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 will 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 - now has pdf
versions of all their journal articles from 1967 to 2000 on-line in a
searchable format at the following link:
http://www.sha.org/verity_new.cfm
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 is maintained by the University of Utah,
Department of Anthropology and is available at the following link:
http://www.anthro.utah.edu/imacs.html The IMACS has been
approved for use by portions of the BLM (Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada) and the
U. S. Forest Service for recording historic information into computer
databases. Beyond that it does include a lot of useful information about
the classification and dating of historic bottles (section 472: Bottles -
http://www.anthro.utah.edu/IMACs/472-Bottles.pdf) and is referenced in
numerous places in this website. The guide was last updated in 1992.
The Federation of Historic Bottle
Collectors (FOHBC) website:
http://www.fohbc.com/
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.com/FOHBC_References.html
The Corning Museum of Glass 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 Corning, NY and is a "must"
visit for those interested in the fascinating world of glass and glass making.
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 West Virginia Museum of
American Glass, Ltd. 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.allaboutglass.org/
How Old is Old? Recognizing
Historical Sites and Artifacts is a multi-faceted website that includes a
page on bottles as well as other categories of historical artifacts like cans
and ceramics. The page on bottles is - in some ways - a very brief
summary of some of the information presented on this website in regards to
mold seams, finishes, closures, and glass colors as they pertain to bottle
dating. The bottle page is available at this link:
http://www.indiana.edu/~e472/cdf/suggest/old/Bottles.html
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.
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/
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
GLASSMAKING & GLASSMAKERS
David Whitten - who also
assisted with some review of this website - maintains
several excellent webpages that cover most known glass makers marks:
http://myinsulators.com/glass-factories/bottlemarks.html David is a serious avocational student of bottle and insulator maker's 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 Factories that Manufactured Insulators - at the
following link:
http://www.myinsulators.com/glass-factories
The Emhart Glass (Switzerland) has a webpage
entitled Just how does a Glass Container Production Plant operate?
which has a nice, simple overview of glass blowing in the modern age. It is
available at this link:
http://www.emhartglass.com/whyglass/makingglass.asp
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 AussieBottleDigger website has an
excellent page on makers marks relative to Australian bottles, but has
applicability to U. S. and Canadian bottles too. It includes information
on how to decipher the British Registration Diamond which is found on various
types of English made bottles and ceramics. It is available at this link:
http://www.aussiebottledigger.com.au/
The Parks Canada Glass Glossary
by Olive Jones and Catherine Sullivan
is now available as a
pdf file via the main Society for Historical Archaeology website at this
link:
http://www.sha.org/documents/Parks_Canada/The Parks Canada Glass Glossary.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.
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
BOTTLE DATING
The Intermountain Antiquities
Computer System (IMACS) website includes the full text and illustrations
of the IMACS guide. The bottle portion of the guide includes a lot of
useful information about the classification and dating of historic bottles
(section 472: Bottles -
http://www.anthro.utah.edu/IMACs/472-Bottles.pdf) and is referenced in
numerous places in this website.
The AussieBottleDigger website has an
excellent page on dating Australian bottles but it also has
applicability to U. S. and Canadian bottles too. It includes information
on Australian and English glass makers and how to decipher the British
Registration Diamond which is found on various types of English made bottles
and ceramics. It is available at this link:
http://www.aussiebottledigger.com.au/
The Parks Canada Glass Glossary
by Olive Jones and Catherine Sullivan
is now available as a
pdf file via the main Society for Historical Archaeology website at this
link:
http://www.sha.org/documents/Parks_Canada/The Parks Canada Glass Glossary.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.
How Old is Old? Recognizing
Historical Sites and Artifacts is a multi-faceted website that includes a
large page on bottles as well as other categories of historical artifacts.
The page on bottles is a very brief summary of some of the information
presented on this website in regards to mold seams, finishes, closures, and
glass colors as they pertain to dating. It is available at this link:
http://www.indiana.edu/~e472/cdf/suggest/old/Bottles.html
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
BOTTLE FINISHES & CLOSURES
The basic naming nomenclature used on
this site originates with the "Bottle Neck Finishes"
illustration on the Intermountain Antiquities
Computer System (IMACS) website located at the following URL:
http://www.anthro.utah.edu/IMACs/472-Bottlesneck.jpg This illustration was taken from Richard
Fike's 1987 book on embossed medicine bottles - The Bottle Book: A Guide
To Historic Medicine Bottles.
The following link is to a webpage that
is part of The Ultimate Beer Cap Page - a website devoted to the crown cap
closure:
http://www.makk.fi/crowns/williampainter.asp This particular page is
about the inventor - William Painter - and some other related information like
dimensions and history.
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.
The AussieBottleDigger
website has an good webpage on bottle finishes and closures that may have some applicability to
users of this website. It is available at the following link: http://www.aussiebottledigger.com.au/
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
The AussieBottleDigger
website has an good page on bottle colors (or colours in Commonwealth
nations). It is available at this link:
http://www.aussiebottledigger.com.au/
...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 AussieBottleDigger
website has an good webpage on bottle bases that may have some applicability to
users of this website. It is available at the following link:
http://www.aussiebottledigger.com.au/
...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.)
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
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
when dealing with bottle shapes and there intended use.
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.
...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.
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
...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.
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
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
BEER & ALE BOTTLES
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.
Bob Kay has a fine website - Bob Kay Beer
Labels, Inc. - that allows a person to date some of the labels on beer
bottles starting from those in the 1860s (though in limited amounts that
early) up to the late 20th century. It is available at this link:
http://home.comcast.net/~beerlabel/index.htm
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
SODA & MINERAL WATER BOTTLES
Bill Lockhart - who has assisted with some of the preparation and review of this website - maintains
several different websites or "web books" as he calls them. One is on
the soda bottles of El Paso, TX. but provides a wealth of information on
bottles in general and soda bottles that had national distribution:
http://alamo.nmsu.edu/~lockhart/EPSodas/ He also maintains another
site on the soda bottles of Alamogordo, NM, which also contains information
with more national relevance:
http://alamo.nmsu.edu/~lockhart/AlamoSod/index.html
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 is at:
http://www.seattlehistorycompany.com Ron also has pending a website that will be a directory of the over 16,500
different embossed Hutchinson soda bottles that he has cataloged. It is
- or will be - available a this link:
http://www.hutchbook.com This website will certainly be a marvelous
resource for those trying to identify soda bottle 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.
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
The 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.
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
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
Another great site for information and images of
fruit/canning jars from Greg Spurgeon Antique's:
http://www.hoosierjar.com
Bill Lockhart - who assisted
with some of the preparation and review of this website - maintains
several different websites or "web books" as he calls them. One of his
"web books" is on the history of milk bottles in Otero County, New Mexico:
http://alamo.nmsu.edu/~lockhart/AlamMilk/index.html Though
regional in intent, the site contains a lot of information of much broader
interest and utility including some general information on the dating of milk
bottles. In particular the page at the following link has great general
information on dating milk bottles and includes a link to download a printable
pdf file of the information: http://alamo.nmsu.edu/~lockhart/AlamMilk/chap2/chap2.htm
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.
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:
http://home.earthlink.net/~raclay/DatingBalljars.HTML
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 is at the following link:
http://dairyantiques.com/Home_Page.html
...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.
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/
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
MISCELLANEOUS & FOREIGN BOTTLES
A well done and interesting site that deals not
specifically with bottles but medicinal dose glasses which were given out by
thousands of druggists across the country is called Dose Glass Collector II at the following link:
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-doseglass Though somewhat peripheral
to the goals of this website, the site does include information on the dating
and production of these druggist bottle related items; thus its inclusion
here.
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.
The following link is to another interesting Australian website called
(not too strangely) the Australian Antique Bottle Website. It was
created and is maintained by Simon Cronk and contains some interesting
information about Australian bottles - particularly inside thread soda bottles
and cordial bottles - but also includes various bits of information on bottle
typing, Australian makers marks, Australian bottle books, and more.
Check it out at this link:
http://www.aabw.com.au/
...site user suggestions for more
pertinent (to this section) links
welcome!
SEARCHING THIS WEBSITE: To do a word/phrase search of this website
one must use the "Search SHA" boxes found on many of the main SHA
web pages,
including the
Research Resources page (upper right side of that page) which links to
this site. The Historic Bottle Website (HBW) has no internal search
mechanism so be aware that when running a search one will also get non-HBW
response links to other portions of the SHA site.