Kilmer House

Here’s another special behind the scenes video tour of some lesser known items from Johnson & Johnson history.  If you’ve ever wondered where the last loading dock for horse drawn wagons at Johnson & Johnson is located, which unusual 1960s fashion was made by one of our operating companies, why we once made doll clothing, and how we got from medicated plasters to JOHNSON’S® Baby Powder, you’ll know the answers to all of those questions after you watch this post.   You’ll also be able to see -- for the first time -- letters from two of our founders written

Here’s a quick quiz.  From the description of this Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies product, would the consumer using it be more likely to be listening to music on an MP3 player, or cranking up one of those old fashioned gramophones?  The product is a liquid bandage that’s applied with an applicator.  It forms a transparent, waterproof coating that keeps small wounds covered while they heal, and it won’t wash off with soap and water.  Any guesses?  Here’s the answer:  get that gramophone out of the museum, because the product was Cotolia Liquid Court Plas

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

Most people today probably use an antibacterial soap at home.  In the Nineteen-teens, before the vaccine era, a germ-killing soap was even more of a necessity to help combat disease and keep people healthy.   Around 1900, U.S. doctors asked Johnson & Johnson to make a disinfectant soap that would help them wash their hands, disinfect instruments, and keep patients clean.  The Company’s response was Synol Soap.  Johnson & Johnson frequently made products that served unmet needs in health care, such as the first First Aid products.  This philosophy went back to the Company’s first-ever

Along with its more famous products, the Company made some lesser-known and more unusual products in its early days. One of these products was Vino Kolafra, a restorative tonic made from kola nut extract with a sherry base. The formation of the Coca-Cola Company in 1893 and its subsequent advertising campaigns helped spark interest in tonic preparations among the population of the United States. Johnson & Johnson introduced Vino Kolafra in 1894, advertising it as a calmer of nerves, an imparter of strength, a convalescent aid and as encouraging workers to “do more work with less effort an

Game shows.  Moustaches.  Hollywood movie studios.  Doll clothing.  They can’t all be connected to Johnson & Johnson…or can they?  Of course, they can!  Read on to discover seven more things you didn’t know about J&J. 1.    In the mid-1950s, iconic comedian and television pioneer Imogene Coca advertised the Company’s first aid products on television, as part of Johnson & Johnson’s “Emergencies Don’t Wait” campaign.  Here’s a photo of her overreacting in horror to the fact that her medicine cabinet is lacking first aid supplies…something that the Company hoped to remedy with its 19

Throughout its history, Johnson & Johnson has been known for developing and making products in response to needs in society…such as the first commercially available sterile surgical dressings.  Occasionally, though, the Company produced a product that helped fill a more unusual need in society.  One early product filled not a health care need, but a fashion craze.  And that product was…Beauty Spots.     Beauty Spots were small pieces of material – usually black silk or sometimes velvet – with adhesive on the back.  They were most commonly shaped lik

A Peek Inside One of Our Offices in the Mid-1940s 1. The Company started on the fourth floor of an old wallpaper factory. 2. In the Nineteen-teens, before air conditioning, Johnson & Johnson had a swimming pool for employees – at work! -- so they could cool off in the summer heat. 3. When he was younger, Robert Wood Johnson the first was known to wear a stovepipe hat.  (We don’t have a picture of him wearing the hat in our archives, unfortunately.) 4. Barry Manilow wrote the “I Am Stuck on BAND-AID® Brand…” jingle. 5. John Travolta, Terri Garr and Brooke Shie

What’s the weirdest thing ever made by the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies?  Was it a tonic medicine with a sherry base?  Or sausage casings?  Or doll clothing?  (Yes, we once made that too, out of non-woven fabric.  That’s the subject of a future post.) Or maybe beauty spots?  Or duct tape?  Or maybe…it was rubber bands. Some Typical Modern Non-Company Related Rubber Bands So…we made rubber bands?  Yes we actually did -- or to be more accurate, one of our acquisitions did in 1910.   Readers of Kilmer House will remember that the Co

It’s strong, it’s sticky, it’s in practically every home, and it’s been used to fix almost everything -- from airplane wings to houses to chair legs. It has a fanatical following, people even make clothing out of it, and there’s an annual festival and more than one website dedicated to it. What is it? It’s duct tape, and it was invented by Johnson & Johnson during World War II as a waterproof sealing tape. Samples of  Duct Tape from Permacel Tape Reference Book in Our Archives So why on earth did a company that made sterile dressings, sterile sutures, public health and personal