The William Carter Company, the forerunner of Carter's Ink, was founded in 1858 by
Boston stationer William Carter who, in order to supplement his paper sales, had started repackaging other companies' inks and selling them under his own name. In 1860, William Carter's brother, Edward Carter, joined the company and the firm became known as "William Carter and Bro." At the time of John W. Carter's death, his son,
Richard B. Carter was still studying at
Harvard, but after his
graduation in 1898, he joined the company. After a period of learning the business, he became its head in 1903. as well as desk pen sets. In 1975 the company was sold to Dennison Manufacturing Company, now
Avery Dennison. In 1995
Open Market moved into the building. In 2004, the building was converted to include 130,000 square feet of lab space to accommodate acquisition by ViaCell, a cellular medicine research company later acquired by
PerkinElmer. Nowadays, the former Carter's building is occupied by
The Forsyth Institute, one of the leading centers for dental and craniofacial research in the world and affiliated to the
Harvard School of Dental Medicine. ==References==