Richardson-Vicks, Inc., Records, 1885-1995

Has Online Content

Some materials from this collection are available online.
Show only online content

Access restrictions

Some materials from this collection have restrictions.
See restrictions

Summary

Creator:
Richardson-Vicks, Inc.
Abstract:

Lunsford Richardson (1854-1919) began marketing various remedies in Greensboro, N.C. in 1898. The operation became Vick Chemical Company in 1911 and made increasing profits with its Vicks VapoRub cold remedy. The Company was managed over the following decades by Richardson's sons H. Smith (1885-1972) and Lunsford, Jr. (1891-1953). After various mergers and acquisitions, it became Richardson-Vick, Inc., in 1980. In 1985 the Richardson family sold the company to Procter & Gamble Co.

The collection includes files kept by H. Smith Richardson, Sr., while he was president of Vick Chemical Company, 1919-1929; files pertaining to the operation of the company, chiefly generated by the General Manager's Department; files from the Advertising and Sales Department, including campaign books; financial and legal papers; personnel materials; files from the Production Department; "historical material"; clippings; files of H. Smith Richardson, Jr., concerning hostile takeover bids; Richardson family papers; product samples; photographs; and audio-visual materials. Although the papers include material from the early years of the company through its sale to Procter & Gamble Company in 1985, the bulk of material dates from the years 1919-1929. Coverage of the years before 1919 is scant, consisting of a few mementoes and some correspondence. Coverage of the years 1929-1985 is very uneven. A notable exception is material from the Advertising and Sales Department, which is nearly complete from 1920 to 1960.

Extent:
34,000 items (100.0 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

In 1890, Lunsford Richardson (1854 1919), realizing that his prospects were limited in the town of Selma, N.C., sold his successful but small drugstore, and moved with his wife and children to the larger town of Greensboro, N.C. There he hoped to find bigger markets and more opportunities.

Richardson and a partner, John Fariss, bought the Porter and Tate Drugstore on Elm Street in Greensboro, renaming it the Richardson and Fariss Drugstore. There, Richardson began to sell the home remedies that he had developed over the years. In 1894, he introduced a product that was destined to make him a fortune, Vicks Magic Salve, a cure for croup.

The origin of the name Vicks has been clouded by time. However, according to company lore, Lunsford Richardson thought his own name was too long and cumbersome to attach to a product. He decided to use the shorter Vicks, in honor of his brother in law Joshua Vick, a doctor in Selma.

In 1898, Richardson's interest in making remedies prompted him to sell his share in the thriving drugstore to his partner and start a new company, Lunsford Richardson Wholesale Drug Company. Among other cures, he continued to make Vicks Magic Salve under a new name, Vicks Croup and Pneumonia Salve.

Richardson quickly tired of fighting with the other stockholders in the company about what to do with the profits. While he wanted to put any profits back into the business to finance more advertising, they wanted them as dividends. As a result, Richardson sold his share of the business in 1905.

Richardson took his savings and opened a new business, Vick Family Remedies Company, this time owned solely by him. He made twenty one different remedies under the Vicks name, and marketed them in twenty surrounding counties.

Despite his hard work, Lunsford Richardson's new business did not make a profit, and he began to run out of savings. In 1907, he asked his oldest son Henry Smith Richardson (1885 1972) to be advertising and sales manager for the fledgling company in hopes that his son could rescue it.

Smith Richardson, as he was called, attended Davidson College for a time before transferring to the Naval Academy. He was dismissed from the Academy for low grades in 1905, during a purge that resulted in the dismissal of nearly a fourth of the cadets. Following his expulsion, Smith went to New York and worked in a number of jobs. While he was working in the basement of Gimbles, Richardson's talents as a salesman were discovered by the Bedford Manufacturing Company of Massachusetts. He joined Bedford and was working for that company when his father requested his help. In 1907, Smith Richardson brought his talents home to North Carolina to turn his father's business around.

Smith Richardson's prescription for a healthy company was to focus its efforts on selling the product that brought in the most money Vicks Croup and Pneumonia Salve. By about 1911, the other remedies had been dropped, and the company had changed its name to Vick Chemical Company and its product's name to the catchy Vicks VapoRub.

Richardson was an aggressive salesman and an innovative advertising manager. He traveled all over North Carolina, and then the southeast, from drugstore to drugstore, and country store to country store, selling VapoRub. First he and the sales force traveled by horse and buggy, and then by Model T Ford. For his efforts, Smith Richardson was made a partner in 1911.

The company's advertising strategies were revolutionary. Vick Chemical Company was one of the first businesses to use such techniques as road signs, store displays, street car advertising, "mark out" slogans, and free samples. When the company began expanding its territory north and west, it was one of the first companies to take advantage of Rural Free Delivery, by sending samples through the mail.

In 1913, Smith Richardson's brother Lunsford Richardson, Jr. (1891 1953), known as "Lump," began working for the company as office manager and assistant sales and advertising manager. By 1917, he was made a partner.

The great influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 gave VapoRub a tremendous boost. The company produced VapoRub twenty four hours a day, and still could not keep up with the demand. In 1919, Lunsford Richardson died, leaving a booming business to his two sons. Smith Richardson became the company's president.

The company grew rapidly in the 1920s. Another plant was built in Philadelphia in 1923. Also in 1923, VapoRub was exported overseas to England, and south to Mexico. An export department was opened in New York in 1924, to handle what was to become big business for the company, selling VapoRub overseas.

In 1925, the Richardsons decided to sell one fourth of their stock in Vick Chemical Company to the public. The stock was primarily bought by employees and people in the drug trade. Smith Richardson turned over the presidency to his brother Lunsford in 1929, and took on the responsibility of long range planning for the now very successful business. He realized that Vick Chemical Company was a one product organization, that the growth potential of that product was limited, and that the company needed to diversify. To that end, Vick Chemical Company merged in 1930 with Sterling Products, Bristol Myers Company, Life Savers, and United Drug Company to form a giant conglomerate called Drug Inc.

Despite the stock market crash of 1929 and the economic chaos that followed, Vick Chemical Company continued to do well. People still caught colds, depression or no depression. In 1931, Va tro nol Nosedrops and Vicks Cough Drops were introduced. Both were almost instantly successful.

Although Vick did well, some of the other Drug Inc. companies were failing. As a result, Drug Inc. "demerged" in 1933, and Vick Chemical Company was on its own again.

In 1938, William Preyer, the Richardsons' brother in law, took over the presidency of the company. The same year, Vick merged with the William J. Merrell Company, the nation's oldest pharmaceutical company. Merrell was the first in a long line of Vick acquisitions. Others included J. T. Baker, an industrial and laboratory chemical company, in 1941; Prince Matchabelli, a perfume and cosmetic company, in 1941; Jensen Salsbury, a veterinary pharmaceutical company, in 1946; Extruded Plastics, Inc., a container company, in 1953; National Drug Company, in 1956; and Walker Labs, in 1958.

After William Preyer retired in 1948, Edward Mabry became the first non family member to be president of the company. The family, however, continued to play an important role in the company on the board of directors. Smith Richardson spent much of his energy developing a thirty five year plan to guide and direct the company's growth. Smith Richardson, Jr. (b. 1920), succeeded Mabry as president in 1958. He served until 1962, when Robert Marschalk replaced him.

The company changed its name in 1960 to Richardson Merrell, Inc., thereby honoring the founders of the two biggest divisions of the company and reflecting its diversified nature.

Richardson Merrell, Inc., continued to grow in the 1960s and 1970s. It acquired still more divisions and exported many of its products all over the world. Smith Richardson, Sr., died in 1972, with the company firmly under family control.

In 1980, the company decided to narrow its focus from pharmaceuticals to consumer products. Merrell was sold to Dow Chemical Company, and the company's name was changed to Richardson Vicks, Inc. The company produced and sold the traditional cold care products like VapoRub, cough syrup, and cough drops; and many other products including Vidal Sasoon and Pantene hair care products, and Clearasil and Oil of Olay face care products.

In fall 1985, Unilever, a Dutch/British company, attempted a hostile takeover of Richardson Vicks, Inc. In order to prevent the takeover attempt, the Richardson family, which owned a controlling thirty six percent of the stock in the company, decided to sell the business to the Procter & Gamble Company. After eighty prosperous years, the Richardsons were forced to give up the company that made their fortune on the contents of "the little blue jar," Vicks VapoRub.

Scope and content:

This collection documents the history of Richardson Vicks, Inc., and of the Richardson family's involvement with the company. The collection consists of the files of H. Smith Richardson, Sr., while he was president of the company from 1919 to 1929; files pertaining to the operation of the company, chiefly generated by the General Manager's Department; files from the Advertising and Sales Department, including campaign books; financial and legal papers; personnel materials; files from the Production Department; "historical material"; clippings; files of H. Smith Richardson, Jr., concerning hostile takeover bids; family papers; product samples; photographs; an audio disc; and a video tape.

Although the papers include material from the early years of the company through its sale to Proctor & Gamble Company in 1985, the bulk of material dates from 1919 to 1929, the period when H. Smith Richardson, Sr., was president of the company. Coverage of the years before 1919 is scant, consisting of a few mementoes and some correspondence. Coverage of the years 1929 to 1985 is very uneven. A notable exception is material from the Advertising and Sales Department, which is nearly complete from 1920 to 1960.

Every attempt was made during processing to preserve or reconstruct the original order of these files. This proved difficult for most of the material since the records reached the Southern Historical Collection in much disarray. The arrangement of Series 1, Subseries 2.7, and Series 3 does closely reflect the original filing system. In other cases, material has been organized into series and subseries primarily according to subject matter, and within each series and subseries in alphabetical order according to the original folder titles. All discernible original folder titles have been preserved, and the original order of items within folders has been maintained.

Acquisition information:

Received from H. Smith Richardson, Jr., beginning after the company's merger with Proctor & Gamble in 1985.

Processing information:

Processed by: Marion Presler, with assistance from Winifred Fordham, Mike Van Cott, and the Techincal Services Staff, March 1998

Encoded by: Margaret Dickson, February 2006

Sensitive materials statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

Some materials in Series 6, Personnel Files, are CLOSED until the year 2020, and Box 67 in Series 12 is CLOSED until the year 2045.

Use of audio or video material may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Restrictions to use:

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Richardson-Vicks, Inc., Records #4468, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu