The following listing of internet websites is
provided for users to pursue additional information within the broad field of
historic bottle dating and identification. The Historic Bottle
Website (nor the Society for Historical Archaeology or Bureau of Land
Management) is not connected with most of these sites and the
listing of them here is not intended to be an endorsement. They
are listed here because they appear to the author to be of
possible utility in the continued pursuit of the goals of this website. It
is not intended to be a complete listing of websites dealing with historic
bottles, but is an attempt to get some of the more useful and/or interesting ones listed in one
location. If users find other unlisted websites
that they believe support the goals of this website, the author encourages and
appreciates the submission of the web address (URL)
for review and potential inclusion.
Please note that when clicking on non-Historic
Bottle Website related links on this page
you may receive the following message:
"You are now leaving the Historic Glass Bottle
Identification & Information Website! Please note that we do not control and
cannot guarantee the relevance, timeliness, or accuracy of the materials
provided by other agencies or organizations. We also are not endorsing outside
agencies and organizations by linking to them."
The general structure of this page is based on the
structure of this website and is divided into two main categories:
Non-Bottle Type
Specific Links (links that are largely related to glassmaking and general
bottle features); and
Bottle Type Specific Links (links which are more
narrowly focused on a specific type or category of historic bottles).Click on the link of interest to move to that portion of this
page - or just scroll down the page.
The Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA) -
the host of this Historic Bottle Website - has pdf versions of all
their journal articles from 1967 to date on-line at SpringerLink:
https://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/41636 This includes virtually all of the historic bottle related articles published
by the SHA noted on the References page of this website. This is an
incredible resource that is available free of charge.
The Intermountain Antiquities
Computer System (IMACS) guide.
This work used to be maintained by the University of Utah though
co-sponsored by several other agencies including several Intermountain BLM
states and National Forests. Unfortunately, the posting of this
work by the U. of Utah has been discontinued (2015) and it is no longer
available online. However, a copy of the bottle related portions has
been scanned and is available via this website at the following link:
http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/IMACSUsersGuide1992.pdf
This was a guide to assist agency
archaeologists in inputting information into a database; it is pending
replacement by a different document just for Utah. Among many areas of
pre-historic and historic archaeology, it contains and a good (though limited)
overview of bottle manufacturing techniques, dating tools, diagnostic
characteristics, and related information including some decent line drawings.
The Federation of Historic Bottle
Collectors (FOHBC) website:
http://www.fohbc.org/
This is the national bottle collectors association and is a good source for
historic bottle information, resources, and even "experts" within various
fields and subject matter related to historic bottles. The FOHBC also
publishes (quarterly and reportedly soon to be bi-monthly) the magazine
Bottles and Extras which contains a wide array of generally excellent
articles including many that directly support the goals of this website. Check out the
references section in particular for information about various categories of
bottles and jars as well as specific bottles:
http://www.fohbc.org/references/
The Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG) is
a great site to learn about glassmaking and many other related subjects.
It is at the following link:
http://www.cmog.org/ It is located in
beautiful Corning, New York and is a "must"
visit for those interested in the fascinating world of glass and glass making.
The author of this website finally managed to visit the CMOG in
2019 and it was well worth the extra time to see it! An amazing place
for anyone interested in the history of glass.
The Historic Glasshouse website website, though primarily collector oriented, does
provides some useful information about on an assortment of subjects relevant
to this Historic Bottle website including a great article entitled
"How to use US Patent Information to Identify Age
and other Information" which is available under the heading "Information."
The site is available at: http://antiquebottles-glass.com
An excellent resource for those
seeking information or having questions about historic bottles and wish to
solicit information from the collectors world should take a look at
Antique-Bottles.Net at the following link:
http://www.antique-bottles.net/index.htm
Similarly, the following link will
access a potential source for information and questions from what is primarily
the historical archaeology world. Be aware that HISTARCH, which
is sponsored by Arizona State University, covers a wide array of historical
archaeological issues of which bottles are a very small part of.
However, bottle related "threads" are common on the site. It is available at this link:
http://lists.asu.edu/archives/histarch.html
The Museum of
American Glass in West Virginia has a very well done website and publishes the magazine All
About Glass. Both provide some great information on glassmakers
and their products as well as many other related subject themes relative to
glass making, though they concentrate more on glass tableware than bottles
(Many glass tableware makers did make bottles too.) The website is at
the following link:
http://www.magwv.com/
The Sandwich Glass Museum maintains an
interesting website largely devoted to the attributes of the museum (including
glass blowing) that deals with the products - including bottles - of this
early American glass company. The website is at the
following link:
http://www.sandwichglassmuseum.org/
The Collector's Weekly by Dave Margulius is a
well done website covering a wide array of antiques including bottles.
Some of users - collectors in particular - may find this site of interest.
As noted on that website, it is envisioned to be a "...resource for
collectors and people who love antiques..." and includes useful
information on bottles. The website can be accessed via the following
link:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/category/bottles/index.php
The Antique Bottle Mysteries website is a new
and potentially useful site for students of bottle and glass making that contains - to
quote the web site - "...information about rare
and collectible glass bottles from a member of the glass bottle mold
manufacturing industry." That "member
of the glass bottle mold manufacturing industry" is
Red Matthews who has already posted several "blogs" that deal with
bottle and bottle mold making. This site can be accessed via the
following link:
http://www.bottlemysteries.com/welcome/
An incredible tool for doing finding patent and
trademark research is Google™ Patent Search at this link:
http://www.google.com/patents
Although sometimes difficult to find the exact information you are seeking,
with persistence this resource allows a person to find some incredible
information on bottle making tools and machines, bottle designs/types,
products that were bottled, and much more. Just be aware that the
patents were scanned with automated equipment and some of the original patents
title text is sometimes not "read" correctly - especially if hand written
(like many 19th century patents), e.g., reading CASTEK-STAND for CASTER-STAND.
Cecil Munsey - a noted author
and researcher on a myriad of subjects related to historic bottles for over 4 decades - has a website that accesses
many or most of his works through the years, including all the way back to the
Western Collector magazine in the 1960s. His site is available at this
link:
http://www.cecilmunsey.com/
Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc.
has a website entitled the Odyssey Virtual Museum which has full color
images of a plethora of different bottles as well as all kinds of other
artifacts uncovered in their salvage operations. The bottle section
includes scores of different bottles, primarily retrieved from the S. S.
Republic which sank in late October 1865. This provides an
invaluable "snapshot" of the bottles styles common at the end of the Civil War
era. This site is available at this link:
http://odysseysvirtualmuseum.com/
The National Bottle Museum in
Ballston Spa, NY. has an interesting and useful website that may be of
interest to users of this site. According to the website it is a "...museum
whose mission is to preserve the history of our nation's first major
industry: Bottle Making." A highly recommended resource for
researchers, this site is available at this link:
http://www.nationalbottlemuseum.org
A resource for research on Window and Flat Glass
for Historical Archaeologists is available online at the following
link:
http://www.digitalpresence.com/histarch/glass.html This resource
includes a long list of references on the subject of window glass and
related, non-bottle, flat glass.
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
GLASSMAKING & GLASSMAKERS
Exceptionally useful tools for determining what a
particular bottle shape or type was likely used for are period bottle/glass
makers illustrated catalogs. This website provides complete scanned copies
(jpegs) of several
never before re-printed bottle makers catalogs covering a wide array of bottle
types. Click on the following links to access these catalogs:
David Whitten maintains an excellent website
that covers most known glass makers markings. The following link will take a user to
his exceptional webpages covering most glass makers marks - bottles and insulators:
https://glassbottlemarks.com/bottlemarks David is a serious avocational student of bottle and insulator makers marks
and his pages are a wealth of information on the subject. This page
is a highly recommended (and free!) "first stop" for those wishing to figure out what a given
makers mark stands for on a bottle they may have. The site also includes
some great history behind the companies. Also see his main webpage - Glass
Bottle Marks - Collecting History of the Glass Manufacturing Industry - at the
following link:
https://glassbottlemarks.com
A scanned copy of a 1915 bottle
distributors "Druggist Catalog and Sundries" from the John M. Maris Co. (New
York & Philadelphia) is available on Digger Odell's website at the following
URL:
http://www.bottlebooks.com/1915%20bottles/bottles_of_1915.htm
Dr. Julian Toulouse's (1971)
classic book Bottles Makers and Their Marks is a must for any serious student
of bottle dating and identification. Though long out of print, it is now
available as a soft bound reprint which is available at the following link:
http://www.blackburnpress.com/botmakandthe.html
The Parks Canada Glass Glossaryby Olive Jones and Catherine Sullivan
is now available as a
pdf file download via this website at the following
link:
Parks Canada Glass Glossary - English.pdf
This book is probably the best resource available (next to this website!) that
covers glass making techniques and the diagnostic evidence related to these
techniques ranging from early mouth-blown processes to 20th century fully
automatic machinery. This book is a "must have" for any complete
historic bottle related library.
An incredible tool for doing finding patent and
trademark research is Google™ Patent Search at this link:
http://www.google.com/patents
Although sometimes difficult to find the exact information you are seeking,
with persistence this resource allows a person to find some incredible
information on bottle making tools and machines, bottle designs/types,
products that were bottled, and much more.
The Museum of Connecticut Glass
has a website devoted to the makers and products of an assortment of early
glasshouses in that state. The following is from that website: This developing museum is dedicated to exhibiting, preserving, researching and
providing education about historical glass made in the numerous glassworks in
Connecticut. It is available at this link:
http://www.glassmuseum.org
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
BOTTLE DATING
The Intermountain Antiquities
Computer System (IMACS) guide.
This work used to be maintained by the University of Utah though
co-sponsored by several other agencies including several Intermountain BLM
states and National Forests. Unfortunately, the posting of this
work by the U. of Utah has been discontinued (2015) and it is no longer
available online. However, a copy of the bottle related portions has
been scanned and is available via this website at the following link:
http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/IMACSUsersGuide1992.pdf
The Parks Canada Glass Glossary
by Olive Jones and Catherine Sullivan
is now available as a
pdf file download via this website at the following link:
Parks Canada Glass Glossary - English.pdf
This book is probably the best resource available (next to this website!) that
covers glass making techniques and the diagnostic evidence related to these
techniques ranging (including date ranges) from early mouth-blown processes to
20th century fully automatic machinery. This book is a "must have" for
any complete historic bottle related library.
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
The basic naming nomenclature used on
this website originates with the Bottle Neck Finishes
illustration on the IMACS - Intermountain Antiquities Computer System - website;
a website that used to be hosted and maintained by the University of Utah.
Unfortunately, the hosting of that website has been discontinued recently
(2015). However, a scanned copy of the bottle portion of the IMACS
guide can now be found on this website at this link:
http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/IMACSUsersGuide1992.pdf A copy
of the IMACS Bottle Neck Finishes illustration by
itself can be found at the following link:
http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/IMACSfinishes.pdf The IMACS illustration was taken from Richard Fikes' 1987
excellent book on embossed medicine bottles - "The Bottle Book: A Guide
To Historic Medicine Bottles." Much of the information for
the Fike/IMACS list was apparently an expansion of the information derived from Berge (1968, 1980)
who in turn depended on the information from Freeman (1964) and Putnam
(1965).
A two page, printable,
summary style sheet for the IMACS/Fike 25 finish types - with the images of each type
- is
available as a .pdf file by clicking on
Bottle Finishes.
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
BOTTLE BODY CHARACTERISTICS & MOLD SEAMS
One of the best sources for information
on mold seams is in Dr. Julian Toulouse's often cited two-part article entitled
A Primer on Mold Seams in the November and December 1969 editions of the long
defunct magazine The Western Collector (Toulouse 1969b). Faster
loading "jpg" scans of
this milestone work are available by clicking on the following links - 2
magazine pages per scan, 20 magazine pages in total. The page numbers listed here coincide with the pages of
the original articles. (Articles reproduced courtesy of Dr. Cecil Munsey.)
Part I -
pages 526-527,
pages 528-529,
pages 530-531,
pages 532-533,
pages 534-535.
Part II -
pages 578-579,
pages 580-581,
pages 582-583,
pages 584-585,
pages 586-587.
A better quality version of the entire article, which is more suitable for printing, is available by
clicking on the following link:
Primer on Mold Seams - Parts I & II
This file (pdf) is viewable in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
One of the longer running myths in the
historic bottle world - professional and avocational - is that bottles can be
generally dated by the height of the mold side seam. The following
article from Fall 2005 Bottles and Extras magazine explains the
problems with this concept:
Debunking the Myth of the Side Seam Thermometer by Bill Lockhart, Bill
Lindsey, David Whitten, and Carol Serr.
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
BOTTLE BASES
The best readily available source for
classifying bottle base
shapes/profiles is the "Bottle Base Profiles" illustration that
was previously included in
the IMACS (Intermountain Antiquities Computer System) guide. That
guide is no longer available online through its long time host (University
of Utah) although a copy of the entire bottle section is now (2015)
available via this website at the following URL:
http://www.sha.org/bottle/pddfiles/IMACSUsersGuide1992.pdf The
base illustration by itself is available at the following link:
http://www.sha.org/bottle/pddfiles/IMACSbaseprofiles.pdf
This illustration was taken from Richard Fikes' excellent 1987 book
(now again in print) on
historic medicine bottles - The Bottle Book: A Guide to Historic Medicine
Bottles. Consult the
IMACS website above if interested in the nomenclature of describing base
profiles.
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
BOTTLE TYPING/DIAGNOSTIC SHAPES
(This subject is primarily covered by the next
section below.)
Exceptionally useful tools for determining what a
particular bottle shape or type was likely used for are period bottle/glass
makers catalogs. This website provides complete scanned copies of several
never before re-printed bottle makers catalogs covering a wide array of bottle
types. Click on the following links to access these catalogs:
A scanned copy of a 1915 bottle
distributors "Druggist Catalog and Sundries" from the John M. Maris Co. (New
York & Philadelphia) is available on Digger Odell's website at the following
URL:
http://www.bottlebooks.com/1915%20bottles/bottles_of_1915.htm
The California State Parks - State Archaeological
Collection Research Facility (SACRF) in Sacramento has a website with some
interesting and useful information, including various pages on "Artifact Type
Collections," including some bottles. That website is available at
the following link:
http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=22207
An incredible tool for doing finding patent and
trademark research is Google™ Patent Search at this link:
http://www.google.com/patents
Although sometimes difficult to find the exact information you are seeking,
with persistence this resource allows a person to find some incredible
information on bottle making tools and machines, bottle designs/types,
products that were bottled, and much more.
Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc.
has a website entitled the Odyssey Virtual Museum which has full color
images of a plethora of different bottles as well as all kinds of other
artifacts uncovered in their salvage operations. The bottle section
includes scores of different bottles, primarily retrieved from the S. S.
Republic which sank in late October 1865. This provides an
invaluable "snapshot" of the bottles styles common at the end of the Civil War
era and runs from liquor to bitters to medicinal to food to ink
bottles...and more. This site is available at this link:
http://odysseysvirtualmuseum.com/
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
BOTTLE TYPE SPECIFIC
LINKS (This section is based on the bottle type
categories found on the
Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes page.)
LIQUOR/SPIRITS BOTTLES
An excellent overview of Prohibition -
the times leading up to it, National Prohibition itself, and its eventual
repeal - is found in a 1979 article entitled Repealing National Prohibition by David Kyvig (Schaffer Library of Drug Policy, University
of Chicago). It can be found now on the web at the following link:
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/rnp/RNP1.html
One fascinating source of information on the
types of wines (and spirits) available in the West during the early 20th century is
found at a Harvard University website which contains an entire 1912 H.
Jevne Company (Los Angeles, CA.) Grocers catalog. A link to this
catalog follows:
http://pds.harvard.edu:8080/pdx/servlet/pds?id=2845731&n=89&s=4.
On pages 6 and 7 one will find the index to the entire catalog. Pages 87 through 100 contain the listings for
scores of wines and spirits types and brands that they offered (the listed
link should take one to page 87 of the catalog).
Attached to the "Bottle
Types/Diagnostic Shapes" grouping of pages on this website is a complete copy of a never
re-printed, 280 page, 1906 Illinois Glass Company bottle catalog scanned at two pages per
JPEG file. Click
1906 IGCo. Catalog to access the page that links to all the scans of this
very useful catalog. Liquor bottles are listed primarily on pages 118-177.
Other bottle makers catalogs are also available on this site (1920 &
1926 Illinois Glass Company; 1916 Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co.) by
going to the
Website Map page and clicking on the links listed under
Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes section.
An extremely useful non-bottle source of liquor company history,
legend and lore is Robin Preston's excellent website on pre-Prohibition shot
glasses. It includes sections devoted to researching the companies that
produced the shot glasses, almost all of which of course, would sell their
products in bottles. Included on the site are complete scanned copies of
several of the best books on the subject which include a wealth of liquor
bottle information. For the liquor bottle researcher, this website is
highly recommended! It is available at this link:
http://www.pre-pro.com/
The Antique Bottle & Glass
Collector Magazine has some useful bottle information available online in
the form of reprints of past articles. Specifically for liquor bottles, there
is a group of articles about historical flasks at:
http://www.glswrk-auction.com/140.htm and Pitkin flasks at:
http://www.glswrk-auction.com/p00.htm
The following website -
www.finestandrarest.com - offers a wide assortment of 19th and early/mid
20th century liquor and wine bottles with the original contents and labels
(usually). This could be a useful site for users to see what liquors and
wines came in what types of bottles.
Similar to the above site, this website -
http://www.oldliquors.com - also shows an assortment of primarily European
liquor and liqueur bottles with the original contents and labels (at
extravagantly high prices!). (Authors note: It should be noted that
often the date of a particular liquor itself can be much older than the
apparent age of the bottle it is in. This is because many distilled
products were aged and/or stored in casks for many years or decades prior to
the actual bottling. For example, the bottle that a 1789 cognac is
bottled in - a bottle having a blob seal with "1789" impressed within it -
appears to the author to be a much later, turn-mold produced bottle that is
almost certainly upwards of a century newer than the contents. However,
many of the bottles pictured date from or around the date noted in the
listings.)
After National Prohibition ended (1933) various
regulations were implemented in regards to the bottling of liquor/spirits,
e.g., the required embossing FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR REUSE OF THIS
BOTTLE on all liquor sold in the U.S. was one. Another requirement
was specific liquor bottle permit numbers assigned to individual glass
companies and specific factories which were authorized by the Federal
Government to produce liquor bottles. These numbers were embossed on the
base of many (maybe all?) liquor bottles during the mid-20th century and can
be a useful tool for determining who made the bottle. A listing of these
permit numbers by glass company/plant can be found at this link:
Industry Liquor Bottle Permit Numbers (This listing courtesy of Russ
Hoenig, Owens-Illinois Glass Co. [retired].) This can often lead to
enhanced dating refinement of mid-20th century liquor bottle depending on the
current information available for the glass maker. See this websites
makers marking page at this link -
Glass Making & Glass Makers: Bottle & Glass Makers Markings- for
articles on scores of glass companies.
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
WINE & CHAMPAGNE BOTTLES
The website Cellarnotes.net is a
wealth of information about wine, wine types, processes, etc. The
homepage is available at this URL:
http://www.cellarnotes.net/index.html Click on the following link to
view a webpage within this site that describes the three major wine bottle
shapes:
http://www.cellarnotes.net/bottleshapes.html
One fascinating source of information on the
types of wines (and spirits) available in the West during the early 20th century is
found at a Harvard University website which contains an entire 1912 H.
Jevne Company (Los Angeles, CA.) Grocers catalog. A link to this
catalog follows:
http://pds.harvard.edu:8080/pdx/servlet/pds?id=2845731&n=89&s=4.
On pages 6 and 7 one will find the index to the entire catalog. Pages 87 through 100 contain the listings for
scores of wines and spirits types and brands that they offered (the listed
link should take one to page 87 of the catalog).
Attached to the "Bottle
Types/Diagnostic Shapes" grouping of pages on this website is a complete copy of a never
re-printed, 280 page, 1906 Illinois Glass Company bottle catalog scanned at two pages per
JPEG file. Click
1906 IGCo. Catalog to access the page that links to all the scans of this
very useful catalog. Wine and champagne bottles are listed primarily on pages 136-147.
Other bottle makers catalogs are also available on this site (1920 &
1926 Illinois Glass Company; 1916 Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co.) by
going to the
Website Map page and clicking on the links listed under
Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes section.
Follow the next link to a website on the
legend and lore of absinthe - including the bottles - which is
represented by the blob sealed olive green absinthe bottle in the center of
the group pictured above. This
website was created by David Nathan-Maister and is at this URL:
http://www.oxygenee.com
The following website -
www.finestandrarest.com - offers a wide assortment of 19th and early/mid
20th century wine and liquor bottles with the original contents and labels
(usually). This could be a useful site for users to see what wines and
liquors came in what types of bottles.
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
BEER & ALE BOTTLES
Bill
Lockhart has also allowed the posting here of his book entitled
"Breweries and Beer Bottles at El Paso, Texas" (2015) which, like
his other books of his listed on this page, has some
application for the general dating and typology of bottles outside the
actual geographical area covered by the books. This book also
includes some bottles from just across the border from El Paso - Juarez,
Mexico. In order to see what the individual chapters cover click on the
first "Title Page, Table of Contents..." link below.
This copyrighted work is available for sale as a softbound book via
www.Lulu.com (search using "Bill Lockhart") or also as a series of updated
PDF files which may be saved or printed out to make your own book
for just the cost of printing them yourself. Thanks Bill!
The Bruce Mobley'sBeer Bottle Library of
Embossed Beers website has an extensive listing of embossed beer bottles from around
the country and may be of utility to users. It is available at:
http://brucemobley.com/beerbottlelibrary/
An new, but very excellent site that covers the
history, shapes, morphology, and more of earlier (non-crown top) beer and soda bottles
is Tod von Mechow'sSodas & Beer Bottles of North America
website which is available at the following link: http://www.sodasandbeers.com
Another great early beer (porter) and soda bottle website is the
The Bottle Den (http://bottleden.com/index.shtml) which covers pontiled American soda and porter bottles - which are similar
in shape to era sodas. The general pontiled soda page is available at this link:
http://bottleden.com/about.shtmlThe American Pontiled Soda Database Project - a comprehensive listing
of known pontiled soda and porter bottles including good images - is at this link:
http://bottleden.com/aps.html
A printable, 3 page, summary sheet of
the major beer bottles styles described on the Beer & Ale page is available as a .pdf file by clicking on
Beer Bottle Style Sheet.
Attached to the "Bottle
Types/Diagnostic Shapes" grouping of pages on this website is a complete copy of a never
re-printed, 280 page, 1906 Illinois Glass Company bottle catalog scanned at two pages per
JPEG file. Click
1906 IGCo. Catalog to access the page that links to all the scans of this
very useful catalog. Beer bottles are listed primarily on pages 250-259.
Other bottle makers catalogs are also available on this site (1920 &
1926 Illinois Glass Company; 1916 Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co.) by
going to the Website Map page and clicking on the links listed under
Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes section.
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
Schulz,
Peter, Bill Lockhart, Carol Serr, Bill
Lindsey and Beau Schriever.
2019. A History of Non-Returnable Beer
Bottles. Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website, E-published
February 2019.
Another exclusive article published here only; this one an in-depth and
fascinating history of non-returnable beer
bottles. Though not an era that has
completely ended, the heyday of no-deposit,
no-return bottles was primarily from the
1930s to 1970s. This article covers
styles, dating, and much more about this
category of bottles which are ubiquitous on
20th century historic sites. This article is available at this link:
http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/NRBeers.pdf
SODA & MINERAL WATER BOTTLES
Bill Lockhart
(NMSU - Alamogordo retired) and a member of the
Bottle Research Group maintained several different websites - or "web books"
as he calls them - on the NMSU servers. That is no longer possible
so they now reside in whole or in part on this website! One is entitled "Bottles on the
Border: The History and Bottles of the Soft Drink Industry in El Paso, Texas,
1881-2000" (2010).
Though
this book is specific to the soda bottles of El Paso, it has nationwide
application in that many of the bottlers in 20th century El Paso were
franchises spread throughout the country (e.g. Dr. Pepper, 7-Up, Coca-Cola) and
the type bottles used in most areas closely parallels the usage in Texas. The
“book” also has great background information on bottle manufacture, maker’s
marks, ACL’s, etc.
This book is now
available ONLY ON THIS WEBSITE as a series of copyrighted PDF files which may be printed out
to make your own book for just the cost of printing them. Thanks Bill!
Bill Lockhart has recently converted another
of his web books on the soda
bottles of Alamogordo, NM, to a published softbound as well as .pdf files.
As with all his books, this one also contains information
with broader relevance on soda bottles. The book is entitled
"Soda Bottles and Bottling at Alamogordo, New Mexico" (2011).
(Previously entitled - as a web book - "Just Who in the Heck is
Lulu, Anyway? The Alamogordo, New Mexico Carbonated Beverage Industry
and its Bottles.")
This copyrighted work is available for sale as a softbound book via
www.Lulu.com (search using "Bill Lockhart") or also as a series of
PDF files which may be saved or printed out to make your own book
for just the cost of printing them yourself. Thanks Bill!
Ron Fowler maintains a website called The Seattle
History Company. He is a dedicated researcher in various historical
avenues, but in particular Hutchinson soda bottles, for which he has written
several books covering Northwest soda bottles. His website (including
his books for sale) is at:
http://www.seattlehistorycompany.com
Ron Fowler has also
completed a Hutchinson soda bottle website that includes a searchable directory
database of over 20,000
different embossed Hutchinson soda bottles that he has cataloged. It is available a this link:
http://www.hutchbook.com
This website is a marvelous
resource for those trying to identify soda bottles and fragments as well as so much
more.
An new, but very excellent site that covers the
history, shapes, morphology, and more of earlier (non-crown top) soda and beer bottles
is Tod von Mechow'sSodas & Beer Bottles of North America
website which is available at the following link: http://www.sodasandbeers.com
Another great early soda bottle website is the The Bottle Den (
http://bottleden.com/index.shtml
) which covers pontiled American sodas and porter bottles (which are similar
in shape). The general pontiled soda page is available at this link:
http://bottleden.com/about.shtmlThe American Pontiled Soda Database Project - a comprehensive listing
of known pontiled soda bottles including good images - is at this link:
http://bottleden.com/aps.html
The Painted Soda Bottle Collectors
Association is an website devoted to ACL soda bottles. It is also
the source for probably the best book on the subject - Collecting Applied
Color Label Soda Bottles, Third Edition - which is still available and in
print (Sweeney 2002). The website is available at the following link:
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/thesodafizz/PSBCA.html
The following page on the Antique
Bottle Collectors Haven website has some useful information on the dating
of Coca-Cola®
bottles:
http://www.antiquebottles.com/coke/
The following linked page of Digger Odell's website
has an excellent overview on siphon bottles - history, how they worked, patent
illustrations, and more: http://www.bottlebooks.com/Siphons/mixing_it_up.htm
Also on Digger Odell's website is a series of pages
on "designer" soda bottles, i.e., machine-made, proprietary, crown
finish, soda designs patented during the era from the mid-1910s to 1940s. It is available at this link:
http://www.bottlebooks.com/Designer%20Sodas/designer_soda_bottles.htm
Linked to the "Bottle Types/Diagnostic
Shapes" grouping of pages on this website is a complete copy of a never re-printed, 280 page,
1906 Illinois Glass Company bottle catalog scanned at two pages per
JPEG file. Click
1906 IGCo. Catalog to access the page that links to all the scans of this
very useful catalog. Soda and mineral water bottles are listed primarily on pages
236-249. Other bottle makers catalogs are also available on this
site (1920 & 1926 Illinois Glass Company; 1916 Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle
Co.) by going to the
Website Map page and clicking on the links listed under
Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes section.
A great new website by Charles David Head that
covers Koca Nola bottles (a prime competitor to Coca-Cola in the early
days in the East and Southeast) - including its history - is located at this
link: http://www.KocaNola.com/
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
MEDICINAL/CHEMICAL/DRUGGIST BOTTLES
Bill
Lockhart has also allowed the posting here of his book entitled
"El Paso Prescription Bottles, The Drug Stores That Used
Them and Other Non-Beverage Bottles" (2015) which, like
his other books listed above (sodas) and below (milk bottles), has some
application for the general dating and typology of bottles outside the
actual geographical area covered by the books.This book also
includes some bottles from just across the border from El Paso - Juarez,
Mexico.
This copyrighted work is available for sale as a softbound book via
www.Lulu.com (search using "Bill Lockhart") or also as a series of updated
PDF files which may be saved or printed out to make your own book
for just the cost of printing them yourself. Thanks Bill!
Antique Bottle & Glass
Collector Magazine has some useful bottle information available online.
The regular column by Dr. Richard Cannon on medicine bottles is very good and
many of the articles available at the following link:
http://glswrk-auction.com/064.htm.
There are also a group of articles about bitters bottles at:
http://www.glswrk-auction.com/bitter.htm
The author of this Historic
Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website (Bill Lindsey)
also has a personal webpage that has a listing of medicinal tonic bottles from
the 19th and early 20th centuries. This page may be of some utility and
I am quite willing to answer specific questions about the bottles for which I
have more information which is not
listed on the website. My email address and a listing of the tonic
bottle is available at:
http://www.historicbottles.com/toniclist.htm
Bill Hunt'sMedicine Bottle
Glass Index is a National Park Service sponsored website from their Midwest
Archaeological Center. The following is from the website introduction
and explains the site:
"This database is a reference to aid in the identification of embossed
medicine bottles. It is equally appropriate for researching complete labels as
well as label fragments and is suitable for use by bottle collectors as well
as historical archeologists. The finding aid is available as a Microsoft Word
document or as a text file. The data file was built as a text file to allow
the researcher to employ word processing software text finding aides (a "word
search") to locate strings of letters, complete words, or combinations of
words which appear on a bottle or bottle fragment. It includes about 6,080
entries." It is available at this link:
http://www.cr.nps.gov/mwac/bottle_glass/index.html#bib
Attached to the "Bottle
Types/Diagnostic Shapes" grouping of pages on this website is a complete copy of a never
re-printed, 280 page, 1906 Illinois Glass Company bottle catalog scanned at two pages per
JPEG file. Click
1906 IGCo. Catalog to access the page that links to all the scans of this
very useful catalog. Medicinal bottles are listed primarily on pages
22-35, 42-53, 94-103. Other bottle makers catalogs are also
available on this site (1920 & 1926 Illinois Glass Company; 1916
Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co.) by going to the
Website Map page and clicking on the links listed under
Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes section.
James Harvey Young's classic book on the
history of Quackery entitled The Toadstool Millionaires - A Social
History of Patent Medicine in America before Federal Regulation is now
available in its entirety on the internet at this link:
http://www.quackwatch.org/13Hx/TM/00.html
This book is highly recommended reading to those interested in the history and lore of
that amazing era in the U. S.
The U. S. National Library of Health - National
Institutes of Health has a portion of their large website devoted to
patent medicine almanacs. It includes some complete downloads of entire
almanacs from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries as well as color images of
almanac covers; potentially valuable tools for bottle research. The patent
medicine almanac main page is available at the following link:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/almanac/index.html
Donald Bergseng Sr. has an interesting website
of which part - that on druggist dose glasses - may be of interest to users
of this website. Dose glasses were typically a small "shot glass" type
glass cup that were given out by druggists. Dose glasses were often embossed
or etched (and in later years ACL lettering) with the name, address and other
information as specified by the ordering druggist or drugstore. Some of
the historic information pertaining to the dose glasses noted on the site may be of use
to users.
Click on the following link to go to the dose glass page:
http://www.bergsengs.com/Dose_Cups_Or_Medicine_Glasses.html
Dr. Robert Greenspan has an interesting
website entitled "Medicines - Perspectives in History and Art" - which
includes information on medical antiques - including bottles - as well as to purchase his book by
the same name (see write-up in on the
Reference Sources/Bibliography page). The website site and book
may be
of use to those interested in patent & proprietary
medicine bottles. The website is available at this link:
http://www.medicalhistoryandart.com
Matthew Knapp has a potentially useful
website on medicine bottles which is available at the following link:
http://www.antiquemedicines.com/bottles.htm This link takes one to
Matt's homepage which has a search function for the entire site as well as
additional links to other parts of the website. One of these other
links takes one to a section called the "Antique Medicine Nexus" which is a
listing of thousands (?) of medicine bottles which may be of utility for
bottle and bottle fragment identification. One can go straight to this
page by clicking on the following link:
http://www.antiquemedicines.com/MedicineNexus/Nexus.htm
An interesting article entitled "Patent
Medicines: Cures and Quacks" by Peggy M. Baker of
the Pilgrim Society & Pilgrim Hall Museum is available at the following
link:
http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/pdf/Patent_Medicine.pdf The
article is a relatively short though profusely illustrated overview of
medicine and quackery in the United States up until the beginnings of the
regulation era in the early 20th century.
Similar to the article above is a senior project thesis
by Kelly Harmon as a student at the University of North
Carolina (Asheville) in 2003. It is entitled "A Period of
Deceit: The Patent Medicine Business 1865 to 1906." The title
indicates the coverage period and general theme of the paper. It is
available at the following link:
http://toto.lib.unca.edu/sr_papers/history_sr/srhistory_2003/harmon_kelly.pdf
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
FOOD BOTTLES & CANNING/FRUIT JARS
Bill Lockhart
(NMSU - Alamogordo) and a member of our
Bottle Research Group has recently published a book on the history of milk bottles in
Alamogordo/Otero County, New Mexico
which is entitled: "The Dairies and Milk Bottles of Otero County, New
Mexico" (2011). Though regional in intent, this work contains a
substantial amount of information of much broader
interest and utility including some general information on the dating of milk
bottles.
This copyrighted work is available for sale as a softbound book via
www.Lulu.com (search using "Bill Lockhart") or also as a series of updated
PDF files which may be saved or printed out to make your own book
for just the cost of printing them yourself. Thanks Bill!!
Bill Lockhart also has another book (2014)
on Southwestern milk bottles, this one entitled "Milk Bottles
and the El Paso Dairy Industry" (2014).
Like the milk bottle book above, although regional in content, this
work also contains a substantial amount of information of much broader
interest and utility including some general information on the dating of
milk bottles.
This copyrighted work is also available for sale as a softbound book via
www.Lulu.com (search using "Bill Lockhart") or as a series of updated
PDF files which may be saved or printed out to make your own book
for just the cost of printing them yourself. Thanks Bill!
Bill Lockhart (co-authored by Dr. Pete
Schulz and Al Morin) also has recently (May 2017) completed a valuable work
on milk bottle seals entitled "Milk Bottle Seals - The Other
Manufacturer's Marks." "Milk bottle seals" were an
embossed designation on milk bottles during the first half of the 20th
century which were required by several states as affirmation or guarantee of
a standardized measure for the contents. They are useful for the
dating of milk bottles, especially in hand with the glass makers markings.
Another great site for information and images of
fruit/canning jars from Greg Spurgeon Antique's:
http://www.hoosierjar.com
Attached to the "Bottle
Types/Diagnostic Shapes" grouping of pages on this website is a complete copy of a never
re-printed, 280 page, 1906 Illinois Glass Company bottle catalog scanned at two pages per
JPEG file. Click
1906 IGCo. Catalog
to access the page that links to all the scans of this very useful catalog.
Food bottles and canning jars are listed primarily on pages 186-232, 278-287.
Other bottle makers catalogs are also available on this site (1920 &
1926 Illinois Glass Company; 1916 Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co.) by
going to the Website Map page and clicking on the links listed under
Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes section.
Bob Clay's
webpage How To Date Ball Fruit Jars(a Ball jar is pictured to the far left in the grouping above) is
a good resource to date Ball jars, primarily from the embossing pattern.
The site also includes a nice historical overview of the company. It is at this link: APPARENTLY
NO LONGER AVAILABLE.
Bob is also associated with a new website - The Ball Jar Collectors
Community Center - which is all about Ball jars and includes historical
information and hundreds of images of the different Ball jars produced within
various date ranges (an excellent comparative resource for jar
identification). It is at the following link:
http://p067.ezboard.com/bballjarcollectorscommunitycenter
Doug & Linda's Dairy Antique Site contains a
lot of useful information on milk bottles, milk bottle makers, and milk bottle
history as well as related items like butter churns...even dairy cows.
It used to be at the following link; see note:
http://dairyantiques.com/Home_Page.html (NOTE:This great dairy & milk bottle collectibles website - which was created and
maintained by Doug Gisi - is not accessible at this point in time [2018].
However, some archived information, images and/or pages can be accessed at
the following link (thanks to Danielle Cathcart at RGA, Inc.): https://web.archive.org/web/20070121150648/http://dairyantiques.com:80/Milk_Bottle_Necks___Lips.html)
The National Association of Milk Bottle Collectors
has a website that may be of interest to users. To quote from their
website: The National Association of Milk Bottle
Collectors (NAMBC)
provides research, educational opportunities and information about milk
bottles, milk bottle collecting and dairy memorabilia to its members, museums
and the general public. Incorporated as a 501 (c) (3) "not for profit"
organization, NAMBC is governed by a Board of Directors composed of members.
The NAMBC is often called "The Milk Route", which was an early name for the
organization, and is currently the name of the NAMBC's monthly newsletter. The website is available at this link:
http://www.milkbottlecollectors.com/
The American Collectors of Infant Feeders
(a collector group) has a website available which covers a variety of infant
feeders, aka "nursing bottles" including those made of glass. The site
is available at this link: www.acif.org
Also available via this site is a relatively recent (2001) updated version
of Diane Ostrander's 1984 book
A Guide to American Nursing Bottles
which is the most useful reference on the subject.
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
HOUSEHOLD BOTTLES (non-food related)
Don Fadely has an exceptional website dedicated to bottles
that contained hair related products - both medicinal and cosmetic. This
website was recently updated to contain the information from his out-of-print
book Hair Raising Stories (Fadely 1992) as well as much
more new information. This website includes excellent historical
information on and images of hundreds of "hair" bottles primarily from the
19th century with some overlap into the early 20th century. Don's
website is an excellent
resource for researchers as well as just plain interesting reading for all. It is available at this link:
http://www.hairraisingstories.com
Attached to the "Bottle
Types/Diagnostic Shapes" grouping of pages on this website is a complete copy of a never
re-printed, 280 page, 1906 Illinois Glass Company bottle catalog scanned at two pages per
JPEG file. Click
1906 IGCo. Catalog
to access the page that links to all the scans of this very useful catalog.
Various household bottles are listed throughout this catalog including pages
36-43, 46-69, 74-77, 104-107, 278-287. Other bottle makers catalogs are
also available on this site (1920 & 1926 Illinois Glass Company;
1916 Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co.) by going to the
Website Map page and clicking on the links listed under
Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes section.
Russell ("Rusty") Mills has a very nicely done
website that covers the California Perfume Company - the
precursor to Avon. The website includes historical information,
advertisements, pictures of bottles, and an just everything one would want to
know about the subject. To quote Mr. Russell (from his site), "My
vision...is that it might become a veritable encyclopedia of California
Perfume Company information (chronicles, people, products, collector's helps,
etc.)" The website is available at this link:
http://www.californiaperfumecompany.net
1001 Ink Bottles is a website devoted to ink
bottles, of course. Included are hundreds, if not thousands, of images of
ink bottles from around the world including many with original labels.
This website is available at this link:
http://www.1001inkbottles.com/
Antique Bottles & Inks is a limited
(formative?) website largely devoted to ink bottles and promoting what appears
to be a good book on ink bottles by Ed & Lucy Faulkner, although this author
has yet to review it. This large (320+ pages) book is entitled Ink
Bottles - 150 Years of Bottles and Companies and appears to provide useful
history behind the bottles. This website is available at this link:
http://home.comcast.net/~edandlucy1/Welcome.html
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
MISCELLANEOUS & FOREIGN BOTTLES
The Wisconsin Antique Bottle Galleries
has a nice website that includes some interesting information on Wisconsin
bottles and is in the process of trying to catalog all the know bottles from
that state. It is available at:
http://www.mrbottles.com/wisconsinBottleGalleries.asp
Don Fadely has an exceptional website dedicated to bottles
that contained hair related products - both medicinal and cosmetic. This
website was recently updated to contain the information from his out-of-print
book Hair Raising Stories (Fadely 1992) as well as much
more new information. This website includes excellent historical
information on and images of hundreds of "hair" bottles primarily from the
19th century with some overlap into the early 20th century. Don's
website is an excellent
resource for researchers as well as just plain interesting reading for all. It is available at this link:
http://www.hairraisingstories.com
(Note: This link is in the Household (non-food) category above also since it
has not been decided precisely where this category should reside.)
A very interesting website, created by Tom Bown (Victoria, B.C.), deals
with bottles (and other items) that were used by the British Military and have
distinct markings. The website is entitled 19th Century Bottles of the British
Military and deals with the history of bottles and other items which have "Admiralty
Arrow" marking. The website is loaded with nice pictures and is well
worth visiting to familiarize oneself with this unique category of historic
bottles with a very distinct mark. The website is available at:
http://www.coffinisland.ca
Attached to the "Bottle
Types/Diagnostic Shapes" grouping of pages on this website is a complete copy of a never
re-printed, 280 page, 1906 Illinois Glass Company bottle catalog scanned at two pages per
JPEG file. Click
1906 IGCo. Catalog
to access the page that links to all the scans of this very useful catalog.
Miscellaneous bottles are listed throughout the catalog.
Other bottle makers catalogs are also available on this site (1920 &
1926 Illinois Glass Company; 1916 Kearns-Gorsuch Bottle Co.) by
going to the
Website Map page and clicking on the links listed under
Bottle Typing/Diagnostic Shapes section.
A new website on the so called "Persian saddle flasks" is available at the
following link:
http://www.saddleflasks.com It actually has some very nice images
and information on this colorful genre of early bottles. The website
notes that it is "The most extensive reference on Late Persian glass you'll
find." Probably true.
Danielle Cathcart (RGA, Inc. - an
archaeological/historic consulting firm in New Jersey) recently sent this
author a link to a website that may be of use to those interested in
information on railroad lamps, which commonly had blown glass lens; the lens
are occasionally found on historic sites. Click on the following
link if interested in the subject:
http://www.railroadiana.org/lanterns/pgLanterns.php
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
BOTTLE BODY CHARACTERISTICS & MOLD SEAMS
BOTTLE TYPING/DIAGNOSTIC SHAPES
Bill
Lockhart has also allowed the posting here of his book entitled
"El Paso Prescription Bottles, The Drug Stores That Used
Them and Other Non-Beverage Bottles" (2015) which, like
his other books listed above (sodas) and below (milk bottles), has some
application for the general dating and typology of bottles outside the
actual geographical area covered by the books. This book also
includes some bottles from just across the border from El Paso - Juarez,
Mexico.
Bill Lockhart
(NMSU - Alamogordo) and a member of our
Bottle Research Group has recently published a book on the history of milk bottles in
Alamogordo/Otero County, New Mexico
which is entitled: "The Dairies and Milk Bottles of Otero County, New
Mexico" (2011). Though regional in intent, this work contains a
substantial amount of information of much broader
interest and utility including some general information on the dating of milk
bottles.
Don Fadely has an exceptional website dedicated to bottles
that contained hair related products - both medicinal and cosmetic. This
website was recently updated to contain the information from his out-of-print
book Hair Raising Stories (Fadely 1992) as well as much
more new information. This website includes excellent historical
information on and images of hundreds of "hair" bottles primarily from the
19th century with some overlap into the early 20th century. Don's
website is an excellent
resource for researchers as well as just plain interesting reading for all. It is available at this link:
http://www.hairraisingstories.com
BOTTLE FINISHES & CLOSURES
