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Plexiglas: From the Eyes of Aviation to McDonald’s Golden Arches

Presented by Chemical Heritage Foundation at Chemical Heritage Foundation

May 4, 2010

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This talk focuses on the history of innovation at the Rohm and Haas Company (now part of Dow Chemical) during its first hundred years, with reference to one of its most important products: Plexiglas acrylic plastic. Developed in Germany during the 1920s, Plexiglas helped transform aviation during World War II and revolutionized the look of roadside advertising in postwar America. Suburbanization went hand in hand with new forms of roadside architecture and drive-by advertisements made from Plexiglas. This talk shows how the Rohm and Haas tradition of collaboration with the customer helped grow the Plexiglas market from the 1930s through the 1960s. Regina Lee Blaszczyk is an award-winning historian of corporate innovation and consumer society. She is the author or editor of six books, most recently American Consumer Society, 1865–2005: From Hearth to HDTV (2009) and Rohm and Haas: A Century of Innovation (2009), which was written for the company’s one-hundredth anniversary.