Kilmer House

Since the San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, Johnson & Johnson has been known for helping the victims of natural and man-made disasters around the world.  Although we date our disaster relief program to 1906 (when it became more formal and we started officially documenting it), its roots actually go back nearly a decade earlier…almost to the beginning of Johnson & Johnson.  The Company’s Scientific Director, Fred Kilmer, was an eyewitness to the birth of this tradition – and he traced its first seeds all the way back to the Spanish-American War in 1898.

Two soldiers in the Spanish-American War, 1898, from our archives.  The one on the left was a Johnson & Johnson employee in the Plaster Mill.

During the Spanish-American War, the Company manufactured a line of compressed dressings specifically for use in treating wounded soldiers.  The need for these dressings soon outstripped what Johnson & Johnson was supplying to the U.S. Army.  Naturally, the Company increased production of the dressings.  But, as Fred Kilmer wrote: “…the operations of the campaign were so urgent that the extra expense involved in the preparation of the goods more than overbalanced the price received.”  [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol 5, No. 8, January 1913]   So what did Johnson & Johnson do?  The Company took a loss on the dressings, because the management and employees saw it as their duty to help and went ahead despite the extra cost.  
 

Cotton, Gauze and Wound Dressing Products, circa 1890s

These actions had their roots in the personal philosophy of Company founder Robert Wood Johnson, who felt that because Johnson & Johnson made products that helped save lives, they should make sure the products were available when needed. 

Company Founder Robert Wood Johnson

Kilmer said of Johnson: “ ‘When once convinced that an article which he could manufacture would save life and prevent suffering, he caused it to be manufactured and placed before the [medical] profession irrespective of any consideration of profit.’ ”  [Robert Wood Johnson, The Gentleman Rebel by Lawrence G. Foster, p. 109]  Johnson’s outlook was shared by those who worked with him…and just two years later, it started to grow into the Company’s tradition of providing emergency help after disasters.

(By the way, this was 45 years before Our Credo was written…by Johnson’s son, General Robert Wood Johnson.  General Johnson, who led Johnson & Johnson from 1932 to 1963, wrote Our Credo, which outlines the Company’s responsibilities to doctors, nurses, patients and customers; employees; the community; and, last, to shareholders.  Our Credo was based on Johnson’s personal beliefs about the social responsibility of business, incorporating many of the lessons he learned from his father, the first Robert Wood Johnson.) 

So the first seeds of our disaster relief program date to helping wounded soldiers in the Spanish-American War.  But what was the event that triggered our first-ever instance of disaster relief?  Stay tuned to my next post.

Many people remember Little Golden Books from their childhoods. They’re small, filled with lots of colorful illustrations, and have short, heartwarming stories for young children.  Everybody probably had a favorite Little Golden Book when they were little: The Three Little Kittens, The Fuzzy Duckling, Scuffy the Tugboat, Little Red Riding Hood, The Saggy Baggy Elephant…and the one about BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages.  Wait a second…the one about WHAT?

Cover of Doctor Dan the Bandage Man, courtesy of Little Golden Books

You read correctly: the one about BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages. In 1950, the publishers of Little Golden Books published Doctor Dan The Bandage Man, about a little boy named Dan who is out playing with his friends and scratches his finger.

In a scene familiar to most households, Dan gets his finger bandaged by his Mom.  Illustration and Text From Doctor Dan the Bandage Man, by Helen Gaspard, courtesy of Little Golden Books

Dan runs crying to see his mom, who promptly washes the scratch and covers it with a BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandage. For the rest of the book, every time a friend, a pet, a toy or his Dad gets a cut or scrape, Dan puts a bandage on the injury to make it better. On the last page, his Dad nicknames him “Doctor Dan the Bandage Man.”

Page showing where the six BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages were attached.

But that’s not all.  The book came with six real BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages — attached inside and advertised on the cover — so that kids could bandage their own hurt toys, should the need arise.

So how did the Company manage to get one of its most familiar products placed into a book series read by millions of parents to their children?  According to the Publisher’s Note at the beginning of the book, we didn’t…they came to us.  Here’s what Simon and Schuster (the publisher in 1950)  said:

“For a long, long time, the publishers have been ardent admirers of BAND-AID Adhesive Bandages – not only for themselves (publishers seem to cut themselves more than other people) but because of their effect on children.  We’ve noted that BAND-AID Adhesive Bandages not only cheer and comfort small boys and girls who bang themselves up, but that they make wonderful playthings as well.  No one quite knows how many millions of dolls and stuffed toys…have been patched up in this manner.”

“Consequently, when the idea for this book came to us, we promptly went to Johnson & Johnson and asked them if they would be willing to help us. They were very nice about it and asked that we point out that BAND-AID is Johnson & Johnson’s trademark for its brand of adhesive bandages and for several other products in its line.”

Besides illustrating the fact that we had a trademark law department that never slept even back in 1950, this publishers note shows that, three decades after they were invented, BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages had become such a part of parents’ and children’s lives that the most popular children’s book publisher wrote a story about them.

According to Random House (the publisher of Little Golden Books today), Doctor Dan marked one of the first ventures into book and product joint packaging, something that’s common today. And Doctor Dan’s first printing of 1.75 million copies (each copy containing six BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages – that’s a staggering 10.5 million total adhesive bandages given to readers!) is the largest first printing of any Little Golden Book to date, according to Random House’s timeline (which is dated 2002).

Here’s a good history of Little Golden Books – they were the first inexpensive, high-quality children’s books that were widely available, and allowed many more families to afford and own books for their children.

Doctor Dan bandages his sister’s doll, courtesy of Little Golden Books

Doctor Dan the Bandage Man proved to be so popular that it was reprinted in 2004 and is still in print today (and yes, it still comes with BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages). It’s also featured in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian as a piece of American culture.

If you’re interested in reading Doctor Dan the Bandage Man, it’s available to read here.