Red Cross Olive Oil Label

This vintage olive oil label is from the Red Cross Pharmacy in Kewanee, Illinois. The label dates back to the 1920s and measures 2.4” Wide x 1.4” High. The Red Cross Pharmacy is not connected to The American Red Cross, so you might wonder how they can use the name and emblem. Only commercial companies that used the name and emblem prior to 1905 were allowed to continue their use after the U.S. government made the rights exclusive to The American Red Cross on January 5, 1905.

The city of Kewanee, which is about 132 miles from Chicago, was founded in 1854. When the town was laid out, the city founders named it Berrien after the chief engineer of the railroad, but he objected. So he was asked to come up with a name and chose “Kewanee”, an Indian name for the prairie hen, since he saw many of them in the area as he worked on laying out the railroad’s right away. The city’s population today is just over 15,000.