Patent medicines flourished in the United States from the start. They were most popular in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Perhaps the best-known and most enduring among these was Lydia E. Pinkham's "Vegetable Compound." This remedy was devised by Mrs. Lydia Estes Pinkham (1819-1883) of Lynn, Massachusetts, to cure "female complaints." Mrs. Pinkham had been preparing her herbal concoction on her kitchen stove for years. The recipe was supposedly given to her by a machinist in payment of a debt. When the Pinkham fell into near poverty following the panic of 1873, Pinkham's son Dan suggested selling the compound. She produced the remedy and wrote advertising copy, along with a four-page booklet titled Guide for Women. NOTE: When the Pinkhams began advertising in the Boston Herald in 1876, a successful mail-order business flourished. When Pinkham's portrait was added to the Compound's label in 1879, sales escalated, and she became the most recognized woman in America. Letters poured in from women all over the country seeking medical advice. Their queries were answered by a staff of women supervised by Pinkham. The business remained in the Pinkham family until 1968, and the Compound was still being marketed in the 1980s.