In The Medicine Woman of Galveston, Dr. Tucia Hatherley is forced to join a medicine show to provide for herself and her young son. The context of the medicine show is essential to the story, with Skenandore using it to both propel the narrative and draw out important themes. Medicine shows were a real historical phenomenon that Skenandore draws upon to create the context and setting in her book.

Medicine shows were traveling troupes that existed in the US in the late 1800s. As “The Amazing Adolphus Show” does in the book, these troupes would travel across the country, offering entertainment to attract customers to whom they would sell “patent medicines” (Grafe, Melissa. “Patent Medicines, Medicine Shows, and the Secret Life of Blackface.” Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, 2023). The “patent medicine” sold in medicine shows is represented by the rattlesnake oil and the “revitalizing crystals” that Huey peddles in the book.

While the sale of these types of medicines was the purpose of such medicine shows, Skenandore draws on yet another historical element: The story of the original “snake oil salesman.