Washington Wentworth Sheffield was born in North Stonington, CT on April 23, 1827, where he later attended the local public schools as a young boy. He took an interest in the profession of dentistry as a young man. Sheffield began his apprenticeship under the tutelage of J.A.G Comstock in his office in New London, CT in 1850. A year later he moved to New York City where he continued his apprenticeship, working in the joint dental practice of Charles Allen and D.H. Porter.
He returned to New London in 1852 to begin his own dental practice. Sheffield specialized in dental surgery and his skills as a dentist became widely recognized throughout eastern Connecticut. His commitment to the field of dentistry was demonstrated by his decision to enhance his abilities by attending the Ohio College of Dental Surgery and graduating from the country’s first dental school in 1865. His professional acumen was so impressive that President Andrew Johnson bestowed Sheffield with a naval commission as a dental surgeon in 1866.
The common practice at this time was to use tooth powder mixed with water for personal dental hygiene. Sheffield began to experiment with a better developing a better product in his off hours at his small laboratory. He developed a mint flavored dental cream for everyday tooth brushing. The result was a dental cream that was extremely appealing with the patients of his New London dentist practice during the early 1870’s. Sheffield created the Sheffield Dentifrice Company and began mass producing his popular dental cream to the general public.
Sheffield’s son, Lucius followed in his father’s professional footsteps, graduating from Harvard’s American Academy of Dental Medicine in 1878. The following year on a trip to Paris, Lucius noticed that local painters were using collapsible metal tubes to dispense paints on their palettes. He convinced his father that employing these same types of collapsible metal tubes to dispense tooth cream was a more efficient and hygienic delivery system for their dental product. In 1892 Sheffield’s company began selling the first ever tubes of toothpaste to the American public. The product became immensely popular, prompting Sheffield to expand into the manufacture and embossing of the collapsible toothpaste tubes at the company’s facilities in New London.
Visit the Otis Library’s Flickr page to view images of Washington Sheffield and his son Lucius and the advertisements for the dental hygiene products created by the Sheffield Dentifrice Company.