Small round tin of Mentholatum. Cover illustration of a young girl dressed as a nurse. Manufactured by the Mentholatum Company of Wichita. The company was originally founded as the Yucca Company in 1889 by Albert Alexander Hyde (1848-1935) and two partners as a manufacturer of soaps, shaving creams, and perfumes. In 1894 Hyde developed Mentholatum ointment, which was an immediate success and quickly became the company's top selling product. In 1903 Hyde organized a second office in Buffalo, New York to handle sales and distribution east of the Mississippi River. In 1906 the business was renamed The Mentholatum Company and it stopped producing any other products. In 1909-10 they built a large factory in Wichita at 1300 E. Douglas, the City's first steel-reinforced, poured-concrete structure. They built a second factory in Buffalo in 1919. After Hyde's death in 1935 the company headquarters were relocated to Buffalo.