Pharmaceutical Products
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Sterling Drug, Inc.
label: Collection Creator
content: Winthrop Chemical Company
label: Collection Creator
content: Bayer Company
setName: label: See more items in
content: Sterling Drug, Inc. Records
label: See more items in
content: Sterling Drug, Inc. Records / Series 1: Products
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1946-1948
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0772, Subseries 1.1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: When the United States entered World I, the Alien Property Custodian seized the U.S. properties of many enemy aliens. Among these properties were the shares of the Bayer Company that were owned by Germans, who had sought to establish a business in the American market. After the 1918 Armistice, the government offered the Bayer stocks for sale at public auction to the highest American bidder. For $5,310,000, Sterling acquired a large plant near Albany, New York, a relatively little known product called Aspirin, and a number of pharmaceuticals. A separate Sterling subsidiary, also called The Bayer Company, was formed to market Aspirin. The success of Aspirin increased rapidly as people became aware of its therapeutic properties.