1898 Keeley Cure Advertisement — McClure’s Magazine

Original 1898 Print Ad | Early Addiction Treatment History | Keeley Institutes / “Gold Cure”

Item Description

This is an original 1898 full-page magazine advertisement from McClure’s Magazine, featuring the famous Keeley Cure—one of the earliest and most widely promoted addiction treatment programs in the United States. The page includes a large, ornate Keeley Cure advertisement promoting treatment for alcohol, opium, and tobacco addiction, text emphasizing “Inebriety—A Disease,” a transformative (and controversial) shift toward a medicalized understanding of addiction, a list of Keeley Institute treatment centers across the U.S. Additional period advertisements on the reverse side, including Cascarets Candy Cathartic, Beechan’s Pills, Blair’s Pills, Dr. David O. Edson’s Emergency Medicine Case, and Walter’s Park Sanitarium

This is a genuine 19th-century print, not a reproduction.

Condition

Overall: Very Good for age (1898). Clean, well-preserved page with strong print clarity. Typical light age toning to edges. Minor signs of handling, but no major tears, writing, or stains. Crisp corners for a magazine extract of this era.

Historical Background: The Keeley Cure (“Gold Cure”)

The Keeley Cure, developed in the early 1890s by Dr. Leslie E. Keeley, was one of the first commercially successful addiction treatments in the world. Its slogan—“Drunkenness is a disease and I can cure it”—marked a revolutionary departure from the dominant belief that alcoholism was purely a moral failing.

Key Historical Points

Founded in 1879, the first Keeley Institute opened in Dwight, Illinois. By the late 1890s, more than 100 Keeley Institutes operated across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, making it the most widely promoted treatment program of its era. The treatment involved injections and tonics containing what Keeley called “Double Chloride of Gold.” Despite the name, modern analysis shows the gold content was minimal or nonexistent; the exact formula remains somewhat mysterious.

Keeley’s framing of addiction as a medical disease of the nervous system was ahead of its time and influential—even as the scientific legitimacy of the cure itself was widely debated. Over 400,000 people reportedly received the Keeley treatment by the early 20th century.

The Keeley movement helped lay groundwork for later medical and therapeutic approaches to addiction, including early precursors to the ideas later echoed in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Cultural Significance

As both a pioneering and controversial chapter in recovery history, Keeley Cure advertisements like this one offer a fascinating window into early medicalization of alcoholism, public attitudes toward addiction treatment, he rise of mail-order patent medicines, turn-of-the-century medical marketing

Because so many ads were discarded, surviving originals—especially from major magazines—are sought by collectors.