Need help identifying/dating glass bottles for middle school history class

[MsWillim]

Hi! When Hurricane Matthew came through north Florida last October, it pushed over some trees on my parents property in Jacksonville, FL. In the root system of a large oak I found several pieces of glass, including bottoms of jars and bottles. A month or so ago, during low tide I pulled a few jars and bottles out of the St. Johns River from their dock. They bought the land in 1970 and local lore at the time said that people had long used their property (7 wooded acres on the river) as a parkland, bringing picnic, spending the day, etc. As a 6th grade World History teacher I'd like to use these artifacts as part of a mini-lesson on archaeology, which necessitates me identifying the jars/bottles on at least a basic level, especially useful would be a date (exact or range). I believe that using other resources I have positively identified one as a ketchup bottle manufactured by Owens-Illinois in 1947, and another jar from 1949. I also have some Hazel-Atlas jars. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!!

 

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[sandchip]

Most of the items look 1940s-50s. The whiskey flask in pics 5 & 6 would date 1903-1918. If all these were all surface finds in one spot, you might consider digging further. There may be earlier items deeper or there's always the possibility of a late throw in that spot.

 

[Dug]

I have an exact match to that whiskey flask and have it sitting outside on mylar as it is slowly turning purple from the sun. It already had a slight purple tint from being a surface find so I'm letting mother nature finish the job.

 

[NJKLAGT]

I agree with 'Chip, mostly 40s-50s, but the flask is probably 100 years old. 'Looks like you've got a good variety of household items, I'm guessing bleach, ketchup, shampoo, whiskey, jam, and cleaner.

That flask would be old enough to keep me digging. Field trip! I've taken my nieces digging a couple times, one time all we did was sift through a 3ft by 3ft square beside a barn, and we found a bunch of pieces of glass, nothing whole, but it was still a huge discovery to them to think that all of this stuff was under their feet. The oldest, she was just starting to get into bar graphs and pie charts in school, and so we counted and organized the pieces of glass by colour and graphed them to illustrate which was the most common. It wasn't even homework, just something she wanted to do. She was so excited to show her teacher, probably got some extra credit!

 

[Harry Pristis]

The whiskey flask is sometimes referred to as a "new" whiskey flask. The oval on the bottom is a valve mark, indicating it was produced in the new Owens bottle machine which revolutionized bottle-making after the turn of the 20th Century.

If it's low ground along the river (always prime real estate), you may be finding evidence of trash dumped to fill in the low areas.

 

[MsWillim]

Thank you, everyone, for all your responses so far. Sorry that the pictures are sideways - I don't know what I did wrong to make that happen! I'm super excited to hear the whiskey flask is so old, what a fun lesson for my 6th graders. I have frequently thought it might be fun to dig deeper on my parents' land. Apparently some land in their area has shown evidence of early Native American inhabitants.

Anyone have any thoughts on the medicine bottle?? Those markings on the bottom seem very distinct, but I couldn't find anything in my limited internet trawling. I'll attach a rubbing of the bottom which makes it a little earlier to read.

Keep the advice and thoughts coming, please! My students are lucky to have access to your experience.

 

[MsWillim]

Also would love any advice for why my pics are coming across sideways, if anyone knows!?! SORRY!!

 

[NJKLAGT]

Those numbers get more and more unsavoury the more modern the bottle gets. Your numbers for that bottle might be a serial number or mould number or something, and give some insight to where it was made, but, it's certainly not the star of the show! It's probably a mid-century shampoo or something. Don't smell it though! I got lightheaded smelling the contents of a bottle once, and vowed then and there to never do that again. You're better off staying curious!

 

[MsWillim]

It's probably a mid-century shampoo or something. Don't smell it though! I got lightheaded smelling the contents of a bottle once, and vowed then and there to never do that again. You're better off staying curious!

That advice made me giggle, but it is definitely good advice! I never even considered that what's inside one of these old bottles may have fermented, or experienced a chemical change for the worse.

A shampoo bottle, you say? It seems so small to be a toiletry. But then again, people didn't wash their hair in the 40s-50s as much as we do now. I sincerely appreciate the help!

 

[Harry Pristis]

Also would love any advice for why my pics are coming across sideways, if anyone knows!?! SORRY!!

Where are you storing (hosting) your images? Are the images vertical there? Any image-handling software should all you to rotate the image. It's not as simple as snapping the image in a "portrait" position, then storing in a "landscape" position, is it?

 

[MsWillim]

They are just stored on my computer, in the proper orientation (portrait or landscape, as necessary). It seems a weird anomaly.

 

[NJKLAGT]

It seems so small to be a toiletry. But then again, people didn't wash their hair in the 40s-50s as much as we do now.

No no, you're probably right actually, maybe not a shampoo. For some reason I didn't really look at the size of the thing compared to your hand. It could still be for the hair though, like a hair grease that a man would comb and style his hair with - that idea fits the time period. Or maybe a hand cream or something? I mean, it could be a medicine but I'm still leaning toward some kind of self-care product, you see a lot of 'em with similar designs.

 

[Dug]

Those numbers get more and more unsavoury the more modern the bottle gets. Your numbers for that bottle might be a serial number or mould number or something, and give some insight to where it was made, but, it's certainly not the star of the show! It's probably a mid-century shampoo or something. Don't smell it though! I got lightheaded smelling the contents of a bottle once, and vowed then and there to never do that again. You're better off staying curious!

Oh I agree about smelling things...

 

[NJKLAGT]

Oh I agree about smelling things...

Haha yep, oh man, one time I almost chose to smell a half-full bottle of Black Leaf 40 nicotine pesticide thinking it might be a whiskey or something (such a perfect whiskey name, right?). I'm so glad that I didn't, it almost certainly would have killed me. For a while I had some weird feeling like I had cheated death. I would have probably died right there in that bottle dump, and it wasn't even a good bottle dump! If it were a pontil dump, maybe I'd rest in peace, but this was like 50s and 60s junk - what a horrible way to go!

 

[MsWillim]

Okay, that makes sense. Like a hair tonic. That would be a smaller bottle.

 

[MsWillim]

And you guys are funny! I really appreciate your help.

 

[Dug]

And you guys are funny! I really appreciate your help.

Funny ha ha or funny strange? Errr don't answer that.

 

[MsWillim]

Funny ha ha or funny strange? Errr don't answer that.

Both. But from me, that's a compliment.
And I genuinely appreciate your help. School starts Friday, and I put together a nice little lesson integrating your suggestions. Thanks!