Who Founded Campbell's?

Campbell and Anderson's partnership packed tomatoes, vegetables, jellies, condiments and mincemeat from the farms around Camden. After Anderson left in 1876 the firm carried Campbell's name, and in 1894 Arthur Dorrance became president. The products that made the name famous came after Campbell's own role: condensed soup, developed by Arthur Dorrance's nephew John T. Dorrance in 1897, and the red-and-white label adopted in 1898. The company still has its headquarters in Camden and still uses his name, now as The Campbell's Company.

Joseph A. Campbell was born in 1904 in White Plains. Education: Canterbury School; Dartmouth College; Columbia University.

Anderson brought manufacturing experience to the 1869 partnership, which canned seasonal New Jersey produce. He left in 1876, and the business was reorganized under Campbell's name. Because he departed two decades before condensed soup, Anderson had no part in the product that made the company famous, but the Camden canning operation he helped start is the origin of a business that reported $9.744 billion of net sales in fiscal 2026.

Anderson was born in 1832 and died on June 10, 1915. He had founded the Anderson Preserving Company in 1860, nine years before the partnership with Joseph Campbell.