Vicks is a home-grown North Carolina business

Vicks VapoRub was born in North Carolina. One of the world’s most popular over-the-counter cold medications was created in 1894 – 130 years ago – by Lunsford Richardson, a druggist in Greensboro.

 

Richardson was introduced to the pharmacy arena in 1880 by his brother-in-law, Dr. Joshua Washington Vick, a physician in Selma, N.C. 

“It was not uncommon in those days for doctors to dispense drugs themselves, but Dr. Vick was so busy seeing patients that he teamed up with Richardson, allowing him to handle the pharmacy duties for him,” reported Jimmy Tomlin, a contributor to Our State magazine. 

“Richardson relied on his knowledge of Latin (gained while earning a bachelor’s degree from Davidson College) to help him learn the chemical compounds required to become a pharmacist,” Tomlin wrote. In support of Dr. Vick’s patients, Richardson began to experiment with recipes for balms and salves to treat all sorts of human miseries.

 

Richardson and his young family moved to Greensboro in 1890, when he bought an existing downtown pharmacy. In short order, Richardson had patented 21 medicinal products, including pills, liquids, ointments and elixirs – even grippe knockers (aimed at knocking out “la grippe,” an old-timey term for the flu). 

In 1894, when his own children caught bad colds, Richardson developed a “strong-smelling ointment combining menthol, camphor, oil of eucalyptus and several other oils, blended in a base of petroleum jelly,” Tomlin said. 

“When the salve was rubbed on the patient’s chest, his or her body heat vaporized the menthol, releasing a wave of soothing, medicated vapors that the patient breathed directly into the lungs.” 

Known as Richardson’s Croup & Pneumonia Salve, the product worked like a charm, but the name didn’t fit on a jar. The name Vicks may have been a direct tribute to Dr. Vick.

Or, perhaps Vicks came from Vick Seed Co. of Rochester, N.Y. It seems that Richardson was an avid gardener and enjoyed perusing the Vick Seed catalogs. 

Regardless, the umbrella for all Richardson’s products became “Vicks Family Remedies Company.”

In 1911, Richardson’s eldest son, H. Smith Richardson, who was working as a Vicks salesman, suggested Vicks Magic Croup Salve be renamed Vicks VapoRub. Simultaneously, he recommended the company put all its resources behind Vicks VapoRub as its sole brand. Lunsford Richardson agreed. At the same time, the company rolled out its distinctive blue-colored jar.

 

Vicks invested heavily in advertising and published coupons for free samples in newspapers. A pioneer in direct mail, Vicks began sending millions of free samples of VapoRub to rural mailboxes as well. Sales expanded beyond the Southeast to blanket the entire country.

 

Demand skyrocketed during the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918-19. The Vicks plant in Greensboro shifted into overdrive to keep up. Sales personnel were called in from the road to help man the factory. 

Lunsford Richardson contracted pneumonia and died Aug. 21, 1919, at age 64. H. Smith Richardson succeeded his father as company president. Key roles were assigned to his brother, Lunsford Richardson II, and brother-in-law, William Y. Preyer.

 

H. Smith Richardson

Moving forward, the Vicks business changed names many times and resumed product line diversification, with key introductions being Vicks Cough Drops (1931), Vicks Cough Syrup (1951), Vicks Formula 44 (1958), Sinex Nasal Spray (1959) NyQuil – named for its “nighttime tranquility” (1966).

 

The famous NyQuil tagline was introduced in 1979: “The nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, so you can rest, medicine.”

 

The company was acquired in 1985 by Proctor & Gamble of Cincinnati, Ohio. The Vicks line of humidifiers and vaporizers was sold to Helen of Troy Limited of El Paso, Texas, in 2015.