Kilmer House

Aseptic gauze and cotton were among the first Johnson & Johnson products.  Many of these early products were impregnated with antiseptic agents or medication, and sealed in glass or metal containers to keep them sterile. These antiseptic gauzes and cottons helped revolutionize surgical care by greatly reducing mortality rates from surgical infection.  Many of the names of the Company’s early products, such as the ones above, were descriptive of the product or its ingredients.  Others -- such as Dr. Grosvenor’s Bellcapsic Plaster -- were named after physicians who contributed ideas for new

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 was originally

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 sweets, such as cakes and pies.  The need for products to c

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 pioneer in antisept

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