The National Can Story

Excerpts of Robert Stuart; Address of The Newcomen Society of North America

New York – 1971

National Can’s history spans and encompasses the history of the modern can industry. The corporation traces its history back to the turn of the century with the chartering of the John Boyle Company of Baltimore in 1899 to pack foods and make the needed containers for them. Not long afterward, in 1909, the Metal Package Company in New York took over the business, and in 1918 the company became the Metal Package Corporation of New York. In 1929 it was first incorporated as a Delaware corporation.

As the Metal Package Corporation of Delaware, it acquired the business and assets of Fischer Can Company of Hamilton, Ohio, in 1930. Four years later it acquired the business and machinery of two Boston companies; one the Colonial Can Company, and the second the National Can Company.