About this collection

S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Company was founded in 1844 by Samuel Stockton White (1822-1879), a dentist from Philadelphia. By the 1850s, the company was one of the world’s leading manufacturers of false teeth and dental appliances, with sales offices and representatives operating across the globe.

Over the course of the 20th century, the company continued to expand. A subsidiary division was founded to apply its patented flexible shaft technology to clients in aircraft, automotive, and other industrial markets. The S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Company merged with Pennwalt Corporation in 1968. Following this purchase, the company was restructured, first as the S.S. White Industrial Division in 1972, then to S.S. White Technologies, Inc. in 1988.

The S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Company photographs (Accession 1972.244) collection has not been digitized in its entirety. Many of the photographs of company personnel, company buildings, corporate events, dental equipment, dental offices and schools in the United States and abroad, and trade shows and exhibitions have been reproduced here. The collection also includes many portraits of identified and unidentified dentists, as well as other unidentified locations, most of which have been excluded from digitization.

Image: Dental work being performed for a departing soldier at the Boston Forsyth Clinic (1916). Click here to view this item in the collection.