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Story: Medicines and remedies

Bayer's aspirin bottle

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Bayer's aspirin bottle

Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is a common pain relief medicine. It was first manufactured for medicinal purposes by the German pharmaceutical company Bayer in the late 1890s. This bottle contained tablets manufactured in Wellington in the 1940s.

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Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Reference: GH004890

Permission of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Pauline Norris and Rosemary Beresford, Medicines and remedies – Plants, pills and poultices before 1900, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/object/28221/bayers-aspirin-bottle (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Pauline Norris and Rosemary Beresford, published 22 March 2011, updated 1 April 2020.