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Civil War U.S. Army Field Hospital  E.R. Squibb Medicine Bottle – This war period bottle is the earliest embossed ER Squibb bottle; it is an emerald green in color, with an applied top and “dot” base. The bottle is 6¼ inches tall and 2 inches in diameter at the base. Squibb started in 1855, in Brooklyn, NY and his first shipment was comprised of a case of four 4-liter chloroform bottles, probably in non-embossed, paper labeled bottles or tin containers. This rare bottle, with its dot base, dates to the Civil War period; embossed on the shoulder of the bottle is:

“E  R  SQUIBB”

The bottle remains in excellent condition, retaining its distinctive, emerald green color. The bottle was excavated in a New York infantry, winter camp, in Stafford, Virginia.

R. Squibb – Medical drug maker during the Civil War

Born July 4, 1819, Wilmington, Del., U.S. died Oct. 25, 1900, Brooklyn, N.Y.  U.S. chemist and pharmaceutical manufacturer who developed methods of making pure and reliable drugs and founded a company to manufacture them.

During the four years when Squibb served on various ships as a U.S. Navy medical officer, he observed the poor quality of medicines supplied to the Navy. He persuaded the Navy to manufacture their own drugs instead of contracting for them from the lowest bidder. In 1851, he was appointed to Brooklyn Naval Hospital. He set up a laboratory there and built the first still for making anesthetic ether. The ether was heated by steam passing through a coil rather than by open flame, which had been dangerous. Squibb did not patent this process or any of his later discoveries. Instead, he published his design in 1856 in The American Journal of Pharmacy. Between 1852 and 1857, he discovered processes for making chloroform, fluid extracts, bismuth salts, and other preparations.

After Squibb had resigned from the Navy, Dr. Richard S. Satterlee, surgeon general of the U.S. Army, suggested that Squibb start a laboratory of his own to supply the Army with reliable drugs. After borrowing $1,300 from a friend, he set up a laboratory in Brooklyn in 1858. Less than a month later, it burned to the ground in an ether explosion. Squibb saved the records of his experiments but was badly burned in the process. A year later, his laboratory had been rebuilt and he sent out a circular advertising 38 preparations. By 1883, he was manufacturing 324 products and selling them all over the world.

His drugs and medicines were in great demand in the Civil War. After the war, he campaigned for better enforcement of the laws regulating the import of drugs. He helped revise the Pharmacopoeia, the basic code book of American pharmacy. From 1882 until his death, he also wrote and published Ephemeris, a journal of practical advice and new discoveries, to update the Pharmacopoeia. His inventions include the automatic zero burette and a specific gravity apparatus. In 1892, his two sons joined the firm, which became E.R. Squibb & Sons. Bottles labeled with ‘& Sons’ are post-Civil War and post 1892.

E.R. Squibb, provided a medical pannier for field use to the U.S. Army with 52 standard medicines all packaged in Japanned Tin containers at a cost of $100.00 per pannier. This item allowed the field surgeon access to necessary medicines protected in a bound chest and packaged in unbreakable tins. Large numbers of surviving tins clearly illustrate the popularity of this form of packaging. Bottles, however, remained a popular form of container for medicines throughout the war. The Army used both plain civilian bottles and the rarer Hospital Department bottle. (https://www.medicalantiques.com/civilwar/Articles/Squibb_E_R.htm)