Backstories
About the Author
Andrew V. Rapoza is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College (1977), with a Scholar of the College distinction in history. During his management career in purchasing, contracts, and technical publications, he also pursued his passion for collecting and researching health and medical history, especially as it pertained to Lynn, Massachusetts, where he and his wife, Gail, first raised their four children. Several of his research papers on Colonial, Federal, and Victorian health in New England have been published (some of which can be found on the web) and he has been a guest speaker on these subjects all over the Northeast, including at the Strong Museum, Rochester, New York, and at the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife.
He has recently published a four-volume book titled PROMISING CURES – the Pursuit of Health in a 19th Century New England Community: Lynn, Massachusetts. It is available for sale in hardcover and softcover on Amazon.com and for free in digital format on FamilySearch.org.
About PROMISING CURES
The community of Lynn, Massachusetts, was like the rest of New England in the 1800s but populated by individuals with their own unique stories to tell. Its residents were attacked by cholera, diphtheria, scarlet fever, typhoid, and dysentery; women died in childbirth; babies died before they took their first steps; and adults and children were mangled by factory machinery. Enjoyment of life was precious to each of them, but often stolen away too soon.
To fight pain, sickness, and death, they turned to their own creativity, old family recipes, a never-ending stream of promising cures, and emerging science-based medicines. No matter the origin of the remedy, the only critical ingredient was success.
It’s far too easy to call the past a time of quacks and gullible bumpkins, of villains and heroes. The 19th century was instead an era of experimentation and improvement practiced by as wide an assortment of average people, scoundrels, and reformers as we have among us today. Promising Cures proves this to be the case.
Be prepared to be transported to a different time and place; walk among your ancestors. See life through their eyes and learn about the courage, miracles, and dumb luck that enabled you to be who you are today.
Meticulously researched, creatively written with dollops of drama, humor, and a steady stream of historical accuracy, and enlivened with fascinating remnants of Lynn’s health history, Promising Cures will take you somewhere you’ve never been and will never forget – the life you would have lived centuries earlier.
Some kind words about PROMISING CURES
An Outstanding Accomplishment that combines great research and readability!
by Ken Turino of Historic New England, AASLH, and former director of the Lynn Museum and Historical Society
Promising Cures, The Pursuit of Health in a 19th Century New England Community: Lynn, Massachusetts is an outstanding work of history and not only that it is a good read! This four-volume work raises the bar for detailed research on a particular subject – in this case the medical history of Lynn Massachusetts. However, it is so much more than just a Lynn history, the book touches on the main currents in American life in the 19th century. It uses Lynn as a microcosm to tell an American story of medicine, business, and entrepreneurship. Readers learn of some of the famous residences such as Lydia Pinkham and Mary Baker Eddy but also of fascinating stories such as Hiram Marble and his search for pirate treasure. Readers also learn about national movements including temperance and spiritualism and how they effected a particular community and beyond. The author is an excellent writer who although packing in a lot of information, makes the work accessible and readable.
The American Association for State and Local History’s Leadership in History Awards guiding principle for any award is, is the project Good History. As the former chair of that committee, I can tell you this book is Good and goes beyond that qualifier! This is social history at its best. The research is outstanding, the footnotes will be important tools for researchers and the illustrations well chosen. In addition, the book is engaging, tells intriguing stories, and sheds insight on life in general in America in the 19th century.
A must-have for any historian or historical archaeologist interested in 19th century America
Andrew Rapoza’s four-volume study of the medicinal history of Lynn, Massachusetts, is truly a historical and anthropological wonder. Meticulously researched and documented, the four volumes minutely detail the daily lives of the Lynn residents and their various and constant concerns with health, well-being, and premature death and the many and varied approaches they employed in attempts to cure their ills. Exploring everything from apotropaic (protective magic) devices against illness and harm to patent medicines and spiritualism as balms for their maladies, Rapoza weaves an engaging and enlightening tale of the lengths people have gone to preserve the quality of life.
As an anthropologist and author, I have seldom encountered a historical study so comprehensive and well-researched and at the same time written in such a way that it captures the imagination and enchants the reader with its narrative style. Although the study spans four volumes, once I started reading it, I had a hard time putting it down. It is a riveting tale that brings the past alive while providing readers and researchers with an incredible storehouse of primary documentation about the people of Lynn and the history of the pursuit of health and well-being.
C. Riley Augé, PhD
Historical Archaeologist
Adjunct Professor, University of Montana
I attended a reading and signing by the author. I didn’t know what to expect. I was and am BLOWN away at the passion of the author (Andrew Rapoza), the deep and extensive research he must have done, and hearing him bring to life a period in our history that helps me really appreciate modern-day life and amenities while helping me have greater sympathy for my/our ancestors. I highly recommend all four books in this series! You won’t regret it.
Nathan Smedley
Dealer Development Specialist
Foursight Capital
Excellent material from one of the best authors in the great hobby of antique bottle and glass collecting. The research and imagery is astounding.
Ferdinand Meyer V
Principal & Founder, FMG Design
Director-at-Large, FOHBC
