This paper describes the 2019 edition of the Helsinki Digital Humanities Hackathon from the perspective of two of its participants. As (digital) historians they were part of the group that investigated the history of medical advertisements in British nineteenth-century newspapers. The paper describes the research process, as well as the data and methods used during the research. The paper also considers the Hackathon as a laboratory for Digital Humanities research and reflects on the nature of the collaboration as experienced during the Hackathon. As such, the paper describes the challenges of multidisciplinary research and identifies the factors that hinder and foster collaboration in a Digital Humanities context.