City reviews downtown redevelopment and $4M road repair contract, Museum of Riverside explores Victorian medical quackery and Meliia’s GoFundMe update.
City Council does not meet this week. Other meetings will review the proposed Riverside Alive downtown redevelopment project's environmental impact report and consider a $4 million annual road repair contract to address 4,000 backlogged locations from water line work.
Heritage House reopens Sept. 5 with Quackery & Cures in the Victorian Age, featuring 19th-century medicines, historical exhibits and hands-on activities that reveal the blurred line between cures and quackery.
Cure-alls and Consumption: Museum of Riverside Explores Victorian Medical Quackery
Heritage House reopens Sept. 5 with Quackery & Cures in the Victorian Age, featuring 19th-century medicines, historical exhibits and hands-on activities that reveal the blurred line between cures and quackery.
The Museum of Riverside’s newest exhibition, Quackery & Cures in the Victorian Age, explores the nonsense born out of the invention of confusing new medicines designed to address the pain of incurable disease.
From left to right: A Practical Physiology by Albert F. Blaisdell (1898), 19th century beef tea press, Catharine Bettner's son, Louis, died from tuberculosis in 1891 (Collection of the Museum of Riverside)
The Museum of Riverside’s Heritage House will reopen after its summer break on Sept. 5, 2025, with a new fence, fresh paint in some areas, and a look back at Victorian medical practices through the exhibition Quackery & Cures in the Victorian Age.
The exhibition explores a period that saw an explosion of scientific and industrial progress, which led to an increase in population and, perhaps not coincidentally, an increase in medical maladies. Amid all this change, the line between cures and quackery was blurred. The struggle to find relief from incurable, painful and deadly ailments hit home in Heritage House.
Catharine Bettner, the original owner, suffered the deaths of her husband, daughter and two of her three sons, losing them to various illnesses. By the time she moved into Heritage House in 1892, she lived with just one servant. The Bettners and other Riversiders, like so many across the nation, risked treatments that could cause side effects, long-term damage, addiction and even death.
Throughout Heritage House, amber bottles illuminate local history and delve into the larger landscape of Victorian life, in sickness and in health. Features include 19th-century medicine, photographs, medical textbooks and a set of lancets used for bloodletting.
Diving deeper into this history, a series of events will take place this fall. All events are at Heritage House, 8193 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, unless otherwise noted:
Sept. 4, 6-9 p.m. (Main Street and University): ArtsWalk – Create an advertising poster to sell your snake oil.
Sept. 6, noon-4 p.m.: Quackery & Cures Opening Event – Tour the exhibition and make a bottle and label for your personal “cure.”
Oct. 3: Black Veil opens – Tours during October feature information on Victorian mourning practices.
Oct. 6, 6-8 p.m.: Moon Festival – Celebrate Asian cultures under the full moon.
Oct. 17 (gates open 6 p.m., movie begins 6:30 p.m.): Movies on the Lawn, The Man Who Could Cheat Death(1959)
Oct. 18, noon-4 p.m.: Behind the Black Veil – Enjoy “Tea with the Undertaker” and learn about Victorian practices surrounding death.
Oct. 24, 6-8 p.m.: All That Creeps and Crawls – Meet misunderstood creatures, including black widows, tarantulas and leeches.
Nov. 15, 5-7 p.m.: A dusky twilight musical performance with dramatic readings as an ode to the fall exhibition. Tea and cookies included at intermission.
Nov. 21 (gates open 6 p.m., movie begins 6:30 p.m.): Movies on the Lawn, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
After years of planning and delays, construction is finally underway at the historic downtown site. The redesigned museum will blend old and new, with purpose-built galleries, a rooftop terrace, and expanded space for exhibitions and education.
Amid heirloom roses and citrus trees, Riverside’s Heritage House invites visitors to slow down, explore the gardens, and help bring local history to life as a docent.
