Economics Laboratory, 800 Eustis Street, St. Paul, ca. 1956.

Economics Laboratory, 144–146 South Livingston Avenue, St. Paul, ca. 1955.

Parade float promoting Soilax, a dishwasher detergent, at the Economics Laboratory in St. Paul, ca. 1955.

Early formula for dishwashing detergent Electrasol, 1948. Early product formulations were kept in a booklet by chemist John Lewis Wilson. From Ecolab Company Records, Minnesota Historical Society.

Advertisement for Soilax, a product of Economics Laboratory, printed in Woman's Day 16, no. 6 (March 1953). Photograph by Flickr user Classic Film on December 5, 2013.

Economics Laboratory employees, 1935.

The Endicott Building, ca. 1900. The first location of Economics Laboratory (later Ecolab) was in the basement of the Endicott Building on Fourth Street in downtown St. Paul.

M. J. Osborn, ca. 1950s. Osborn never finished high school, but the salesman-turned-entrepreneur saw a need for institutional and consumer cleaning products, leading to the 1923 foundation of Economics Laboratory, later known as Ecolab. From Ecolab Company Records, Minnesota Historical Society.

Employees of the research and development division of the Economics Laboratory (later Ecolab) at work on the sixth floor of the Globe Building in St. Paul, 1938. Pictured are John Effinger, Roy Frommer, Clarence Olson, and John Lewis Wilson.