Morton Salt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Morton Salt is a United States company producing salt for food, water conditioning, industrial, agricultural, and road/highway use.
The company began in Chicago, Illinois in 1848 as a small sales agency. In 1910, the business, which had by that time become both a manufacturer and a merchant of salt, was incorporated as the Morton Salt Company.[1]
The business, still based in Chicago, is North America's leading producer and marketer of salt. Acquired in 1954,[2] its main facility, the second-largest solar saline operation in North America, is in Matthew Town, Inagua, The Bahamas.
In 1999 Morton Salt was acquired by the Philadelphia-based Rohm and Haas Company, Inc. and operates as a division of that company[1] along with the Canadian Salt Company (which Morton had acquired in 1954).[2]
The company's headquarters is 123 North Wacker Drive. Prior to their acquisition in 1999, their corporate headquarters was 100 N Riverside Plaza (later the headquarters of Boeing).
Morton Salt's hand-drawn logo features the "Morton Salt Girl," a young girl walking in the rain with an opened umbrella and scattering salt behind her from a cylindrical container of table salt. The company's logo (from 1914), and its motto, "When it rains, it pours" (from 1911), were developed to illustrate the point that Morton Salt was free flowing, even in rainy weather. Originally, the company had added magnesium carbonate as an absorbing agent to ensure that its table salt poured freely; calcium silicate is now used instead for the same purpose.[1] The "Umbrella Girl" has gone through six different iterations within advertising campaigns;[3] the company sells associated memorabilia[4] and makes some of its vintage advertisements freely available.[5]
The founder of the Morton Salt company, Joy Morton, was the son of J. Sterling Morton,[2] who was the founder of Arbor Day.
Morton Salt is the sponsor of the Morton Arboretum, a 1,700-acre (6.9 km2) botanical garden in Lisle, Illinois. It was established by Joy Morton, the company's founder, in 1922 to encourage the display and study of shrubs, trees, and vines.[2] About 300,000 visitors a year hike on miles of trails and over 3,600 kinds of plants are displayed.[6]
[edit] External links
- Morton Salt – Official site
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c "The History of Morton Salt". mortonsalt.com. Morton International. http://www.mortonsalt.com/heritage/history_morton-salt.html. Retrieved on 15 December 2008.
- ^ a b c d "The Morton Salt Timeline". mortonsalt.com. Morton International. http://www.mortonsalt.com/heritage/heritage_timeline.html. Retrieved on 15 December 2008.
- ^ Morton Salt logo history.
- ^ Morton Salt on line store.
- ^ Gallery of Morton Salt advertisements.
- ^ "Morton Salt in the Community". mortonsalt.com. Morton International. http://www.mortonsalt.com/community/community.html#arboretum. Retrieved on 15 December 2008.
