Artifact of the Week: Curticura System Bottle

Archaeologists recovered this Curticura System of Curing Constitutional Humors bottle from Downtown San Diego. The site housed a working class population during the late Victorian period (c.1880-1915).

The Curticura System of Curing Constitutional Humors was advertised to beautify the skin, cure cuts and scales, restore hair, and cure pimples, blackheads, and birthmarks. One ad read: “To know that a single application of the Cuticura Remedies will, in the great majority of cases, afford instant and complete relief, permit rest and sleep. To not use them is to be guilty of positive inhumanity.”

Date: Post-Contact Period (300 ya – present)
Material Class: Glass

Want to learn more? Visit the exhibit Block 112: The Untold Story of San Diego’s Working Class in the 1800s currently on view at the Center.