Joseph C. Gayetty was an American inventor credited with the invention of commercial toilet paper

Toilet paper

Toilet paper is a soft paper product used to maintain personal hygiene after human defecation or urination. However, it can also be used for other purposes such as blowing one's nose when one has a cold or absorbing common spills around the house, although paper towels are more used for the latter...

. Gayetty first marketed toilet paper in 1857 which originally sold for US$0.50 in packs of 500 bearing a watermark of his name. The original product contained aloe

Aloe

Aloe , also Aloë, is a genus containing about 500 species of flowering succulent plants. The most common and well known of these is Aloe vera, or "true aloe"....

 as a lubricant and was marketed as an anti-hemorrhoid

Hemorrhoid

Hemorrhoids or haemorrhoids , are vascular structures in the anal canal which help with stool control. They become pathological or piles when swollen or inflamed. In their physiological state they act as a cushion composed of arterio-venous channels and connective tissue that aid the passage of...

medical product. Gayetty's product was licensed to other manufacturers and sold as late as the 1920s.

US Census records from 1860 show Joseph C. Gayetty lived in New York City with his family. His birthplace in the census records is listed as Massachusetts.