submitted by Jeannine Tonetti
The Tilden Project, finding the records of the first pharmaceutical company in the United States, has been funded for three consecutive years for all three phases. The purpose of the project is to discover, survey and document the Tilden Pharmaceutical Company and its impact on the economic, social and cultural life of New Lebanon, particularly when it went out of business in the middle of the 20th century.
The Tilden & Company pharmaceutical firm was established in New Lebanon by Elam Tilden in 1824. Elam was the father of Samuel Jones Tilden, the former governor of New York and candidate for U.S. President, who is buried in New Lebanon.
The Lebanon Valley has a rich heritage of healing, from the Native American use of the waters of the Lebanon Spring through the growing and selling of herbs by the Shakers. Tilden built on these heritages and developed his company to grow, process and sell herbal pharmaceuticals. At first, most of the herbs were grown in the fertile soils of the valley and surrounding towns. Later in the 19th and then the 20th century, many herbs and pharmaceutical ingredients were imported. The Tilden Company was widely known and respected for the consistency and efficacy of its medicinals. The Company published a Journal of Materia Medica which attempted to scientifically review and evaluate pharmaceuticals. Then, in the 20th century, medicines began to be created out of chemicals.
This enabled large pharmaceutical companies to develop. The Tilden Company began to decline, and it closed in 1963, after being absorbed into a series of these larger corporations.
The Tilden Company employed many local men and women, was a significant contributor to town economics, had an impact on the land use and played a major role in the social life of New Lebanon. The company’s impact on the town and the effect of its demise is the focus of the research of the Tilden Project.
The Project researcher, Steve Oberon and LVHS volunteers, have been interviewing people with connections to the company and collecting information from private and public records. This research is continuing. Documents and artifacts have been donated to the LVHS collections. All the documents will be archivally stored and available to the public for research at the LVHS offices in the New Lebanon Town Hall. The archives will be available on line when the LVHS computer catalogue is completed. Phase 3 has been funded to pay for the archivist, Jim Corsaro, to gather the collected information and create an archival record which will be posted on the NYS Archive website. The information will then be accessible for public research.
Any comments or information helpful to this project can be sent to Jeannine Tonetti, Tilden Project Director, info@lebanonvalleyhistorical society.org or LVHS, Box 363, New Lebanon, NY, 12125.
