7. Tutt’s Liver Pills, 2026 Third Avenue
A puzzling ghost sign in East Harlem reads, “Liver.” A sharp eye may spot the faded word “Tutt’s” above it. Tutt’s Liver Pills are “The Fly-Wheel of Life,” an 1898 ad in the LaFayette (AL) Sun boasts. “Fortify the body against disease by Tutt’s Liver Pills, an absolute cure for sick headache, dyspepsia, sour stomach, malaria, constipation, jaundice, biliousness and all kindred troubles.”
Tutt’s Liver Pills were sold from the late 1800s until the early 1990s. Ghost signs for Tutt’s pills have appeared in other places acorss New York City and across the country. An 1888 story about Dr. W. H. Tutt in Illustrated New York: The Metropolis of To-Day explains that “Tutt’s Liver Pills have been extensively advertised in newspapers and on almost every wooden and stone fence in the country; and they have undoubtedly been used by hundreds of thousands of the population with positive and appreciated benefit.” The Henry Ford Museum analyzed Tutt’s Liver Pills, one of the patent medicines in its collection, and found that the pills contained mercury, which may have toxic effects on the nervous, digestive, and immune systems.
