Carter's Ink Company
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Carter's Ink Company was an American manufacturer of
ink Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. Thi ...
and related products, based first in Boston and later in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was once the largest ink manufacturer in the world.''Let's Talk About Ink'' with Ed and Lucy Faulkner: "The Carter Ink Company"
Accessed 2008-09-27
Apart from ink, Carter produced a line of fountain pens during a brief period in the 1920s. Some collectors regard those pens as items of a fine quality. Later, the company was acquired by
Avery-Dennison Avery Dennison Corporation is a multinational manufacturer and distributor of pressure-sensitive adhesive materials (such as self-adhesive labels), apparel branding labels and tags, RFID inlays, and specialty medical products. The company is a ...
. Nowadays, Avery commercialises rubber stamps under the ''Carter'' brand.Stamp pads & inkers
on Avery, 19 Aug 2020


History


Early years

The William Carter Company, the forerunner of Carter's Ink, was founded in 1858 by Boston stationer William Carter who, in order to supplement his paper sales, had started repackaging other companies' inks and selling them under his own name. In 1860, William Carter's brother, Edward Carter, joined the company and the firm became known as "William Carter and Bro." The Civil War disrupted Carter's primary ink supplier, so William Carter obtained the use of its formulas on a royalty basis and started making his own inks and mucilage, which necessitated the move to a larger building. Another brother, John H. Carter, joined the company, which became "William Carter & Bros."


Development and final years

In 1865 William's cousin,
John W. Carter John W. Carter was a partner in Carter's Ink Company in Boston and later Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1865 until his death by drowning in 1895. The firm was founded by his cousin, William Carter. His son, Richard B. Carter, ran the company fr ...
, joined the enterprise and the name became "Carter Bros. & Company." John W. Carter focused his efforts on the ink part of the business which, along with the sales efforts of James P. Dinsmore, resulted in such growth that the ink business was separated from the paper business and moved into its own quarters in 1868." The entire firm and both of its divisions and their separate buildings were destroyed the night of November 9, 1872, in what has been called the Great Boston Fire of 1872. All that was left was the company's good will and its formulas. After the fire in 1872, John W. Carter teamed up with James P. Dinsmore to buy the ink division and start a new firm known as "Carter, Dinsmore and Company." The new company thrived and by 1884 had become the largest ink producer in the world. Contributing to this growth was John W. Carter's belief in and commitment to research to develop new and better inks. James P. Dinsmore retired in 1888, and John W. Carter drowned in 1895, which created an organizational crisis in the unincorporated enterprise, which led to its incorporation later that year as "The Carter's Ink Company.A discussion of the history of Carter's Ink Company
Accessed 2008-09-27
At the time of John W. Carter's death, his son,
Richard B. Carter Richard B. Carter (1877–1949), ink manufacturer, was president of the Carter's Ink Company, in Boston and later Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1903-1949. Early life and education Richard Burrage Carter was born on April 8, 1877, in West Newton, M ...
was still studying at
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, but after his graduation in 1898, he joined the company. After a period of learning the business, he became its head in 1903. Under Richard Carter's leadership the company outgrew its Boston location. In 1909 a new factory was built in Cambridge and occupied in 1910. The building's huge "Carter's Inks" electric sign faced the Charles River and was an area landmark for many years. Richard Carter continued his father's commitment to research and development of inks, glues and related products. In the mid-1920s, when upmarket fountain pens were a popular luxury item, Carter began its own range of pens, more specifically in 1926. The line was discontinued in the early 1930s, but they are still fondly remembered and sought after by collectors. Carter's also manufactured mechanical pencils, as well as desk pen sets.
Samuel D. Wonders Samuel D. Wonders (1890–1980) was an American consulting engineer and ink manufacturer who served as president of the Carter's Ink Company, in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1949 to 1955.''Who Was Who in America,'' Vol. IX (1985–1989) Wilmette ...
was elected president of the company in 1949 and served until 1955. Francis J. Honn invented the highlighting marker (under the trademark
Hi-Liter A highlighter is a type of writing device used to mark attention to sections of text by marking them with a vivid, translucent colour. A typical highlighter is fluorescent yellow, colored with pyranine. Different compounds, such as rhodamines ( R ...
) as the Vice President of Technology at Carter's in 1963. In 1975 the company was sold to Dennison Manufacturing Company, now Avery Dennison. Samuel D. Wonders was followed by Nathan C. Hubley, Jr who retired as president in 1976 when the company was sold to Dennison. To help with the transition, he remained with Dennison as vice president until 1977.


Post acquisition

After acquiring Carter's Ink Company in 1975, Dennison made the business decision to discard all of Carter's records from the 1860s on, including all of Carter's meticulous ink research records. The Carter name is still used by Avery-Dennison on some ink-related products such as rubber stamps. The Carter's Ink building in Cambridge still stands but has been adapted to other uses. In the summer of 1984, the Thinking Machines Corporation (the market leader in
parallel computing Parallel computing is a type of computation in which many calculations or processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. There are several different fo ...
by then) moved its headquarters to top floors in the building. Five years later, TMC signed a ten-year lease with the building, for
US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
6 million a year. In 2004, the building was converted to include 130,000 square feet of lab space to accommodate acquisition by ViaCell, a cellular medicine research company later acquired by PerkinElmer. Nowadays, the former Carter's building is occupied by
The Forsyth Institute The Forsyth Institute, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of the leading centers for dental and craniofacial research in the world. It was envisioned in 1908 by James Forsyth, who left $500,000 in his will for the establishment of a dent ...
,Contacts + directions
at Forsyth Institute, 20 Aug 2020
one of the leading centers for dental and craniofacial research in the world and affiliated to the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.


References


External links


Carter's products
on Avery website

* ttp://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HBS.Baker.EAD:bak00239 Dennison Manufacturing Company Records at Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School {{Art materials brands Fountain pen and ink manufacturers Companies based in Cambridge, Massachusetts Manufacturing companies based in Boston Companies established in 1858 1858 establishments in Massachusetts Ink brands