A.M. Foster & Co.

Dates

• Existence: Approximately 1870 (date of establishment) - Approximately 1940 (date of dissolution) - 1940
• Usage: 1893 (date of establishment) - Approximately 1940 (date of dissolution) - 1940
• Usage: Approximately 1870 (date of establishment) - 1893 (date of dissolution) - 1893

Biography

Dean, Foster & Co. was a glass jobbing firm founded by George W. Foster and Charles L. Dean in Boston in the 1870s. It was preceded by George W. Foster's solo jobbing enterprises in the 1860s. Dean, Foster & Co. sold glassware, beverage bottles, glass and ceramic medicine containers, corks, capsules, and drug shop furniture and appliances. As American glass manufacturing moved to the Midwest, Dean, Foster & Co. opened an office in Chicago in 1883. Adelbert M. Foster soon took over this office soon thereafter and purchased the entire firm in 1893, renaming it A. M. Foster & Co.

While directing A.M. Foster & Co., Adelbert M. Foster became involved in a number of glass manufacturing operations, including Marion Flint Glass Co., Sheldon-Foster Glass Co., and B.F. Leach Glass Co. William C. Forbes joined the business in 1900, and Foster took leadership of the A.M. Foster's Millgrove Glass Co. in 1905. Foster and Forbes together purchased the Upland Co-operative Glass Co. in 1910, which ultimately became Upland Flint Bottle Co.

Although A.M. Foster & Co. ceased to operate as an independent jobber under its own name after the creation of Foster-Forbes Glass Co. in 1929, it appears to have sold and distributed Foster-Forbes glass for over another decade.

Found in 1 Collection or Record: