JH Berge

JH Berge, Inc® has proudly served the scientific community since 1850, providing high quality products at competitive prices to leading organizations and research institutions around the country.

History of J&H Berge, Inc

In 1849, two brothers named John and Henry Berge determined that assayers of precious metals and the jewelers that needed the precious metals were having difficulty obtaining high quality supplies. In 1850, they incorporated JH Berge at 95 John Street and 30 Gold Street in New York City, establishing JH Berge as the oldest laboratory supply company in the United States. Their goal was to provide Hessian sand crucibles, English borax, scotch stone, bohemian glassware, porcelain, assay furtances and supplies to jewelers, enamelers, assayers, marble workers, and silversmiths. The California Gold Rush (1848-1864) provided a substantial boost to this start-up company.

The first JH Berge Catalogue and Price List was produced in 1878 and was inscribed, "To our patrons, In compliance to the requests of many of our customers, we present this Price List of Goods kept on hand by us, trusting it may be of use to those interested." In September 1882, the first hardcover fully illustrated & descriptive catalog was produced and included not onlt bellows, crucibles, and furnaces for the precious metal industry but also balances, glassware, and microscopes for chemists, schools, and colleges. During these early years, many of the products were imported from the first factories of Europe, such as Royal Berlin Porecelain Ware, Jos. Kavalier's Bohemian Glassware, Best German Glassware and Royal Saxion Porcelain Ware.

The company was relocated to a larger facility at 145 Hudson Street around 1910. Soon thereafter John and Henry Berge passed down the ownership to their sons, Ernest and John. In 1934 the company joined the SAMA Group of Associations and has remained a loyal member to date. The Berge family maintained control of the company through 1957. In 1958 Dr. Lennard J Wissow, a Merck chemist, purchased the company and relocated it to South Plainfield, NJ in 1960. Throughout the next 20 years, Dr. Wissow obtained additional franchises and transformed the company into a full line scientific distributor.

In 1980 Berge experienced a disastrous fire that destroyed the main warehouse and all of its contents. As a result of the great efforts of Berge's dedicated employees, as well as the support and assistance of the company's many vendors and friends, Berge survived. In fact, not a single shipping day was missed during the crisis. In 1982, under the direction of Steven Krupp, the company moved to new headquarters on the same site in South Plainfield, NJ. In 1985, Steven N. Krupp was elected to serve as President of the company. Krupp has been a long time supporter of SAMA/LPA having started attending SAMA/LPA meetings over 20 years ago. He served on the LPA Board of Directors from 1991 to 1993 and now serves on the Membership Committee.

Although the last 159 years have brought many changes, challenges, and innovations to the world and the scientific community, JH Berge remains committed to providing personalized service and to offering high quality products to the research, educational, and industrial marketplaces. In addition, JH Berge's "THE LABMART" first appeared in 1962 as a single-sheet black & white marketing piece.

In the last 47 years "THE LABMART" has grown into a full color, bi-monthly direct mail order catalog consisting of several hundred pages.

Looking Forward...

We wish to continue our commitment to you with a brand new, user-friendly website and an expanded online Lab Mart® catalog. Over time, our website will become a host for more and more resources for scientists, educators, and industry workers. Our new plans for JHBerge.com includes product guides and manuals, tutorials, online tools and educational applets, and useful product reviews and a blog/forum where our customers can read new product reviews and offer their own comments to the discussion. At J & H Berge, Inc we are working hard to ensure that our website offers our customers a user-friendly, secure, and convenient alternative for those who prefer to order online. We also offer an interactive online JH Berge catalog at www.jhberge.com and with thousands of products it is our hope that this catalog will better serve your needs and provide an earth-friendly alternative to our printed catalog. In our webstore and the online catalog you will find the same high quality products from the manufacturers you know and trust in addition to many special offers and exclusive products only found at JH Berge®.

Our Promise

As always, we specialize in bringing you new, unique, hard-to-find, and innovative laboratory items to meet our needs. Our goal with our new online catalog is to make your job easier - whether you are obtaining a price quote, placing an order, or searching for the “perfect” product to assist in your research.

We’re striving to be the company you will turn to for all your laboratory equipment needs, if you do not find a product you want in our online catalog, please request a quote or contact us at (908) 561-1234. We have access to hundreds of other product lines, and we would be delighted to locate any item which is available to us and ship it to you as quickly as possible.

If you have never purchased from the Lab Mart® give us a try, you will be pleased. To our current customers: we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you and we hope you enjoy your on-line shopping experience. Please contact us with suggestions for making your online experience more enjoyable.

Company Mission Statement

JH Berge, Inc., is dedicated to providing quality laboratory equipment supplies and reagents to the scientific community through a staff of highly trained people sharing a tradition of integrity, flexibility and personal service. We provide our employees with the proper environment where individuals can learn, grow and be rewarded in proportion to their commitment, capability and contribution to the team effort. Serving the scientific community for over 150 years, our goal remains to provider excellent service and products at competitive prices.