the most commonly unearthed bottle in chicago and its connection with louis h. sullivan's untimely death

it is well known that louis sullivan spent the last two decades of his life and career mired in dire poverty. the architect responsible for defining chicago's architectural ethos, and for raising some of the most exceptional skyscrapers would find himself in dismal poverty, reliant on close friends for financial support (including frank lloyd wright and dankmar adler's son) as his commissions dried up and his health failed. he died on april 14, 1924 of kidney disease and inflammation of the cardiac muscles, with virtually nothing to his name. an interesting conjecture worth investigation, is the possible role of a common household product in louis sullivan's failing health and demise at 68 years old.

jump to the present, and by far the most common late 19th and early 20th century bottle  i unearth, at nearly every chicago dig site, are diminutive cobalt blue bromo seltzer bottles, a mass produced medicinal remedy that was popular well into the 20th century.

the bromo product reached the national market in 1891, and around the turn  of the century on, was distributed in deep cobalt blue glass bottles (although aqua, green, and other colors have been unearthed) with embossing of the product and firm. isaac emerson invented the remedy they contained, and between 1900-1970, the emerson drug company commissioned more than 20 variations of the bottles in at least 7 sizes.

the panacea claimed to cure brain fatigue, sleeplessness, mental exhaustion, alcoholic excesses and nervous dyspepsia, among other things. though early on it was advertised as being free of such toxins as morphine, chloral and antipyrin, it did contain its fair share of questionable or outright poisonous ingredients. for one thing, bromo seltzer contained sodium bromide, a tranquilizer that was withdrawn from the american market in 1975, due to its toxicity. in the early 20th century, however, the sedative effect only added to its popularity as a remedy  for headaches, and "overindulgence in alcohol." given the diet and alcohol consumption of chicagoans in the 19th century, it makes sense it would necessitate a widespread remedy. the original formula also contained caffeine, sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, and acetanilide. acetanilide was a coal tar derivative declared to be poisonous and habit-forming by the pure food and drug act of 1906 (along with plenty of other narcotics in use during that era). specifically, acetanilide had a depressing and paralyzing effect on the brain, heart and respiratory centers. a 1912 publication ("nostrums and quackery") documented the severity of this substance's effect on health.

since sullivan was known to have been an alcoholic, it seems probable that this ubiquitous remedy had a role to play in his daily life. in fact, according to cultural historian tim samuelson, richard nickel once made mention of the fact: one of sullivan's former colleagues had told nickel that sullivan relied heavily on bromo seltzer for relieving his hangovers, and though he quit drinking in the last few years of his life, sullivan suspected the medicine had taken a toll on his health. it seems it was too late to reverse any damage. his specific death -- kidney disease and inflammation of the cardiac muscles -- corroborates the possibility that the "remedy" used during his lifetime caused or exacerbated the health conditions he died from. though no definitive answer is perhaps possible, it seems useful to situate materials excavated around chicago into the historical narratives of those individuals who so greatly shaped the city. forming an accurate picture of what chicago once was should include extrapolating information from the most common items discovered, as much as from unearthing those awe inspiring architectural fragments that compose a "city beneath the city."