Charles Courtice Alderton (June 21, 1857 – May 29, 1941)[1] was an American pharmacist and the inventor of the carbonated soft drink Dr Pepper.

[2][3] Alderton attended Framlingham College in England, studied medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and worked as a pharmacist in Waco, in a shop called "Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store",[4] which had a soda fountain.

Alderton noticed that customers were tiring of the traditional flavors of sarsaparilla, lemon and vanilla, and so to try and revive sales, began experimenting with new flavor combinations, eventually settling on a 23 ingredient mix combined with phosphoric acid to give it tang.

It was introduced to almost 20 million people while attending the 1904 World's Fair Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri as a new kind of soft drink.

The museum has three floors of exhibits, a working old-fashioned soda fountain, and a gift store of Dr Pepper memorabilia.