Courtesy Photo | These bottles were found during past archaeological digs at Fort McCoy. Photo by...... read more read more
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Archaeologists with Colorado State University’s Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands often discover an assortment of bottles at post-contact homesteads and farmsteads.
Bottles were used for beverages (both alcoholic and nonalcoholic); food and canning; and household, chemical, and pharmaceutical purposes.
Pharmaceutical bottles come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some have very distinct markings, such as embossing or labels that allow archaeologists to identify what the bottle contained.
The first example is an aqua-colored Fletcher’s Castoria bottle fragment (top row, left). In 1871, Charles H. Fletcher formed the Centaur Company and purchased the rights to manufacture Pitcher’s Castoria, a formula created by Dr. Samuel Pitcher in 1868. Fletcher’s Castoria was renamed to Fletcher’s Laxative, an oral syrup containing a stimulant laxative and ingredients to soothe the stomach. The Castoria rights were bought by the Barnes Company in 1872, which Fletcher worked for and later became company president of in 1888.
Another type of pharmaceutical bottle recovered is a Vicks VapoRub jar (top row, right). The jar glass has a distinctive cobalt blue color, which is still used today, but as a plastic container. The base of the glass jar is embossed with a triangle inside a larger triangle, which was the maker’s mark of Vicks VapoRub during the early 20th century.
The third bottle is a clear (middle row) and embossed with the following information: “Blood & Rheumatism Remedy, No. 6088, Matt. J. Johnson Co., St. Paul Minn.”
Advertisements for this remedy were placed in newspapers throughout the Northwest and the Midwest, including Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. Matthew J. Johnson began manufacturing the remedy in 1899 with an unknown end date. He was a prominent druggist in Duluth, Minn.
The last bottle pictured (bottom row) is a “Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription” bottle. Multiple bottles of this prescription were located at one post-contact archaeological site at Fort McCoy.
The aqua pharmaceutical bottle is embossed with the following information: “Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription; R.Y. Pierce, M.D.; Buffalo, N.Y.” Dr. Pierce’s was introduced in the late 19th century as a treatment for “women’s conditions” and contained primarily alcohol and laudanum (tincture of opium).
All archaeological work conducted at Fort McCoy was coordinated by the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.
Visitors and employees are reminded they should not collect artifacts on Fort McCoy or other government lands and leave the digging to the professionals.
Any person excavates, removes, damages, or otherwise alters or defaces any historic or prehistoric site, artifact, or object of antiquity on Fort McCoy is in violation of federal law.
The discovery of any archaeological artifact should be reported to the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch at 608-388-8214.
(Article prepared by Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands.)
| Date Taken: | 06.20.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 06.20.2018 16:37 |
| Story ID: | 281705 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 212 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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