Carton - Packaging History

Packaging History

The history of the carton goes as far back as 1879 in a Brooklyn, New York factory operated by Robert Gair. A die-ruled, cut, and scored paperboard into a single impression of a folded carton. By 1896, the National Biscuit Company was the first to use cartons to package crackers.

The next development of folded paper used to construct cartons are mentioned by Dr. Winslow of Seattle, Washington in 1908 who claimed that paper milk containers were commercially sold in San Francisco and Los Angeles as early as 1906. The inventor of this carton was G.W. Maxwell. However, it was in 1915 that John Van Wormer of Toledo, Ohio was granted the first patent for the first "paper bottle," which was the first folded blank box for holding milk. He called it the "Pure-Pak." The milk carton was original in the sense that it could be folded, glued, filled with milk, and sealed at a dairy farm.

An early American packaging industry pioneer was the Kieckhefer Container Company, which was run by John W. Kieckhefer. The company excelled in the use of fibre shipping containers, which especially included the paper milk carton. In 1957, through an exchange of stock, the Kieckhefer Container Co. holdings were merged with the Weyerhauser Timber Company of Tacoma, Washington.