22 Jun 19th and early 20th century privy-dug chicago bottles most recent addition to bldg. 51 digital library

i’ve amassed this large collection of antique chicago-based bottles (mainly “soda” or “mineral water”) through auctions, excavation sites, privies, and private collectors over the past 8 months. with the “unearthing chicago” book taking shape, i’m scrambling to find many more bottles to fill in many blanks found in each of the decades i’m including in the book.

in the meantime, i’ve created a sizable database of images representing chicago bottles from the decades i’m most interested in. i’ve devoted an entire section to early chicago bottler william h. hutchinson (covered in previous blog posts), which from a collector’s standpoint, interest me the most – especially any and all bottles made prior to the great chicago fire of 1871.

mid-19th century chicago embossed soda and/or mineral water bottles

chicago soda and mineral bottles fabricated during the 1860’s-1870’s

chicago “hutchinson” type soda and/or mineral water bottles dating to 1880-1915

19th century chicago bottler william h. hutchinson (1850’s-1880’s)

more to follow…