The Bottles of Middlesex
February 7 @ 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
The Rev. Robert W. Prichard, Ph.D., Vice President of the Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society, will host a Zoom presentation on the uses and abuses of patent medicines and the finding of evidence of their use and production in Middlesex.
Middlesex County Museum has a modest collection of 19th and early 20th bottles that have been found in Middlesex County. Bottles for so-called patent medicines make up most of the collection. Patent medicines were medicines that were sold without prescription; despite the name most did not have patents. The late 19th century was a high point of the trade in Patent medicines; a boom was made possible by a gullible public, the lack of government regulation of manufacturers’ claims (prior to 1906), and the invention of new ways of manufacturing bottles.
Bob traces his interest in 19th and early 20th century bottles to efforts to renovate the historic home in Locust Hill that he and his wife Marcia purchased in 2000. He found bottles in walls, under the house, and in the yard, and became curious about them. He and Marcia later donated the collected bottles to the Middlesex Museum.
Organizer
Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society
The Bottles of Middlesex
February 7 @ 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
ONLINE
The Rev. Robert W. Prichard, Ph.D., Vice President of the Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society, will host a Zoom presentation on the uses and abuses of patent medicines and the finding of evidence of their use and production in Middlesex.
Middlesex County Museum has a modest collection of 19th and early 20th bottles that have been found in Middlesex County. Bottles for so-called patent medicines make up most of the collection. Patent medicines were medicines that were sold without prescription; despite the name most did not have patents. The late 19th century was a high point of the trade in Patent medicines; a boom was made possible by a gullible public, the lack of government regulation of manufacturers’ claims (prior to 1906), and the invention of new ways of manufacturing bottles.
Bob traces his interest in 19th and early 20th century bottles to efforts to renovate the historic home in Locust Hill that he and his wife Marcia purchased in 2000. He found bottles in walls, under the house, and in the yard, and became curious about them. He and Marcia later donated the collected bottles to the Middlesex Museum.
Organizer
