1921-present
Founded in 1921 by Harry Soref, Master Lock still produces a wide range of padlocks today. An early innovator in padlocks, Master Lock patented the Laminated Steel padlock in 1924, the same manner in which bank vaults are protected, as…
1856-present
In 1849, a German immigrant named August Krug began brewing beer in the basement of his restaurant in Milwaukee; the next year, he would hire a 20-year-old German immigrant named Joseph Schlitz as a bookkeeper. In 1856, Krug passed…
1901-1932
A figure from the 1915 patent for a new design for the Coca-Cola bottle, created by the Root Glass Company. Established by Chapman J. Root in 1901, the Root Glass Company is best known for manufacturing bottles for Coca-Cola, beginning in…
1895-present
First introduced to the market in 1895 and marketed exclusively to dentists, Listerine quickly became a household name and became one of the first medical products offered over the counter in 1914. These two ads from 1917 advocate…
A 1903 advertisement for the Streator bottle and glass Company in Streator, Illinois, boasting their wine and liquor bottles would not break in shipment (as their competitors’ bottles would).
RRH
A 1910 photograph originally titled "Noon hour. Illinois Glass Co., (Shop #7.) These boys all work in above glass company. Tuesday noon. Location: Alton, Illinois," taken by Lewis Wickes Hine.
RRH
A 1907 image of the Fine Arts Building Main Entrance housed between the Auditorium Hotel and The Chicago Club. Within the FIne Arts Building were the Albert Roullier Art Rooms.
The colorless glass base from a bottle of AbilenA Natural Cathartic Water found in 2010 at the Charnley-Persky House. A 1910 advertisement for AbilenA, a "cathartic water" bottled in Abilene, Kansas used as a laxative.
1880-present
Founded by Charles M. Higgins in 1880, Higgins Ink is still a top producer of ink worldwide. Just eight years after opening its doors, Higgins was providing ink for periodicals like Harper’s Weekly; this success allowed the company to…
1893-1928
Adelbert Merton Foster took over the the Chicago branch of Dean, Foster & Co. in 1893, naming the ten-year-old division after himself. A glass wholesaler, A. M. Foster was closely associated with Dean, Foster & Co. (referred to as “The…
1871-1920
Hannis Distilling Company was the 1871 restructuring of Henry S. Hannis & Co, established 1863; both tapped into the booming whiskey industry in 19th-century Philadelphia. Hannis’s Mount Vernon Pure Rye Whiskey won first award at…
1874-present
Scott and Bowne was formed in 1874 with the partnership of Alfred Scott and Samuel Bowne; their most famous product was Scott’s Emulsion, an emulsion of cod liver oil meant to make the substance “palatable as milk” (as the 1884 ad…
1875-1946
Aurelius Stone Hinds purchased his own drug store in 1870, developed his soon-to-be-famous Hinds’ Honey & Almond Cream. Five years later, the A. S. Hinds Company was established. The Honey & Almond Cream was heavily marketed toward women…
1891-1920
Pitkin & Brooks was an importer of china and glassware, established in 1891 and incorporated in 1901; the company did not produced its own wares, but applied its own makers’ mark to all the products it sold. The business had a large…
An early 20th-century bottle of Borolyptol, an "antiseptic and germicidal fluid for internal and external use" commonly used as a mouthwash, itch reliever, and antiseptic
1880-present
Robert Augustus Chesebrough created petroleum jelly from “rod wax” used by oil workers for cuts and bruises; he made this discovery in 1859, and the product was available on a limited bases in the 1860s. Chesebrough Manufacturing…
1862-1933
Established in 1862, Greenwood Pottery was run by William Tams, a seasoned potter from Staffordshire, England, with Trenton financial backers. Greenwood quickly became one of the largest producers of household and hotel china, closing…
One of many small potteries established in Trenton, New Jersey at the latter end of the 19th-century, Burroughs & Mountford specialized in table wares, toilet wares, and tiles (as advertised in the 1888 image below). Burroughs & Mountford produced…
1868-1930s
James Moses founded the Mercer Pottery Company in 1868, claiming to have produced the first semi-porcelain china in the United States. A 1922 advertisement for Mercer's hotel ware is below. The company was in business until the 1930s.…
147-1970
Josiah Spode established his pottery in 1770 and became well-known for his porcelain. After being known as Copeland & Garrett (1833-1847), the company transitioned in 1847 to W. T. Copeland & Sons and remained so until 1970; the 1900…
1795-present
John Rose founded Coalport Porcelain Works in 1795, and the company became one of the leading potteries in England by 1830. In the 1880s, popular interest in fine china grew, and Coalport’s advertisers seized on that opportunity (see…
