By the time colonial Americans were lighting candles, visiting apothecaries and buying imported perfumes, the desire to make a room smell good was already centuries old. But the American version of the incense business looked very different from the modern industry.
There was no single giant colonial incense manufacturer turning out standardized sticks, cones and pellets on an assembly line. Instead, aromatic manufacturing was scattered among apothecaries, merchants, chandlers, perfumers, households and other small producers. Ingredients could arrive by ship from Europe or elsewhere, while other aromatic materials came from plants growing along the American coast.
The result was an early American fragrance economy in which medicine, perfume, household products and incense-like aromas often overlapped.
[IMAGE 1 — COLONIAL APOTHECARY]
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THE APOTHECARY WAS PART PHARMACY, PART LABORATORY AND PART STORE
One of the best places to understand this world is Williamsburg, Virginia.
The reconstructed Pasteur & Galt Apothecary on Duke of Gloucester Street represents the type of eighteenth-century shop where medical practice and small-scale manufacturing came together. Historical research indicates that apothecary shops could include a front retail area, a doctor’s office or operating room and a laboratory-like space where an apprentice compounded preparations. (Project Gutenberg)
The atmosphere could be powerful. Colonial Williamsburg’s historical research describes eighteenth-century apothecary shops as being filled with pungent odors from spices, aromatics, volatile drugs and the by-products of distillation. Shelves could contain imported and locally gathered ingredients, while mortars, pestles, scales and other equipment allowed the shopkeeper to turn raw materials into useful products. (Rockefeller Library Collections)
That means a colonial visitor entering an apothecary might encounter an aroma unlike anything in a modern pharmacy: cinnamon, cloves, dried herbs, citrus peel, floral materials, resins, oils and other substances could all contribute to the smell of the room.
WHO WERE THE MAKERS?
The makers were not necessarily people who called themselves incense manufacturers.
Apothecaries such as William Pasteur and John Minson Galt are important examples. Their businesses dealt in drugs and medicines but also handled spices and other commercial goods. Galt and Pasteur’s partnership announcement in 1775 promised complete assortments of drugs and medicines and emphasized repeated importations to keep supplies fresh. (Project Gutenberg)
The same broad pattern appears elsewhere. Merchants imported fragrance ingredients. Chandlers produced candles. Perfumers blended scented products. Families processed some local materials themselves.
So when we ask, “Who manufactured colonial incense?” the historically responsible answer is that there was no single dominant manufacturer. Aromatic production was a collection of small trades.
WHAT MATERIALS WERE USED?
The raw materials belonged to several broad categories.
Resins and gums were among the important aromatic materials in the wider incense tradition. Frankincense and myrrh were famous long before the colonial period. Benzoin and other balsamic substances could provide sweeter, warmer aromas.
Spices were especially important because they were valuable commodities in colonial trade. Cinnamon and cloves produced strong warm-spicy smells. Nutmeg, mace and related ingredients could add complexity.
Flowers and botanicals supplied another part of the fragrance market. Colonial American perfume history includes rose, orange blossom, lavender and lily-of-the-valley. (Hagley Museum & Library)
And then there was an extraordinary American contribution: bayberry or myrtle wax.
WHAT DID COLONIAL INCENSE SMELL LIKE?
The answer depends on the material.
Frankincense generally produces a resinous, balsamic aroma with bright, dry and slightly citrus-like characteristics. Myrrh tends to be darker, earthier and more bitter-balsamic. Benzoin is warmer and sweeter.
Cinnamon and cloves are unmistakably spicy. Lavender is softer and floral. Orange peel brings a bright citrus note. Woody materials contribute dry, smoky or resinous tones.
A colonial room therefore might not have smelled like one modern “incense” fragrance. It could smell medicinal, herbal, spicy, floral, smoky, woody or sweet depending on what was being prepared or burned.
There is also an important historical warning: an apothecary advertisement listing an aromatic ingredient does not prove that the ingredient was burned as incense. The same material might be used in medicine, perfume, flavoring, cosmetics or household preparations.
THE SURPRISING STORY OF BAYBERRY CANDLES
One of the most fascinating colonial American aromatic products was bayberry wax.
Colonial Williamsburg’s research records a 1698 description of Virginia’s myrtle berries and says their wax could make candles whose snuff or wick remnants perfumed like incense. Robert Beverley wrote in 1705 that bayberry candles were valued for their pleasant fragrance and described their production as a relatively new American discovery. (Rockefeller Library Collections)
The manufacturing process was remarkably simple in principle but labor-intensive in practice. Mature berries were collected and boiled in water. The waxy material separated from the plant matter and could be skimmed, refined and processed. Historical research describes the resulting wax as a useful candle material, while other historical accounts note its pleasant fragrance. (Rockefeller Library Collections)
The scent was so appreciated that Beverley reported that some people deliberately extinguished bayberry candles so they could enjoy the fragrance of the dying wick. (Rockefeller Library Collections)
That is a remarkable detail because it shows that colonial consumers were actively seeking pleasant smells, not merely tolerating whatever odor their lighting produced.
[IMAGE 2 — AROMATIC MATERIALS]
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THE PERFUME CONNECTION
The colonial perfume business gives another glimpse into the demand for fragrance.
Hagley researchers report that early American scents resembled European colognes, including single-note floral toilet waters made from roses, orange blossom, lavender and lily of the valley. (Hagley Museum & Library)
In 1752, Dr. William Hunter, a Scottish-born pharmacist, opened a shop in Newport, Rhode Island, where he sold drugs and perfumes. He imported fragrances from Europe and blended about twenty different colognes himself. (Hagley Museum & Library)
That tells us something important about colonial consumers. Fragrance was not an obscure luxury known only to European courts. By the middle of the eighteenth century, an American pharmacist could make a business selling both medicine and perfume.
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS
What would a small aromatic workshop have looked like?
First came sorting and cleaning. Imported resins, dried herbs, bark and spices needed to be inspected and prepared.
Next came grinding. Hard spices and botanicals could be reduced with a mortar and pestle. Resins required different handling depending on their physical characteristics.
Then came weighing. Skilled preparation depended on proportions. A strong aromatic material could overwhelm a blend if too much was used.
The ingredients could then be combined into a powder, resin mixture, perfume preparation, candle material or another finished product.
If a burnable aromatic product was being made, the material would need to be formed or incorporated into an appropriate base and then dried. The exact recipes for many colonial products have not survived, so it would be misleading to present a single recipe as “the colonial American incense formula.”
The more defensible picture is small-batch production using manual tools and locally or internationally sourced ingredients.
[IMAGE 3 — SMALL-BATCH MANUFACTURING PROCESS]
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WHAT SCENTS WERE IN DEMAND?
The evidence points to several important fragrance families.
Floral scents were fashionable in perfume: rose, lavender, orange blossom and lily-of-the-valley. (Hagley Museum & Library)
Spicy aromas were valuable because cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and related commodities were already part of colonial commerce.
Resinous and balsamic materials were important in older incense and medicinal traditions.
Citrus aromas such as orange peel and lemon-related preparations added brightness.
And bayberry provided a locally sourced fragrance and wax product that became particularly prized for candles. (Rockefeller Library Collections)
The popularity of these aromas was driven by more than simple luxury. Fragrance could be associated with cleanliness, medicine, social status, religion, hospitality and comfort.
A HOUSEHOLD INDUSTRY, NOT A MODERN FACTORY
It is tempting to imagine an eighteenth-century American incense factory filled with workers producing identical products. The surviving evidence does not support that picture.
Colonial manufacturing was often decentralized.
A merchant could import raw materials. An apothecary could compound a preparation. A chandler could manufacture candles. A household could process berries into wax. A perfumer could blend imported fragrances.
The “factory” might be a back room, workshop, kitchen, laboratory or small commercial shop.
This also explains why identifying one “first American incense manufacturer” is difficult. The business category itself was not yet sharply defined.
WHY THE BUSINESS MATTERED
Aromatic manufacturing sits at an interesting crossroads in American economic history.
It required international trade because many valuable ingredients had to be imported. It required agricultural knowledge because local plants could become commercial raw materials. It required practical chemical skills because materials had to be extracted, purified, mixed and transformed. And it required customers who were willing to pay for something whose value was partly sensory.
The apothecary therefore became an early example of a business that combined science, retail, manufacturing and imported commodities.
THE LEGACY OF COLONIAL INCENSE
Modern incense companies operate with standardized ingredients, controlled formulations, industrial grinders, automated filling equipment, packaging lines and fragrance chemistry.
Colonial producers had none of that.
They had kettles, scales, mortars, pestles, fires, barrels, bottles, handwritten formulas and skilled hands.
Yet the basic commercial idea was already there: obtain aromatic materials, transform them into something useful or desirable, and sell the experience.
From Williamsburg’s pungent apothecary shelves to Newport’s perfume trade and Virginia’s fragrant bayberry candles, colonial America developed a surprisingly sophisticated appreciation for smell.
The most interesting part is that there was no single road to that industry. The history of colonial incense is really the story of dozens of small trades converging: pharmacy, perfume, candle making, shipping, agriculture and household manufacturing.
And sometimes the most American product was the simplest one. A berry gathered near the coast could be boiled down into wax, turned into a candle and—when extinguished—leave behind a fragrance that eighteenth-century observers compared to incense.
That little cloud of scented smoke may have been one of colonial America’s earliest examples of turning a local natural resource into a consumer product people genuinely wanted.
IMAGE NOTE
The three accompanying PNGs are editorial reconstruction illustrations created for publication. They are not surviving colonial photographs.
SOURCES
- Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library, “Candlemaking” — historical research on tallow, beeswax, spermaceti and myrtle/bayberry wax. (Rockefeller Library Collections)
- Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library, “Apothecary Historical Report” — research on eighteenth-century apothecary shops, their aromas, equipment and ingredients. (Rockefeller Library Collections)
- Colonial Williamsburg, “The Art and Mystery of the Apothecary.”
- Thomas K. Ford, “The Apothecary in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg.” (Project Gutenberg)
- Hagley, “A Brief Whiff of Perfume in America.” (Hagley Museum & Library)
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