Henry Cook first opened a shop in Alexandria in 1838. During the first 18 months he was in partnership in a shop which advertised seeds and gardening books.

Cook operated a successful drug store on King Street until 1878. The Alexandria Gazette referred to him as a chemist and druggist. Like the earlier apothecaries, mid-19th-century drug stores sold a variety of goods, including flower and bird seeds, window glass, ink and toothbrushes.

Cook advertised many kinds of drugs, including patent medicines often of questionable merit. Advertisements of the period frequently extolled the virtues of one cure or one brand of medicine with long descriptions of the product, explanations of diseases, and warnings of inferior products. Cook's 1844 advertisement for Dr. Dyott's drugs (a Philadelphia company) began: "In these days of quackery when the sale of "cure-all medicines" is the speediest road to wealth, and when every one is seriously blowing his own trumpet, it is difficult for the sufferer to know where to place confidence..." Cook later bottled his own Patent Medicine, Cook's Balm of Life. The sale of Patent Medicines and of Bitters, which were in large part alcohol, was limited by the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

A variety of bottles from the mid-19th century. The soda bottle, second from left, is embossed "COOK and PEEL ALEXANDRIA," and dates to 1848-49.

For more on Apothecaries, see Archaeologists" at Work: Excavations at the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop, or visit the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop Museum at 105 South Fairfax Street in Alexandria.