Chrissy Ames, D.C. Historic Preservation Office
Archaeological investigations in the 1980’s by Engineering Science, Inc. of the Halcyon House at 3400 Prospect St, NW, in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. uncovered multiple complete glass pharmaceutical bottles embossed with “J.L. Kidwell”. (Baumgartner-Wagner and Dinnel 1989) (Figure 1). Halcyon House was built in 1787 by Benjamin Stoddert, the first Secretary of the Navy (Jones and Bailey 1959). Not only was the recovery of these bottles a great find because of their completeness, but their markings refer to John Lawrence Kidwell, a druggist and the very same “J.L. Kidwell” who lived at Halcyon from 1859 to 1900. These artifacts have served as an entry point for learning more about Kidwell’s business affairs in Civil War-Era Washington.
As early as 1860, Kidwell maintained a store on E St, NW (Boyd 1860). Embossing a proprietor’s name or address in raised lettering on a bottle was common during the 19th century. The marking would ensure a bottle was returned to the right business and also served as advertising.
Kidwell was well-established by this time, serving as the seventh President of the newly formed American Pharmaceutical Association, the building of which was constructed on land that Kidwell himself had purchased. Kidwell’s full-page advert in the City Directory isn’t shy about all his business could offer: a “First Class Drug Store”, “dealing in English, French and American Drugs, Chemicals and Perfumery”, and “Brandies, Wines and Liquors” (Boyd 1867:352) (Figure 2). The wide variety of bottles recovered during the archaeological investigation of Halcyon including embossed and plain pharmaceutical bottles, and a picnic flask-style liquor bottle suggests that his advertisements rang true, as the different bottles would have been filled with different items for sale (Figure 3).
During the Civil War, Kidwell earned the moniker “Quinine King” as he sold large quantities of the malaria-fighting product to the Union Army (American Institute of Pharmacy, n.d.). A scandal emerged in October 1862, when a few individuals from Washington were arrested by Union forces in Virginia, a Confederate state, on charges of smuggling quinine to the enemy. While the group had standard passes allowing them to travel “beyond the lines with family supplies” it was discovered that they were carrying 300 ounces of quinine, too large a quantity to be considered “family supplies” (Alexandria Gazette 1862:2 and Evening Star 1862: 2). Contemporary newspaper accounts described the quinine hidden within the skirt bustle of one of the arrested ladies, a known smuggling tactic (Lupu 2024).
Kidwell was named as one of the druggists who sold the “contraband medicines” to these individuals knowing they were destined for Confederate territory, and was soon also arrested and joined the others in Old Capitol prison, in Washington D.C. (Alexandria Gazette 1862: 2 and Evening Star 1862: 2). While Kidwell proclaimed his innocence and was quickly released, there was talk at the time that he was a southern sympathizer (Lupu 2024). It was eventually determined that neither Kidwell nor his store clerks “knowingly violate[d] the Government’s necessary order on the subject” (The Evening Star 1862: 2).
While we don’t know whether any of the “allegedly” smuggled bottles were embossed with Kidwell’s name, we do know that such illicit trade provided quinine to Confederate forces in Virginia. Over half of Civil War deaths were attributed to disease, and the manufacture and distribution of quinine (then, the only known cure for malaria) was purposefully controlled by the Union; those making prohibited sales stood to gain significant profit (Lupu 2024).
The Halcyon House artifact collection, including these embossed bottles, is now curated by the D.C. Historic Preservation Office (Ames 2016).
The DC Archaeology Team would like to make a shoutout to Dr. Jenn Lupu, who carried Kidwell’s history well beyond the initial investigative report- thanks Jenn!
Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, D.C.). 1862. Saturday Evening. 1 Nov: 2. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025007/1862-11-01/ed-1/seq-2/, accessed 13 Nov 2024.
Ames, Christine. 2016. Digging for Extraordinary Stories in the District’s Archaeological Collections. Paper presented at the 2016 D.C. History Conference, Washington, D.C.
American Institute of Pharmacy. N.D. Complete History American Institute of Pharmacy. Electronic document, https://aphanet.pharmacist.com/sites/default/files/files/complete_history_american_pharmacy_institute.pdf, accessed 27 October 2016.
Baumgartner-Wagner, Norma A., and Katherine J. Dinnel. 1989. Archeological Research at Halcyon House (51NW16). Prepared by Norma A. Baumgartner-Wagner, M.A., Consulting Archeologist, Fallston, Maryland, for Prospect Associates, Washington, D.C. Report on file at D.C. Historic Preservation Office, Washington, D.C.
Boyd, Wm. H. (compiler) 1860. Boyd’s Washington and Georgetown Directory Containing a Business Directory of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, Congressional and Department Directory, and An Appendix of Much Useful Information. Taylor and Maury, Booksellers and Publishers, Washington, D.C.
Boyd, Wm. H. (compiler) 1867. Boyd’s Directory of Washington & Georgetown; together with a Business Directory of Alexandria, VA, and a Compendium of Their Government, Institutions, and Trades Boyd’s Directory, Co., Washington, D.C.
Jones, Russell and Worth Bailey. 1959. Halcyon House (Stoddert), 34th & Prospect Streets, N.W. Georgetown, D.C. HABS No. DC-69. Historic American Buildings Survey, National Park Service, Washington, D.C. Report on file at D.C. Historic Preservation Office, Washington, D.C.
Lupu, Jenn. 2024. Smuggled in Dresses and Dolls Heads: The Strategic Control of Quinine during the American Civil War. In progress. Copy on file at D.C. Historic Preservation Office.
The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.). 1862. Local News, a mistake on the arrest of Mr. Kidwell. 5 Nov: 2.
The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.). 1862. Seizure of Contraband and Contrabandists. 31 Oct: 2.