The Philadelphia chemical manufacturing firm of Carter & Scattergood was founded in 1834. It continued to do business under that name until 1911, when it was sold to the Henry Bower Chemical Manufacturing Company.

The business was founded in 1754 by John Elliott (1713-1791), who had come to Philadelphia from Bolton, England, the previous year. Elliott originally dealt in glass, to which was added the silvering of mirrors. The business was continued by his son, John, and by his grandsons, John and Elliott. The grandsons further expanded the business to include drugs, paints and colors and constructed a manufacturing laboratory at 19th and Pine Streets around 1812.

John Carter (1800-1877), the son of a Maryland miller, entered the firm as an apprentice in 1816. On January 1, 1834, he formed a partnership with Joseph Scattergood, a druggist and graduate of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, and purchased the chemical branch of the Elliott firm, then consisting primarily of the manufacture of acids. Carter & Scattergood added the production of aqua ammonia, copper sulphate, sulphuric ether, calomel, potassium chlorate, potassium bichromate, Prussian blue, chrome yellow, chrome green, and the tartarates of soda, potassium and antimony. The firm was the first in the United States to produce yellow prussiate of potash (ca. 1834), and red prussiate of potash (potassium ferrocyanide), chemicals used in dyeing, calico printing, blueprinting, and other industrial applications.

John Carter's son, John Elliott Carter (1838-1922), entered the firm in 1858, and Scattergood's son, George Jones Scattergood, in 1860. John Carter retired in 1871 and Joseph Scattergood in 1877. George Scattergood retired in 1890, leaving John E. Carter the sole partner for a time. Charles Evans, a grandson of John Carter, was made a partner in 1900, and John Pim Carter, the son of John E. Carter, in 1903.