By Pat Lavin, author of WELCOME to Dennison Manufacturing Co.
November 30, 2020
Sealing Wax
Imagine! More than two hundred-fifty meticulously organized archival boxes filled with Dennison history and products. All available to explore as we search for answers to our most recent Dennison inquiries.
By 1900, Dennison’s name and products traveled from coast to coast and around the world. In 2020, it appears that Dennison is still traveling the globe. We know this by the many questions that we have received since our Archives were made available online in 2018.
When we think of sealing wax, it might bring to mind the custom of sealing official documents and papers with a distinctive trademark during the Middle Ages. Centuries later, Dennison was manufacturing sealing wax in a wide range of grades and colors. As wax continued to seal documents, formulas were being developed to meet the adhesive requirements for a variety of new commercial and aesthetic uses.
It was in the 20th Century that Dennison took sealing wax in another direction. The Company began to develop and promote sealing wax for arts and crafts. This blossoming new art form showcased colorful boxes, vases, beads and exquisite little figurines. These innovative creations were presented to consumers through Wax Craft demonstrations, art classes and instruction booklets.
Recently, we received an inquiry about another use of sealing wax. While working in the school lab, a PhD student / teacher of geophysics at the University of California Berkeley came across a box of Dennison’s Commercial Grade Red Sealing Wax. Her historical sensitivity led her to ask her mother, a volunteer / writer for a history blog at a museum in Connecticut, about the significance of wax in a lab.
In September we received this photograph along with an inquiry from this student about that sealing wax was doing in her lab.
Sealing documents and fashioning artistic wax creations was familiar! But, how was sealing wax connected to the lab?
Our digging began. We found that Dennison had its own Chemical Laboratory beginning in the early 1900s. Among the chemists’ many tasks was experimental research and testing in order to develop new products and uses. Documentation informed us that Dennison’s Commercial Sealing Wax formulas were of various grades and colors, created “with excellent adhesive qualities” to meet the individual requirements of commercial uses. Among the many uses, grades were developed to seal bottles, fill cracks, coat paper, waterproof wires, create a vacuum seal etc.…
Just perfect for a lab!
During our online investigation, exploring the relationship of sealing wax and the laboratory, a site about the first cyclotron unexpectedly appeared. A paper on the site entitled, The History of The Cyclotron was presented. A few paragraphs into the reading, it stated that University of California student, S. Stanley Livingston, and Professor Ernest Lawrence, the cyclotron inventor, built the first cyclotron model in 1929-1930 at a Berkeley lab. The model was described to measure 4.5 inches in diameter. And it had a “chamber formed of a brass ring and flat brass cover plates, using red sealing wax for a vacuum seal.”
Was this a coincidence? The Dennison box of Commercial Red Sealing Wax found in the lab was of the same period.
Holly Seals
Our next research project came from a woman in South Carolina. She was curious about the history of a box that she bought at an antique mall. The tiny box measured 1”x1”and was covered with a fine cream paper with a holly design. Right in the center of the lid there was a charming image of a holly seal.
Of particular interest was the box label: Dennison’s Christmas Seals, No. 0. Although the seal was familiar, the box was not; nor was the use of the No. 0. in catalogs and pricing guides.
According to our research, Dennison Manufacturing Co. was the first in America to develop and manufacture holiday products as part of their Holiday Line in 1901.
As we searched our Archives, we came upon a Christmas products portfolio. The first page pictured two tags and four seals. The top line featured just what we were looking for, the holly seal, marked No. 0.
The 1909 Holiday Committee Report clarified that the holly seal No. 0 was the first Christmas “sticker” manufactured by Dennison in 1902. This was followed by a pricing guide with pictures. Page seven featured seals scattered around a tiny holly covered box. For the price of $.10, a box of 100 seals could be purchased. The guide advertised the seal as, “an entirely new idea,” but very practical because it so easily attached to a gift or stationery, rendering it easy for all to impart the Christmas sentiment. The first holiday seal and box was manufactured and sold by Dennison from 1902 – 1905.
What a treasure!
What next? Do you have a question? Email dennison@framinghamhistory.org.