1892-1941
Bourne & Leigh was one of many potteries in this area in the 19th-century; established in 1892, the firm produced earthenware in a variety of patterns (see the May Blossom pattern in the 1922 ad below). Bourne & Leigh was in business until…
1854-1993
John Doulton opened Doulton & Co. in 1854, producing industrial ceramics (as advertised in the 1870 image below); the company became famous in the last half of this century for its stoneware figurines. King Edward VII granted Doulton a…
An aqua base of a bottle manufactured by the Adolphus G. Busch Manufacturing Company between 1908 and 1920, and an advertisement for the company from 1899, seven years after the company was incorporated.
1877-1894
Brothers Thomas and William Wood established their pottery on the Burslem Branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal, near a recently-built wharf; fittingly, they called the venture New Wharf Pottery. The 1880 advertisement below promotes the…
1863-1930s
By far the most famous product produced by this company was their Hunyadi Janos Mineral Spring Water, named for a 15th-century Hungarian hero; the base of a bottle of this water was found at the Charnley-Persky House in 2015 (see below).…
1850-1953
Sharp & Dohme formed their pharmaceutical partnership in 1860, expanding to large scale manufacturing by 1865. Their Chicago branch opened in 1888, and an amber bottle made by Sharp & Dohme was found at the Charnley-Persky House in 2015…
1884-1917
Price Baking Powder Company was established in 1884, nearly twenty years after Vincent Price and Charles Steele first started manufacturing baking powder in Chicago. The company was most famous for its baking powder, but it also produced…
1881-1946
Brothers Benjamin and Samuel Foster brought young pharmacist Malcomb Fairchild into their drug manufacturing partnership in 1881. The company mostly sold digestive products, a bottle of which was found at the Charnley-Persky House in 2015…
1881-1943
Andrew Scherer (pictured below in a 1941 Chicago Tribune article) opened his pharmacy on State and Division in 1886, five years after his first store. The pharmacy served many in the Gold Coast, and a bottle of Scherer’s was found at the…
1893-1910
Roxbury Distilling Company produced liquor, most famously Roxbury Rye, from 1893 to 1910. The company’s founder, George T. Gambrill was convicted of fraud in 1910 and the company was shut down. Gambrill’s most famous product, Roxbury…
1889-1956/1975
Emerson Drug Company was founded in 1890, two years after Isaac E. Emerson had an idea for a headache-curing medicine while working at a Baltimore drugstore. Emerson trademarked Bromo-Seltzer in 1889. An 1899 ad touting…
August H. Heisey, born in Germany in 1842, immigrated to the United States in 1843, setting up home in Pennsylvania. In 1861, Heisey got into the glass business working as a clerk for King Glass Company in Pittsburgh. After fighting for the Union…
1867-1951
Peter Schoenhofen bought out out his partner’s interest in 1867, renaming their brewery the Peter Schoenhofen Brewing Company. Its most popular product was Edelweiss beer (see advertisement below). After Prohibition, the company…
An 8-year-old Henry John Heinz began his entrepreneurial career in 1852 selling extra vegetables from his mother’s garden; seven years later, he started bottling and selling horseradish. In 1869, Heinz and L. Clarence Noble launch Heinz and Noble,…
1867-present
Founded in 1867, Armour quickly became one of the largest companies in the United States.Chicago and Union Stockyard quickly became the center of the American meatpacking industry; by 1880 Armour was Chicago’s leading industrial…
1890-1922?
Frank Yergin sold his Paris, Illinois drugstore in 1890 with the intention of moving to Chicago to focus on manufacturing his own products. An advertisement for his Russian Oil is shown below; tin 1916, his wife is listed as the…
1897-1922?
John J. Schmitt became a pharmacist at the turn of the 20th-century, opening his own drugstore at the corner of Clark and Arlington Place as early as 1897. He remained in the same location (pictured below in an undated photograph) at…
1871-1923
In 1871, A. G. Burley & Co. (established 1838) became Burley & Tyrrell, importers of glassware and china; the retail business was sold to a nephew in 1883, calling itself Burley & Co. (advertised below in 1902). The companies existed side…
1852-present
E. H. Sargent was established in 1852; a bottle embossed with the company’s name was found at the Charnley-Persky House in 2010. In 1875, Sargent began marketing through a catalog, the first recorded mail order solicitation for…
