Advertisement for insecticides such as Toxaphene, Thanite, and DDT manufactured and sold by the Hercules Powder Company. This advertisement appeared in the March 29, 1947 issue of Business Week; the March 31, 1947 issue of Newsweek; the April 1947 issue of Nations Business; the April 7, 1947 issues of the New York Journal of Commerce, the Chicago Journal of Commerce, and the Wall Street Journal; and the May 1947 issue of Fortune.

Formed in 1912 as part of an anti-trust settlement with DuPont, the Hercules Powder Company (later Hercules Inc.) initially specialized in the manufacture of explosives and smokeless powders and subsequently diversified its business to encompass a variety of industrial products, including pine and paper chemicals, synthetics, pigments, polymers, and cellulose.