Before S.C. Johnson and Son Inc. became a global corporate juggernaut, it was a wood parquet tile business. Its founder, Samuel Curtis Johnson Sr., played the role of salesman, bookkeeper and business manager. He had just four employees, and in 1886, the first year of business, made a profit of $268.27—about $38,600 in today's dollars. They soon realized they could make more money selling maintenance products for wood floors than the floors themselves, and thus began the company's stratospheric ascent. But in 1895, before the pivot, the company released this brochure that cataloged, in color, its many parquet and border patterns. The most expensive item in the catalog is a 22-inch-wide patterned border made from oak, maple and rosewood that rang up to $2 per linear foot, or about $288 in today's dollars. Flip or swipe through a digital edition of the brochure.
