Kilmer House

The 1907 Laurel Club women’s basketball team at Johnson & Johnson

I wrote an earlier post about the celebration to commemorate the opening of the addition to the Red Cross Cotton Mill in 1908.  It was a Company tradition to hold receptions for employees to dedicate new buildings, after the building was complete but before the machinery was installed, so there would be room for employees and management to gather and celebrate.

In 1908, a commemorative booklet was given out to employees as a souvenir of the occasion.  Inside the booklet was a list of Johnson & Johnson management and department supervisors.  (With several thousand employees, there probably wasn’t room to list every single employee.)

One of the most interesting things about that 1908 booklet was that it showed that 100 years ago, out of 36 department supervisors, eight of them were women.  That’s a quarter of the department supervisors.  In addition to the supervisors, there were many, many more women employees who worked doing a variety of jobs throughout the various departments.  Women had been an integral part of Johnson & Johnson since 1886, when half of our first 14 employees were women.

Some Women Employees at the Cotton Mill Reception in 1908

The female department supervisors in 1908 were in charge of some key areas of manufacturing:  the Cotton Mill’s Finishing Department, the Jar Finishing Department, the crucial Aseptic Department, which was at the heart of the Company’s sterile surgical products.  (With its germ-free environments, constant hand-washing with antibacterial soap and sterile, frequently washed employee uniforms, the Aseptic Department at Johnson & Johnson had more rigorous standards than hospitals of the day.)

The Aseptic Department circa 1900-1905 with…you guessed it:  women employees

Women also supervised the Sanitary Napkin Department (seems logical), the Plaster Finishing Department and the Lister Fumigator Department.  (Fumigators were disease prevention products that eliminated the insects or germs that spread illness.  In the days before vaccines and antibiotics, they were an important line of defense in keeping people healthy.)

A no-nonsense group of female foreladies in 1932

And here’s another interesting fact:  Out of the three scientists in our 1908 Scientific Department, headed by Fred Kilmer, one was female.  Our scientists in 1908 were listed with their degrees, and our female scientist had a Bs.C. in science.  So a century ago, when it was much more difficult for women to attend college, and when many colleges and universities didn’t even admit women, Johnson & Johnson had a female college-educated scientist on its payroll. 

A Corner of the Scientific Laboratory in 1906

The Scientific laboratory at Johnson & Johnson had an important role.  The scientists were part of the manufacturing process in that they tested and checked products and verified that they were of the highest quality before they could be sent out to hospitals and retail drugstores.  Their supervision started with testing the raw materials, continued through the manufacturing process and ended with an examination of samples from all finished products.  This let surgeons and the public have confidence in the unchanging quality and reliability of the early sterile medical products and the consumer products, and it was part of the Company’s manufacturing philosophy.   So our early scientists, including our female scientist, were central to the Company’s business.

Interestingly enough, The New York Times lists a marriage announcement for August 26, 1909 (you have to scroll down a bit; it’s the third item on the page) for our scientist and one of the Mill supervisors at Johnson & Johnson.  The announcement is from the year after the souvenir booklet that lists her as a member of the Scientific Department…so she and her husband must have met at work!

A Johnson & Johnson employee from the New York office who served in World War I

On Veteran’s Day, we remember the men and women who serve their countries, and express our appreciation and gratitude toward them.  On this Veteran’s Day, Kilmer House would like to salute the many employees in the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies throughout our history who have served in the armed forces, starting over 100 years ago with the Spanish American War in 1898.

Two soldiers in the Spanish American War, 1898, from our archives.  The man on the left was an employee in the Plaster Mill. 

Some employee veterans of World War I, from our archives 

Many of our employees served in World War I, and a number of them wrote letters to Fred Kilmer and their colleagues and sent pictures back from the front.  This post has excerpts from some of the letters our employees sent from France back to New Brunswick.  

Seward Johnson 

Seward Johnson, one of the sons of Company founder Robert Wood Johnson the first, served on a submarine chaser in the U.S. Navy during World War I.  Submarine chasers were small, heavily armed boats that were designed to pursue and neutralize the German U-boats, or submarines that caused such heavy losses to shipping during the war.
 

Joyce Kilmer 

The most famous veteran with a connection to Johnson & Johnson was Scientific Director Fred Kilmer’s son, poet Joyce Kilmer – the author of “Trees” and “Rouge Bouquet,” among other works.  Although Joyce wasn’t an employee of Johnson & Johnson, he wrote or contributed to some of the Company’s early publications.  Joyce Kilmer was killed on July 30, 1918, during a scouting mission in the final days of World War I.  He was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government.  If anyone is interested in learning more about Joyce Kilmer, this excellent site by his granddaughter has more information.

Employees standing in front of absorbent cotton products, circa World War I, showing some of the enormous output the Company produced. 

In 1918 Robert Wood Johnson (later known as General Johnson) became the General Superintendent of Manufacturing for Johnson & Johnson, and oversaw the production of the huge quantities of sterile dressings, gauze, and other medical products to treat soldiers fighting in Europe in World War I.  To keep up with demand, Johnson & Johnson was running shifts around the clock to supply the Allied forces, as well as hospitals in the U.S. and in Europe.   When demand exceeded even the Company’s around the clock efforts, a search began for a new source of textiles, which led in 1916 to the acquisition of the Chicopee Manufacturing Company of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts.  Very quickly, the entire spinning and weaving output of Chicopee was soon on its way to New Brunswick to be made into surgical dressings and other medical supplies.
 

The War Department awarded Johnson & Johnson a special commendation for its outstanding performance during World War I, and the head of the American Food Administration, Herbert Hoover praised the Company for its support of the food conservation campaign that was part of the war effort.
 

War Bonds Rally at Johnson & Johnson, 1940s
 

The Company broke its own production records during World War II, when it again was called on to produce surgical dressings and other medical supplies to help soldiers, and other products for the war effort.  (The Company’s Industrial Tape Corporation even started producing a new special waterproof tape for the war effort.  It was initially called “duck tape”…before its name evolved into the more familiar duct tape!)
 

General Robert Wood Johnson in uniform when he was head of the Smaller War Plants Corporation during WWII
 

Company president Robert Wood Johnson entered the army as a colonel with the Ordnance Department to use his business skills in the procurement of war materials.  He was then appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to head the Smaller War Plants Corporation, and elevated to the rank of brigadier general.  (Johnson served only for several months, but the title of “General” stuck with him for the rest of his life.)
 

Aside from the few employees pictured here from our archives, many employees of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies have been veterans…and many are today.  As everyone celebrates Veterans Day today, Kilmer House salutes the men and women of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies who have served their countries throughout the Company’s history.