1880-1949
Founded in 1880, Zeh, Scherzer & Co. produced a wide range of products, including an exclusive series for Geo. Borgeldt & Co. (advertised in the 1921 image below). In 1949, they began using the name and backmark Scherzer & Co. or Scherzer…
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…
1857-1901
Whitall Tatum and Company produced glassware for well over a century, mostly prescription bottles, and was best known for its “flint” (colorless) glass. The company went through a few name changes since its 1806 start as a window glass…
1812-present
Waterbury Button Company was established in 1812 during the United States’ war against the U.K. of the same year, producing stamped metal buttons for the armed forces. During the Civil War, both sides wore Waterbury buttons on their…
147-1970
Josiah Spode established his pottery in 1770 and became well-known for his porcelain. After being known as Copeland & Garrett (1833-1847), the company transitioned in 1847 to W. T. Copeland & Sons and remained so until 1970; the 1900…
1859-early 20th century
Roswell van Buskirk created his popular Sozodont (from the Greek “save” and “teeth”) in 1859, advertising its power to improve teeth, gum, and breath (as in the ad below, c. 1900). As early as 1880, dentists began…
1891-present
Theodore Haviland split from his family company, Haviland & Co., and formed his own china business in 1891. Haviland produced a wide range of china, even expanding into sculpture, advertising in 1916 animal sculptures made by Swiss…
1869-1889
Tarrant & Co. was established in 1834 and formed a partnership with Johann Hoff in 1869. Johann Hoff’s Malt Extract had been marketed as a medicinal tonic since its invention in 1847; Tarrant & Co. became the sole agent for the product…
A 1903 advertisement for the Streator bottle and glass Company in Streator, Illinois, boasting their wine and liquor bottles would not break in shipment (as their competitors’ bottles would).
RRH
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…
1874-present
Scott and Bowne was formed in 1874 with the partnership of Alfred Scott and Samuel Bowne; their most famous product was Scott’s Emulsion, an emulsion of cod liver oil meant to make the substance “palatable as milk” (as the 1884 ad…
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…
1857-Present
Sanford’s Manufacturing Company was founded in Massachusetts in 1857 and moved to Chicago in 1866. The company sold a range of products, but was best known for its ink (as the 1920 ad below attest); in the 1940s, the company changed…
1865-1920s
Samuel Merrill Bixby began manufacturing and selling shoe blacking in 1860, selling his short-lived shoe store to focus full-time on the venture in 1865. Soon after, S. M. Bixby & Company was formed, producing a wide range of dye-related…
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…
1901-1932
A figure from the 1915 patent for a new design for the Coca-Cola bottle, created by the Root Glass Company. Established by Chapman J. Root in 1901, the Root Glass Company is best known for manufacturing bottles for Coca-Cola, beginning in…
1891-1920
Pitkin & Brooks was an importer of china and glassware, established in 1891 and incorporated in 1901; the company did not produced its own wares, but applied its own makers’ mark to all the products it sold. The business had a large…
