Tulsa Antique Advertising and Bottle Show returns (2024)

A Tulsa tradition, the 46th annual Tulsa Antique Advertising and Bottle Show will take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 29, on the upper level of SageNet Center at Expo Square alongside the Tulsa Flea Market.

A Kickapoo Indian Remedies sign will be on display, along with actual 100-year-old Kickapoo products, according to a news release about the event.

The sign is an example of “reverse glass” advertising. It began life as a sheet of clear glass which was then “reverse printed” from the back so, when seen from the front, the image would be seen through the glass. This was a specialized and skilled process made more difficult because the printer’s artwork had to be done as a mirror image so it would appear facing forward from the front. Most signs from the period were printed on tin, cardboard or paper, and the circa-1910 Kickapoo glass sign is very rare, with fewer than five examples known to have survived.

The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Co. was formed in Boston during the 1880s by two white men, John Healy and Charles Bigelow. During the 1870s, Healy had been concocting and selling “patent” medicines in the Boston area while Bigelow was a Texas promoter of traveling medicine shows.

The company moved to larger facilities in Clintonville, Connecticut, in 1901 and was eventually sold in the 1920s. Their products were retailed through drug stores for 40 years, but, more importantly, the Kickapoo Company was known for having the most successful traveling medicine shows in the country.

The irony was that no Kickapoo Indian ever worked for them, and members of other tribes were used to populate the shows. Some of these shows had white pitchmen in charge, accompanied by tribal members who would be “interviewed” and their words “interpreted” by the salesmen even though they didn’t know the Native language.

Other tribal members would pass through the crowd with baskets full of medicines for sale. Other shows were more elaborate, where tribal members might do a sacred dance or other ceremony, then sell medicines between performances. This was successful because many Americans did not trust doctors and believed Native tribes to have deep and mysterious knowledge of natural medicines.

The Kickapoo Company even persuaded Buffalo Bill Cody to promote its products. The company’s advertising quotes him saying: “Kickapoo Sagwa is the only remedy the Indians ever use and has been known for ages. An Indian would as soon be without his horse, gun or blanket as without Sagwa.”

Being a prime example of the “quackery” of the time, Sagwa’s main ingredients included grain alcohol, herbal laxatives and flavorings, according to the news release.

There is no admission charge for the Tulsa Antique Advertising and Bottle Show or the Tulsa Flea Market.

Tulsa hosts one of the largest antique advertising and bottle shows in the country with dealers from 15-plus states bringing authentic antique/vintage signs, bottles, jars, displays, tins, paper items, toys, coin-op machines and thousands of vintage pop bottles.

Items come from old general stores, drug stores, barber shops, saloons, hardware stores, gas stations, auto shops and other sources. Many at the show are members of the Painted Label Soda Bottle Collectors Association and Tulsa is the site of the group’s national show.

The group’s annual meeting will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 28, at the Hampton Inn, 3418 S. 79th East Ave.

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