Object Record
Images
Metadata
Collection |
Waterloo Region Museum |
Object ID |
2011.080.001 |
Object Name |
Crate, Storage |
Description |
Product display for a commercial store. The display case is cardboard with a white background and black and orange lettering. The back of the case is higher than the rest and there is a cut-out along the front edge. Printed on the back edge of the case is "Cress/Information Folders/Quality Products" in both English and French. Printed along the lower edge of the front is "Quality Products/Cress/Produits De Qualite". The case contains three boxes of each Cress product - corn salve, wart remover, callous salve, bunion salve, and ingrown toe-nail salve. Each box contains a jar of the salve and a folded, paper product sheet. The jars are opaque brown glass with a metal lid. The jars are full of salve. The individual boxes are black and white with an accent colour - red, green, yellow, and orange. Two of the wart remover boxes have paper stickers attached to the top. The labels have drawings of warts with "Common Warts" and "Plantar Warts" printed below. |
Date |
1996 |
Dimensions |
H-13 W-14.5 L-22 cm |
History |
Noah Cress (1864-1948) was the son of Levi Cress (1837-1916) and Mary Ann Geib (1845-1928) of St. Jacobs, ON. In 1903, he married Regina (Ricki) Schweitzer (1869-1943), daughter of Martin Schweitzer (1832-1911) and Philippine Flehr (1843-1917) of Conestogo, ON. Noah was initially a photographer but in the 1920s he developed corn and bunion salves which he began to sell door-to-door. Noah's only child, Marion (1907-1997) married Henry Heldmann (1906-1972), son of Henry Heldmann (1859-1943) and Anna Caroline Ruthig (1866-?) of Philipsburg, ON in 1931. Marion and Henry took an interest in the salves and that same year, formed Cress Laboratories in Kitchener, ON. The company grew and expanded its product line during the 1940s, and in 1951, the company held the US patent for the first plastic adhesive bandages called Wound Aids. The patent was bought by Johnson and Johnson in 1955. The company continued to be owned and operated by the Heldmann family, including Marion and Henry's two sons, John and James, until it closed in 1997. The last factory for Cress Laboratories was in the former Pine Grove schoolhouse at 4336 King Street East in Preston. As of 2012, the building is the Borealis Restaurant on Heldmann Road near Sportsworld Drive in Kitchener. |
Search Terms |
Cress Laboratories Limited |
People |
Heldmann, Henry Cress, Noah |