Heavy Medication: Illuminated Drugs Sign, ca. 1940s

Here in the U.S., drug stores can be spectacularly confounding. Walking the aisles, one can find vitamins, supplements, bandages, ointments… or speak to a medically trained expert, qualified in dispensing hundreds of varieties of pharmaceuticals. Then again, at the same store one can grab a pack of cigarettes, a Snuggie and a 4 lb. bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Perhaps the business model is based on the consumer abusing one set of “products” and then remedying their ailment with another set?

Here we have a double-sided, lighted advertising sign that would have hung outside a drug store in the 1940s. The casing is wood and the glass areas possess hand-painted lettering that has gradually dried out and peeled, leaving a beautifully distressed window through which the porcelain light sockets can be seen.

This item is currently available for purchase at Modern Anthology.