Proprietary Medicine Bottle

Proprietary Medicine Bottle

Throughout the nineteenth century, entrepreneurs sold their own pharmaceutical concoctions without regulation. This was the business of proprietary medicine. This bottle likely contained pharmaceutical products or flavoring extract which was made using narcotics such as morphine or cocaine as the chief ingredient. The original contents of this bottle can still be seen inside, they are however, a mystery. This bottle is a mouth blown, mold pressed glass bottle. Bottles like this were mass-produced at glass factories like Whitall Tatum & Co. and Wheaton Industries in Millville, N.J., and shipped all over the United States.

Read more about this object: https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/13

Recovered from excavation prior to construction of Rutgers-Camden dormitory at 330 Cooper Street, Camden, N.J.

Rutgers University-Camden

c. 1800-1875; photograph, April 2018.

Will Krakower (Graduate Student, American Material Culture, Spring 2018); photograph by Jacob Lechner.

Collection of Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts

Affleck, Richard, George Cress, Ingrid Weubber, Rebecca White, Kimberly Morrell, and Thomas Kutys. Phase II and Data-Recovery Archaeological Excavations of the Smith-Maskell Site Cooper Street Development Camden, New Jersey. Archaeological Excavation Report, Burlington: URS Corporation.

Glass bottle, 5 ¼ inches in height, including the neck (¾ inch). Base approximately 13/16 inches wide and 1-5/8 inches long.

Photograph