Robert Wood Johnson began his professional training at age 16 as a pharmaceutical apprentice at an apothecary run by his mother's cousin, James G. Wood, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Johnson co-founded his own company with George Seabury in 1873. The New York-based Seabury &amp; Johnson became known for its medicated plasters. Robert Wood Johnson represented the company at the 1876 World's Fair. There he heard Joseph Lister's explanation of a new procedure: antiseptic surgery. Johnson parted ways with his business partner, Seabury in 1885.