Kilmer House

Sterile sutures were another of the earliest products of Johnson & Johnson.  These are some examples of early sterile sutures made by the Company, and include catgut, which was an absorbable suture, and silk sutures.  Johnson & Johnson worked diligently to improve sterilization methods and make a variety of sterile sutures available. Many physicians at the time used ordinary sewing thread to close wounds, so the Company’s sterile sutures were a welcome innovation for doctors and patients.  An interesting sidelight of the Company’s suture business is dental floss, which

It’s a sign of the times.  People feel hurried, under stress in a time of rapid change.  Their diets have expanded but they’re not eating the right foods.  And all of that is taking a toll on their digestion.   Quick --what year is it?  The answer may surprise you:  it’s 1888.    Indigestion, or dyspepsia, was so common in the United States at the end of the 19th century that it was referred to as America’s “national disease.”  The diet at the time was heavily tilted toward meat and potatoes (even for breakfast!) accompanied by heavy swee

Absorbent cotton products are some of the earliest products made by Johnson & Johnson.  Absorbent cotton was used in surgery and wound treatment. Prior to the availability of sterile cotton products, leftover cotton from the floor of the country’s cotton mills was used by surgeons to treat wounds and stop bleeding.  The products shown in the above photograph number among the first products of Johnson & Johnson, and include a variety of sterile cotton, either plain (in the blue wrapper) or infused with iodine (Iodoform Cotton) and other sterilizing agents.   As the

There’s nothing worse than losing the instructions for something you’ve bought, especially if it’s something you need to use in an emergency. Some people keep all of their instruction manuals in an envelope or a folder, or in an electronic file, which is fine...as long as they remember where they put the file. But there is a better way, and it was discovered by the creator of a famous product that became part of our product lines over 100 years ago. Now where did I put the instruction booklet? The product was the Esmarch Triangular Bandage, a very well known wound treatment and First Aid prod

From the earliest days of Johnson & Johnson, the Johnson brothers recognized the importance of advertising, and Robert Wood Johnson the first was often personally very involved in the development of ads for the Company’s products…sometimes too involved, the people at the advertising agency felt.  Johnson had excellent instincts about what would and wouldn’t work, and he kept J. Walter Thompson and his advertising agency busy with his many suggestions and changes. Thompson and Johnson were friends, and Thompson handled the Johnson & Johnson account personally.  (Robert Wood Johnson: The

The first Johnson & Johnson price list was published on June 1, 1887 – 120 years ago this summer. It was a small booklet, measuring just 3 inches wide by 5 ½ inches tall, with a black cover that said “Johnson & Johnson – Price List” in gold letters. Despite the plainness of its cover, the price list illustrated three ways in which the Johnson brothers showed that they intended their business to be different than other medical products firms in business in the late 19th century. The first way they accomplished this was by reprinting part of a letter on the first page. The correspondenc

A lot of people are interested in the connection between Johnson & Johnson, the Red Cross symbol, and the American Red Cross right now, so here’s some background on Johnson & Johnson and the Red Cross trademark.  The use of the Red Cross trademark by Johnson & Johnson on its products actually predates the Congressional charter of the American Red Cross by thirteen years.  Johnson & Johnson has used the Red Cross symbol since 1887 on products such as sterile gauze, dressings and cotton, sterile catgut sutures, adhesive plasters, first aid products, a variety of medicat

What do Johnson & Johnson and the Coca-Cola Company have in common?  For starters, they were both founded in 1886.   But there’s also something else you might not know:  for a short while, in the late 1800s, Johnson & Johnson made a cola drink. In an earlier post, I mentioned some of the lesser-known and more unusual products made by Johnson & Johnson in its earliest days.  One of my favorites is Vino Kolafra, which was a tonic preparation made from cola nut extract in a sherry wine base.  It was made by a small subsidiary, the Brunswick Pharmacal Com

Sometimes a chance conversation can lead to unexpected things.  In Johnson & Johnson history, conversations have led to some very well-known products from our Family of Companies.  A conversation in the late 1800s between one of our founders and someone he met on vacation led to something that’s a part of modern life:  The First Aid Kit.  Here’s how it happened. Vintage 1930s First Aid Kit, from our archives One day in the late 1880s, Company founder Robert Wood Johnson was on a Denver & Rio Grande train heading west through the Rocky Mountains, on his way to a much anticipated vacatio

I just read that scientists at Harvard Medical School have developed a new anaesthetic that uses capsaicin – the active ingredient in chili peppers that makes them spicy – in combination with another chemical, to block pain without affecting touch or movement. In other words, this may eventually hold the possibility of being able to block pain without numbing or paralyzing the affected area.   The articles are here, here and here.   Page from 19th Century Salesman's Book Showing Capsicum Plasters  The interesting thing is that over 100 years ago, capsaicin was being used as a medication to…bl