Beautiful RARE certificate from the Commercial Club of Indianapolis issued in 1891. This historic document was printed by Wm.M. Buford Litho Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of a allegorical woman with a train and factory in the background. The certificate was issued to Mr. L. Haines.  This item has the signatures of the Company's President, Eli Lilly and Secretary, William Fortune and is over 133 years old. 

The Commercial Club of Indianapolis was founded in 1890 by Colonel Eli Lilly and a group of Indianapolis business leaders. The organization changed their name to the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce in 1912 when it merged with other local business organizations.

Col. Eli Lilly, who founded Eli Lilly and Company, set the example for his son and grandsons. An Indianapolis civic leader, he helped organize the Commercial Club of Indianapolis, precursor to the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce. He also was a major supporter of the Charity Organization Society, which led relief and employment efforts in Indianapolis during economic downturns in the late 1800s.

Civil war pharmacist and Union officer Colonel Eli Lilly founded Eli Lilly and Company in 1876 with $1,300. He created gelatin-coated pills, which led to sales of almost $82,000 by 1881 and to his development of gelatin capsules, a technique the company uses to this day. Eli Lilly died in 1898, and his sons and grandsons ran the company until 1953. Eli Lilly and Company began mining insulin from hog and cattle pancreases in 1923. Other breakthroughs from the 1920s and 1930s included the antiseptic Merthiolate, the sedative Seconal and treatments for pernicious anemia and heart disease. Eli Lilly started selling diethylstilbestrol (DES), a drug to prevent miscarriages, in 1947, and in the 1950s was a major supplier of the Salk polio vaccine.

When Eli Lilly died in 1898, his son Josiah K. Lilly Sr. took control of the company. Josiah inherited his father's civic mindedness and ordered the company to send much needed medicine to support recovery efforts following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. History from Wikipedia and OldCompanyResearch.com (old stock certificate research service).