In 1879, Scottish-born businessman Robert Gair stumbled upon an invention that would transform packaging and consumer products forever: a fast, mechanized way to manufacture cardboard boxes. This invention would grow into an empire of paper mills, box factories, printing plants, and even marketing and advertising arm—a vertically-integrated packaging company, based in today’s DUMBO, Brooklyn. This virtual program will look at how, a century ago, this present-day corner of the “Brooklyn Tech Triangle” was also a center of innovation for packaged food and household products.
- H. Allen Smith (1939) Robert Gair: A Study
- The Robert Gair Company: What We Do and How We Do It (1901)
- “Robert Gair Factory,” Concrete Engineering (Sep 1908)
- “Patent Model for Paper Bag Machine,” National Museum of American History
- Wilbur F. Howell (1940) A History of the Corrugated Shipping Container Industry in the United States
