Tilden and Company

FIGURE 2.1. Tilden and Company was an important manufacturer of botanical medicines prior to and during the Civil War, and as such was a leading standard-bearer of quality tinctures and extracts. It was one of the very few important pharmaceutical firms not located in Philadelphia. Illustration from the 1861 Tilden catalog, courtesy of the Reynolds Historical Library, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham. 

No matter how many indigenous herbs could be collected, this cmde drug supply needed to be made into medicine, and thus the accumulation of plant stores did not remove the necessity for an infrastructure of manufacture. Medicinal substances, whether botanical or chemical, usually needed some processing from their natural state. Without anything near the industrial capacity of Tilden and Company, Rosengarten and Sons, Powers and Weightman, Edward R. 

Tilden and Company, Formulce for Making Tinctures, Infusions, Syrups, Wines, Mixtures, Pills, c.. Simple and Compound, from the Fluid Solid Extracts Prepared at the Laboratory of Tilden Co. (New York Tilden, 1861). 

Numerous ethical drug companies also had saw palmetto-based formulas for similar problems. The Tilden Company, which had started producing herbal medicines in New Lebanon, New York, in 1824, listed three saw palmetto formulas in its 1937 catalog, including a saw palmetto compound that contained Serenoa, sandalwood, kola nut, and celery seed. 

The leaders of DuPont—two brothers, a brother-in-law, a nephew, and a cousin—at the New York World s Fair of 1939. They are previewing the company s Wonder World of Chemistry pavilion, where nylon was first introduced to the public. From left, Irenee du Pont, vice chairman of the board Henry B. du Pont, later a company vice president Ruly Carpenter William du Pont Jr., director and Lammot du Pont, president. (Courtesy of the New York World s Fair 1939-1940 records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.)... 

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