Staying Healthy with Hygeia #457: Harold J. Cook Papers

Published January 16, 2025 at 6:00 AM MST

1 of 4 — Staying Healty with Hygeia - Harold J. Cook Papers image1.jpg

Cover of Hygeia magazine, February 1929. Box 48, Harold J. Cook papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

2 of 4 — Staying Healty with Hygeia - Harold J. Cook Papers image2.jpg

Advertisement for Vegex, a Vitamin B supplement, from Hygeia magazine, February 1929. Box 48, Harold J. Cook papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

3 of 4 — Staying Healthy with Hygeia - Harold J. Cook Papers image3.jpg

Cover of Hygeia magazine, May 1929. Box 48, Harold J. Cook papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

4 of 4 — Staying Healthy with Hygeia - Harold J. Cook Papers image4.jpg

Advertisement for Mercurochrome from Hygeia magazine, May 1929. Box 48, Harold J. Cook papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

This is Archives on the Air.

If you find yourself waiting in a doctor’s office, you might pass the time thumbing through a Prevention or Women’s Health magazine. Both owe their origins to Hygeia, a health magazine first published by the American Medical Association in 1923.

Hygeia wasn’t just for doctor’s offices. Schools and libraries subscribed, too. The magazine addressed everything from acne to x-rays. Readers of the era were treated to articles like “The President Exercises!” detailing President Herbert Hoover’s physical fitness regime which included tossing a medicine ball around with his Secretary of the Interior.

Sometimes the articles addressed food – broccoli was a recent import from Italy, so several pages covered preparations of this new vegetable. A significant portion of the magazine was devoted to advertisements. There was a great deal of interest in vitamins. Cod liver oil for babies was touted as “bottled sunshine”.

See the Hygeia magazines in Harold J. Cook’s papers at UW’s American Heritage Center to learn more.