New Brunswick is a company town, then and now. It has two companies: Johnson & Johnson on the commercial side, and Rutgers University on the academic side.

Two years after this picture was taken, I was born in a hospital that now wears the Johnson family name proudly, and is run by the Rutgers Medical School. It's about 5 miles from the J & J Lab.

Like for Larry Doyle, the stuff in the lab brings back memories of my chemistry lab in Highland Park High School, about 6 miles further up US-1 from the site of the photo. It had the same black tabletops, drawer fixtures, hose and water fittings, and sinks that were somehow never clean. Part of the walls had the same yellowish-tan brick sheathing (they were cinder block structurally). It was not air conditioned, but I bet the J & J Lab was and is (it's still there).

It might be the similarity is not coincidence -- the HPHS science wing was erected in 1957. Possibly the same contractor did both buildings.

Is it getting exothermic in here, or is it just me?

Looks like my high school chemistry lab. Complete with piping for compressed air, water, and natural gas.

Boy, did we get into trouble for hooking the rubber hose from a Bunsen burner onto the water line and gas line and turning them both on.

Not me! My friends.

Ice Gang, you're thinking of Johnson's Wax, which is made by S. C. Johnson. They advertise their firm as "A Family Company". If you're old enough to remember the Radio Program "Fibber McGee & Molly", they were the sponsors.
These Johnsons are the Band Aid people.

Is this Fibber McGee and Molly?

of Walter White.

"Some guy's coming around with a camera again. Let's look like we're doing something scientific!"