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| Much of the milk sold in the 1800s and early
1900s would be considered undrinkable by
today’s standards. City people couldn’t be sure
that the farms from which their milk came had
healthy cows. When transported in unsealed
containers, milk could easily be adulterated or
contaminated. Once the connection between
disease and unsanitary milk was known,
individuals and municipalities learned to be
more careful.
Reformers considered clean milk delivered in
clean milk bottles to be one answer to milkborne
disease. Early glass bottles with sealed
caps kept out dirt or additives. Dairies tried
various strategies to ensure the return of their
glass bottles. Some companies charged the milk
route delivery man for every bottle that he did
not retrieve. |
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Design for a milk bottle, 1937
Courtesy of Oakhurst Dairy, Portland, Maine
Milk bottle salesmen traveled to dairies large and small to sell bottles
with unique designs. Pyroglazed bottles in the 1940s and 1950s featured
colored designs made out of melted and fused glass.
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| GLASS OR PAPER |
| Behind the common milk bottle
and cap is a story of geography,
governmental regulation, the fight
against disease, new methods of
processing, and new materials for
containers. Individual sealed
containers kept milk clean as it
traveled from the farm to the
kitchen and reassured customers
that water or preservatives had
not been added. |
Products processed and distributed
throughout New England by H. P. Hood
and Sons
From The Hood Story: A Century of Progress in the New
England Dairy Industry, circa 1953
Courtesy of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
To compete with each other and supermarkets, processors had to
diversify their packaging as well as their products and serving sizes
during the transition from glass to paper.
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