Advertising for Health

February 19, 2010–April 19, 2011
The Wolfsonian–FIU @ 1001 Washington Avenue

Through works culled from a gift by author and print collector William H. Helfand, Advertising for Health invited visitors to explore nearly a century of advertising for medicine, pharmacy, and public health. Featuring rare advertisements, printed ephemera, and posters, the installation reflected shifting design strategies and changing ideas about health in the Americas and Europe between the late nineteenth century and the Second World War.

Advertising for Health was organized on the occasion of the inaugural year of FIU’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and presented in tandem with Bernarr Macfadden and the American Physical Culture Movement: Selections from the Gift of Robert J. Young. The installation was sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.