Big Chuck’s Monday Morning Time Capsule: Norwich Pharmaceuticals Arrives in 1887!

The city of Norwich gained an everlasting footnote in history when in 1887 Norwich Pharmacal first opened its doors.  The manufacturing plant gave the world Unguentine in 1892.  This product was ground breaking in that it was the first antiseptic dressing used for surgeries, cutting the risk of infection in half.

In rapid succession the company manufactured and marketed staple names that are still used around the world today including pink Pepto-Bismol, which reduced the results of common diarrhea from a near death sentence in infants to a mere nuisance, and the Norwich Aspirin tablet, the first and most successful pain reliever of its time.

Watch the story of the birth of Norwich Pharmaceuticals and you will see that its beginning in the city of Norwich was a key component to the successful development of a large part of Chenango County.