Fitch Laboratories
of the A. Perley Fitch Co.
A four-ounce cannister of Boric Acid, "A packaged product of Fitch Laboratories, Concord, New Hampshire." A sticker attached to the top of the cannister reads, "A. Perley Fitch Co., Concord, N.H." A. Perley was Amasa Perley Fitch, No. 3481. The contents were recommended as antiseptic wash or douche, as a dusting powder, and as a foot powder.
Note the unbroken N.R.A. seal with the Blue Eagle emblem of the National Recovery Administration. This agency, established in 1933 during the first Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, was intended to stimulate business recovery during the Great Depression. Use of the sticker on his product indicates that Perley's company subscribed to the N.R.A. codes regulating fair trade practices, minimum wages, and maximum hours -- as well as nearly 500 other codes and 200 supplementary codes that affected about 22 million workers. The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the N.R.A. in 1935, so this artifact can be dated between 1933 and 1935.