Lydia Pinkham and Health Care for Women and Children
250 Derby Street

Lydia Estes (1819-83) was born in nearby Lynn, Massachusetts, into a large Quaker family that was active in the antislavery movement and in the art of healing. Lydia graduated at the top of her high school class, and helped start a debating society that allowed women to participate along with men. There she met Isaac Pinkham, a widower from Dover, New Hampshire. The couple married in 1843, and went on to have four children. Isaac moved from one career to another — first as a shoemaker, then a farmer, and then a manufacturer of kerosene. By the time he failed as a real estate salesman, Lydia had become well known for her vegetable compound that was thought to cure many ailments (perhaps due to its high alcohol content). One of Lydia’s sons saw his mother’s creation as a way to make the family a fortune, and with hard work and skillful advertising on the part of the whole family, they achieved their goal. Lydia’s picture was on every bottle, making her the most famous woman in America. After her death, Lydia’s daughter, Aroline Pinkham Chase Gove (see S49) and her grand-daughter, Lydia Pinkham Gove, created this memorial clinic to care for the health of young children and their mothers.