germany, nicely illustrates the fears (and titillation) surrounding Dr. Roentgen’s invention, then goes on to assure the modern woman that rumors of “Roentgetn glasses,” been true, she would be well served by the elegance of contemporary Felina lingerie. And these fears [...]

Vintage futurism is always good, clunky fun.  Here we have the hospital of the future as envisioned by Mr. Kaiser Permanente himself.   Newborns in file cabinet drawers….  Remote controls on everything….!

We’re always collecting pictures related to medical, health, safety, and the like, but sometimes other themes emerge. Like with these three otherwise unrelated images all representing things that probably shouldn’t be given to children but apparently were. This painting by Dutch artist Jan van Neck depicts the great anatomist Frederick Ruysch dissecting a stillborn infant [...]

More nurse romance cover art today. These gems come from among the 307 volumes in the collection of Tiny Pineapple. Check them out! “She had not expected to find romance on this assignment–but then, almost everything at the Indian Service Hospital had come as a surprise,” says the back cover. With a waist cinched like that, [...]

Continuing our thread from the last post about the marketing of tranquilizers, we offer some snippets from ”The Relaxed Wife”, a pharma-pushing film produced by Pfizer in 1957. “Of all the states across this nation, the happiest by far is the state of relaxation”

Regardless when the Rolling Stones offered their smirky musical comment on the subject, the reckless use of prescription meds to counteract suburban angst and ennui is hardly a thing of the past.  Yet there’s a certain irreproducible naivete (or is that naked cynicism?) in some of these ads from back in the day. Better living through chemistry, indeed!