Colgate (toothpaste)



Colgate logo
Colgate logo
Names:
--- "Colgate's Antiseptic Dental Powder" (glass jar)
--- "Colgate's Ribbon Dental Cream" (collapsible tube)

Category: Health - Beauty

Subcategory: Toothpaste

Inventor - Producer: Colgate & Company under the management of Samuel Colgate (founded by his father William Colgate in 1806)

Production start: 1873 (in jar, 1896 in collapsible tube) - New York City, USA

Features: The label of the "Colgate's Antiseptic Dental Powder" in jar reads: "To cleanse and whiten the teeth. This powder contains precipitated carbonate of calcium, carbonate of magnesium, and soap. Endorsed by professors of chemistry in dental schools and recommended by leading dentists".

Interesting facts: In 1806, William Colgate starts a starch, soap and candle business on Dutch Street in New York City. In 1857, upon his death, the company is reorganized as Colgate & Co. under the management of Samuel Colgate, his son.

Slogan (1908): «We couldn't improve the product so we improved the tube».

Property: Colgate-Palmolive Company

Producer website: http://www.colgatepalmolive.com

Colgate's Antiseptic Dental Powder
Colgate's Antiseptic Dental Powder package
Colgate's Antiseptic Dental Powder (1873)

Colgate Dental Powder advertisement 1891
Colgate's Dental Powder, newspaper advertisement (The Indianapolis journal, Oct. 18, 1891)

Colgate Dental Powder box 1897 - top
Colgate Dental Powder box 1897
Colgate Dental Powder 1897
Colgate's Dental Powder in a sample box (1897)

Colgate's Antiseptic Powders advertisement 1905
Colgate's Antiseptic Powders advertisement (Country Life in America magazine, February 1905)

Colgate's Antiseptic Dental Powder advertisement 1906 - Colgate's 100th anniversary
Colgate's Antiseptic Dental Powder advertisement: a special package marks Colgate company's 100th anniversary (The Delineator magazine, September 1906)

Colgate's Ribbon Dental Cream
Colgate's Dental Cream tube
Colgate's Ribbon Dental Cream (1896). In 1892, Doctor Washington Sheffield, an American Dentist of New London manufactured toothpaste into a collapsible tube (right image below). He had the idea after his son travelled to Paris and saw painters using paint from tubes. Colgate's Ribbon Dental Cream was packaged in collapsible tubes imitating Sheffield. The original collapsible toothpaste tubes were made of lead.
Colgate Dental Cream and Sheffiled's Dentifrice

Colgate Dental Cream Ad 1910
Colgate's Ribbon Dental Cream advertisement (The Ladies' Home Journal, Feb. 1910)

Colgate Dental Cream Ad 1911
Colgate's Ribbon Dental Cream advertisement (McCall's Magazine, Dec. 1911)

Colgate Dental Cream Advertising 1915
Colgate's Ribbon Dental Cream advertising card (1915)

William Colgate and his son Samuel
The inventors of the Colgate toothpaste.
From left: William Colgate (Hollingbourne, Jan. 25, 1783 - New York City, Mar. 25, 1857), who founded in 1806 what became the Colgate toothpaste company, and his son Samuel Colgate (New York City, Mar. 22, 1822 - Orange, Apr. 23, 1897), manager of the Colgate & Co. during the years of product launch.

Colgate advanced
Colgate toothpaste, an advanced version