Bristol-Myers Company

Product Details

Beautifully engraved antique stock certificate from the Bristol-Myers Company dating back to the 1970's. This document, which carries the printed signatures of the company President and Treasurer, was a printed by the American Bank Note Company, and measures approximately 12" (w) by 8" (h).

This certificate's intricate vignette features two nude male figures flanking the company logo.

Images

You will receive the exact certificate pictured.

Historical Context

In 1887, Hamilton College graduates William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers purchased the Clinton Pharmaceutical company of Clinton, New York. In 1898, they decided to rename it Bristol, Myers and Company. Following Myers' death in 1899, Bristol changed the name to the Bristol-Myers Corporation. The first nationally recognized product was Sal Hepatica, a laxative mineral salt in 1903. Its second national success was Ipana toothpaste, from 1901 through the 1960s. Other divisions were Clairol (hair colors and haircare) and Drackett (household products such as Windex and Drano). The company also produced Bufferin - an asperin alternative.

In 1943, Bristol-Myers acquired Cheplin Biological Laboratories, a producer of acidophilus milk in East Syracuse, New York, and converted the plant to produce penicillin for the World War II Allied forces. After the war, the company renamed the plant Bristol Laboratories in 1945 and entered the civilian antibiotics market, where it faced competition from Squibb, which had opened the world's largest penicillin plant in 1944 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Penicillin production at the East Syracuse, New York plant was ended in 2005, when it became less expensive to produce overseas, but the facility continues to be used for the manufacturing process development and production of other biologic medicines for clinical trials and commercial use.

Bristol-Myers and Squibb merged in 1989, with Bristol-Myers as the nominal survivor. The merged company became Bristol-Myers Squibb.

In 1999, President Clinton awarded Bristol-Myers Squibb the National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest recognition for technological achievement, "for extending and enhancing human life through innovative pharmaceutical research and development and for redefining the science of clinical study through groundbreaking and hugely complex clinical trials that are recognized models in the industry."