NEW BRUNSWICK — Did you know the Band-Aid was invented right here in New Jersey? The concept was so new, the public had to be educated on how to use it.

That's just a tiny piece of the 131-year story of healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson, one of the biggest names to ever come out of the Garden State.

And for the first time in a long run of pioneering firsts, J&J is putting its story on display at its world headquarters campus in New Brunswick.

The company's recently-opened museum, Our Story at the Powerhouse, invites visitors into the very building that supplied electricity to the manufacturing machinery when Middlesex County was the sole J&J location. The building is actually the largest piece of history on site.

Inside, visitors are treated to more than 20,000 artifacts either in person or through the museum's interactive displays.

"We have 97 years of Band-Aid adhesive bandages tins and packaging from every decade and all over the world," said chief historian Margaret Gurowitz.

The story unfolds through 11 distinct exhibits.

Johnson & Johnson, now a multinational company, was founded in 1886 — years before the birth of the Band-Aid — as a mass producer of sterile surgery supplies. J&J also invented the first commercial first aid kits and duct tape, Gurowitz noted.

"Visitors can also learn about more than a century of focus on maternal and child health, beginning with kits to make childbirth safer in the 1890s," she said.

Currently, the museum is open to only Johnson & Johnson employees and their escorted guests. Gurowitz said the company is evaluating whether or not to open the museum to the general public.

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Contact reporter Dino Flammia at dino.flammia@townsquaremedia.com.

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