Kilmer House

Question:  How many of the three Johnson & Johnson founders also started another successful company?  Answer:  Two of them. Readers of Kilmer House know that Edward Mead Johnson left Johnson & Johnson in the 1890s to found another business, based on products to help infant digestion – a business that is still around today.  But did you know that Company founder Robert Wood Johnson was a founding partner in another health and medical products business before Johnson & Johnson?  That business was Seabury & Johnson.  Here’s the story: Wood & Tittamer, Poughkeepsie, New York I

When people think of LISTERINE® Antiseptic, probably the last thing they think about is electric guitars.  But they should, because LISTERINE®  and the electric guitar go back more than half a century together.  What was the connection?  It was through Les Paul (1915-2009), one of the inventors of the solid body electric guitar, who passed away this summer at age 94.  The LISTERINE®  Brand sponsored his groundbreaking television show in the 1950s. This on-screen sponsorship ID appeared at the beginning of every episode of Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home Starting in 1952, the LISTERINE®  Brand

One of the affiliate companies in the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies is known for its tradition of using famous actresses in its advertising.  As it turns out, actresses like Jennifer Garner in the U.S. and Deepika Padukone in India are not the first celebrities to endorse our products.  Some very well-known actresses (and some actors and athletes) were also singing the praises of one of our products almost 100 years ago, in the Nineteen Teens…  The product was Synol Soap, an antiseptic soap, and famous Broadway and vaudeville actresses of the day were writing to Johnson & Johns

Johnson & Johnson was started by James Wood Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson early in 1886 with 14 employees.  Once he was free of his obligations to Seabury & Johnson, Robert Wood Johnson the first joined the new company toward the end of the year.  Here’s a list of the 14 original Johnson & Johnson employees who worked in New Brunswick, in the first building:  W. H. Ritter James Smith Thomas Burley Elmer Briscoe Patrick Higgins Harry Smith M. S. Denman Kate Coogan Maggie Smith Annie Keegan Elizabeth Cahill Teresa Smith Agnes King Lizzie Kennedy It is interesting to note that these

Johnson & Johnson Plaster Mill Employee (left) and fellow soldier, Spanish American War, 1898 My last post talked about the origins of our tradition of employees volunteering in the community. Another way our employees volunteered was through military service to their countries, a tradition that began in 1898 with the Spanish American War when two Johnson & Johnson employees in the U.S. volunteered to serve in the military. One of Our First Two Employees to Volunteer to Serve in the Military in 1898: He Wrote the Company a Letter One of those two employees, Richard G., had just accep