Procter & Gamble

When Procter & Gamble was formed in 1837, soaps were marketed quite differently from today being sold in long bars or smaller sizes called cakes, or in slabs which grocers sliced and weighed like cheese. Lots of these soaps were marketed without wrappers and did not have "brand" names as we are used to seeing today.

Soap products were used for all types of cleaning chores such as scrubbing floors, doing laundry as well as bathing. Unfortunately, little information has survived describing these early products which are sometimes found in old attics and storage trunks.

A white floating soap called Ivory was developed by Procter and Gamble. The floating reputedly was an accident of the manufacturing process, but actually developed in 1878 by James Norris Gamble a chemist, and named by his partner Harley Procter both sons of the founders Englishman William Procter a candle maker, and Irishman James Gamble an apprentice soap maker who met when they married sisters Olivia and Elizabeth Norris and formed an enterprising business together at the suggestion of their father in law Alexander Norris.

Procter and Gamble was incorporated in Cincinnati in 1837 as a family soap and candle company.

The search for a name for the new pure white soap ended in Church. Harley Procter had a flash of inspiration when the minister read from Psalms 45:8, "All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad and in October 1879, their first bar P & G White Soap called Ivory was sold.

Ivory was chosen for the white soap's purity, mildness and long lasting qualities. The business grew and prospered and in 1886 production began at the Ivorydale factory which replaced the Central Avenue plant heavily damaged by fire in 1884.

In 1930, P&G established its first overseas subsidiary with the acquisition of Thomas Hedley & Co. Ltd

Read all about Procter and Gamble one of the world great international companies

Other pages in this section

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