Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories

Chicago pharmacist and physician Wallace Calvin Abbott (1857–1921) founded the Abbott Alkaloidal Company in 1900. The medical business, renamed Abbott Laboratories in 1915, started with the success of Abbott’s alkaloid pills that he produced in his own home. A new formula at the time, alkaloid pills, or “dosimetric granules” as he called them, were solid tablets of commonly prescribed liquid medications, such as morphine, codeine, and quinine. This method made it easier for pharmacists to prescribe more exact dosages and increased the shelf life of medications. Although he did not invent this method, Abbott was one of the first physicians to improve upon the idea and devise a method of manufacturing tablets in precise measurements and large quantities. 

During World War I, Abbott Laboratories produced substitutes for medications previously exported from German pharmaceutical companies. As a result, Abbott’s company quickly grew and began funding research for the development of new drugs. Prior to the late nineteenth century, medicines were derived from natural sources in the forms of herbs, plants, and roots. The manufacturing of chemicals for synthetic drugs marked a turning point in the pharmaceutical industry. British chemist Henry Dakin’s invention of the antiseptic Chlorazene, the first synthetic medicine manufactured by Abbott Laboratories, was indispensable in treating the wounds of World War I soldiers. During the 1920s and 1930s, the company collaborated with chemists Dr. Ernest H. Volwiler and Dr. Roger Adams, head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who developed the local anesthetic Butyn in 1922. Volwiler, along with Dr. Donalee L. Tabern, discovered the widely used general anesthetic sodium thiopental, trademarked Pentothal, in 1936. After Abbott’s death in 1921 at the age of sixty-three, the company continued to prosper and opened its new manufacturing facilities in North Chicago.

In 1933, Abbott Laboratories participated in the Century of Progress International Exposition. Pamphlets produced by Abbott Laboratories for the Chicago World’s Fair, include “Halibut: The Interesting Fish That Cannot Live in an Aquarium,” lauding the health benefits of halibut liver oil capsules, and “The Food You Have Never Seen,” an informative brochure on vitamins. Dr. Ernest H. Volwiler, then vice president of Abbott Laboratories, and Dr. C.J. Barborka, a nutrition specialist at Northwestern University, delivered speeches at the dedication ceremonies for the Hall of Science. The Abbott Laboratories’ exhibition

displayed pure vitamins in crystallized form and demonstrated the applications of vitamins by the pharmaceutical industry. Four years earlier, in 1929, Dr. Christiaan Eijkman and Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins had shared the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their advances in the field of vitamins. By the mid-1930s, multivitamin products manufactured by pharmaceutical companies were widely available and heavily advertised.

Abbott Laboratories hired Chicago-based graphic designer Bert Ray as the art director of its company magazine What’s New, which debuted in 1935. A founding member of the Twenty-Seven Chicago Designers, Ray’s award-winning designs for the magazine introduced art and design to the genre of pharmaceutical publications. Ray was praised as a forerunner in “the application of design to pharmaceutical advertising.” During his tenure at Abbott Laboratories, Ray also taught commercial design courses in “production processes for advertising design students” at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Abbott Laboratories was a long-term client of Chicago calligrapher and designer Raymond F. DaBoll whose correspondence with Abbott Laboratories, original artwork, and printed specimens are available to researchers at the Newberry Library. The Chicago History Museum Research Center holds photographs of Abbott Laboratories facilities by the Chicago photography firm Hedrich-Blessing as well as a selection of archival materials related to the pharmaceutical company.

Beginning in the 1940s, Abbott Laboratories became one of the first mass producers of penicillin. The following decade, Abbott Laboratories began distributing the sugar substitute Cyclamate. As its first foray into consumer products, Cyclamate was initially a profitable product for Abbott Laboratories and was marketed as a safe alternative to sugar for people with diabetes. Its popularity rose as diet-conscious Americans replaced sugar with Cyclamate in their beverages and cooking; however, in 1970, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classified Cyclamate as a carcinogen and banned further production. 

In 1967, Chicago businessman Edward J. Ledder was appointed the president of Abbott Laboratories, ushering in a new era for the company that included consumer products in addition to its standard pharmaceutical production. Ledder hired former Revlon associate Melvin Birnbaum to manage the transition, and the diversification strategy proved fruitful. Over the years, Abbott has produced numerous consumer products in the fields of nutrition, healthcare, and vision, including Similac baby formula, the electrolyte solution Pedialyte, Selsun Blue medicated shampoo, Pream nondairy coffee creamer, and Murine eye drops.

During the 1980s, Abbott Laboratories produced electronic testing methods that provided more accurate results than their analogue counterparts, receiving great support from hospitals across the country. In 1985, Abbott Laboratories received FDA approval for the first blood-testing kit for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In 2000, the company introduced drugs to treat and prevent the spread of HIV, most notably the drug Kaletra, which showed fewer side effects than other treatments on the market. That same year, Abbott received FDA approval for their drug Humira for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and psoriasis.

Abbott Laboratories has remained successful into the twenty-first century, exceeding sixteen billion dollars in annual sales and employing nearly seven thousand Chicago-area employees. In 2012, the company split in two, with the medical device and consumer product branches retaining the name Abbott Laboratories and the pharmaceutical branch renamed AbbVie Inc. The decision to split was made primarily in the interest of shareholders who were increasingly skeptical of the investment risks in a company with such a wide range of products and fields. As of 2017, Abbott Laboratories produces products for consumers and healthcare professionals. They divide their products into six categories: Nutrition, Diagnostics, Vascular, Vision, Diabetes Care, and Pharmaceutical.

A Century of Progress records, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Abbott Laboratories. “Our History.” http://www.abbott.com/about-abbott/our- heritage.html. 

“Art Director Traces History of Magazine.” Dayton Daily News, October 20, 1950.

Burrell, Brandon. “Abbott Laboratories: Provisioning a Vision.” PhD diss., Florida State University, 2013.

Century of Progress International Exposition Publications, Crerar Ms 226, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

“Century of Progress Notes.” Chicago Tribune, June 22, 1934.

“Classes in New Fields Offered in Art Institute: Reorganize Industrial Design Division.” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 12, 1947.

Corfield, Justin. “Abbott, Wallace Calvin (1857–1921).” Vol. 1 of The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History, edited by Kenneth E. Hendrickson III, 3. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.

“Countryside to Host Art Slide Lecture.” Roselle Register, March 6, 1968.

De la Merced, Michael J. and Bruce Jaspen. “Abbott Labs to Split into 2 Companies.” New York Times, October 19, 2011. 

DeForest Sackett Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago.

“Dr. Wallace C. Abbott, Laboratory Chief, Dies.” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 5, 1921.

“Graphic Design.” Chicago Tribune, March 12, 2018.

Heller, Steven and Greg D’Onofrio. The Moderns: Midcentury American Graphic Design. New York: Abrams, 2017.

International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 40. Farmington Hills, Michigan: St. James Press, 2001.

Israelski, Edmond W. and William H. Muto. “User-Centered Design at Abbott Laboratories.” In Designing Usability into Medical Products, edited by Michael E. Wiklund and Stephen B. Wilcox, 257–268. London: Taylor & Francis, 2005.

James Hayes Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Kogan, Herman. The Long White Line: The Story of Abbott Laboratories. New York: Random House, 1963.

Lagana, Gretchen. “Collecting Design Resources at the University of Illinois at Chicago.” Design Issues 3, no. 2 (Autumn 1986): 37–36.

Margolin, Victor, et. al. Chicago Graphic Design: The Best of Contemporary Chicago Graphic Design with Essays on Past and Present Trends. Edited by Rob Dewey. Natick, MA: RWP/RP Elite Editions, 1994.

Mary Gehr Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

“New President of Dartmouth Here March 29.” Chicago Sunday Tribune, March 24, 1946.

“Obituaries: Bert Ray.” Chicago Tribune, November 17, 1969.

“Obituary: Wallace Calvin Abbott, M.D., Chicago, Ill.” Medical Record 100, no. 3 (July 16, 1921): 114.

Raymond Franklin DaBoll Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Remington, R. Roger. Lester Beall: Trailblazer of American Graphic Design. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996.

Richmond A. Jones Design Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Sawyers, June Skinner. Chicago Portraits: New Edition. Foreword by Rick Kogan. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2012.

Snyder, Gertrude and Alan Peckolick. Herb Lubalin: Art Director, Graphic Designer, and Typographer. New York: American Showcase, 1985.

Spigel, Lynn. TV by Design: Modern Art and the Rise of Network Television. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Trasoff, Victor. “Pharmaceutical Advertising Design.” Graphis 9, no. 47 (March 1, 1953): 205–21, 247–49.

W.C. Abbott.” American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record 69, no. 8 (August 1, 1921): 59.

Wilson, Mark R. “Abbott Laboratories.” Encyclopedia of Chicago. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2522.html.