Vintage Baby Food Bottle
Week 25: Vintage Vibe (June 18th - 24th)
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An antique bottle, Mellin's Infant's Food, Aqua, Circa 1880, Baby Food, Baby Formula, Tooled Cap Seat Top, Embossed, Large Size
Aqua antique bottle with a tooled cap seat top. This is embossed "Mellin's Infant's Food, Doliber-Goodale Co Boston. The bottle is from circa 1880. This is the oldest style of the Mellin's baby food bottles.
Justus Von Liebig who was a German scientist is credited with inventing and being the first to sell an infant food around 1867. His formula was a blend of cow's milk, wheat, flour and malt flour mixed with bicarbonate of potash.
Gustau Mellin from England would modify Liebig's formula and it would become one of the most popular infant foods in the United States. Mellin's product was marketed by Theodore Metcalf of Boston. Around 1880 the agency for Mellins Baby Food was taken over by Thomas Doliber and Thomas T. Goodale. Both were former employees of the Metcalf Co. The company advertised it's baby food as the "Only Perfect Substitute for Mothers Milk".
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PHOTO INSET:
• Trade card for Murdock's Liquid Food, Murdock Liquid Food Co., Boston, Mass., 1889
• Mellin's Food for infants and invalids, The Doliber-Goodale Co., 41 Central Wharf, Boston, Mass., 1891 (current record)
Image source:
www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/cap...
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Additional info from another source:
Mellin's Food Company was a maker of Mellin's Food for Infants and Invalids in Boston, Massachusetts.
The company started when the English food chemist Gustav Mellin developed an infant formula in 1866. Mellin's formula was a simplified version of one which had been recently invented by the German chemist Justus von Liebig. It wasn't a total nutritional supplement, the powder was diluted with cow's milk and water and was called a "milk modifier". It was a "soluble, dry extract of wheat, malted barley and bicarbonate of potassium." The formula was advertised with the slogan: "Mellin's Food for Infants and Invalids: The only perfect substitute for Mother's Milk".
By the 1890's Mellin's Food was the most popular of the infant foods sold in the United States. This success was due primarily to aggressive marketing — advertisements for Mellin's often included supposed testimonials from parents that Mellin's had brought their children back from the brink of death.
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Since my background is a graphic designer and I designed quite a few product labels and boxes over the years. I couldn't help but notice that on the bottle the INFANT'S appears with an apostrophe before the "S" yet on the photo of the wrapper it is spelled INFANTS', with the apostrophe after the "S" . . .
A proofreaders nightmare!
Vintage Baby Food Bottle
Week 25: Vintage Vibe (June 18th - 24th)
-----------------------------------------------------------
An antique bottle, Mellin's Infant's Food, Aqua, Circa 1880, Baby Food, Baby Formula, Tooled Cap Seat Top, Embossed, Large Size
Aqua antique bottle with a tooled cap seat top. This is embossed "Mellin's Infant's Food, Doliber-Goodale Co Boston. The bottle is from circa 1880. This is the oldest style of the Mellin's baby food bottles.
Justus Von Liebig who was a German scientist is credited with inventing and being the first to sell an infant food around 1867. His formula was a blend of cow's milk, wheat, flour and malt flour mixed with bicarbonate of potash.
Gustau Mellin from England would modify Liebig's formula and it would become one of the most popular infant foods in the United States. Mellin's product was marketed by Theodore Metcalf of Boston. Around 1880 the agency for Mellins Baby Food was taken over by Thomas Doliber and Thomas T. Goodale. Both were former employees of the Metcalf Co. The company advertised it's baby food as the "Only Perfect Substitute for Mothers Milk".
----------------------------------
PHOTO INSET:
• Trade card for Murdock's Liquid Food, Murdock Liquid Food Co., Boston, Mass., 1889
• Mellin's Food for infants and invalids, The Doliber-Goodale Co., 41 Central Wharf, Boston, Mass., 1891 (current record)
Image source:
www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/cap...
----------------------------------
Additional info from another source:
Mellin's Food Company was a maker of Mellin's Food for Infants and Invalids in Boston, Massachusetts.
The company started when the English food chemist Gustav Mellin developed an infant formula in 1866. Mellin's formula was a simplified version of one which had been recently invented by the German chemist Justus von Liebig. It wasn't a total nutritional supplement, the powder was diluted with cow's milk and water and was called a "milk modifier". It was a "soluble, dry extract of wheat, malted barley and bicarbonate of potassium." The formula was advertised with the slogan: "Mellin's Food for Infants and Invalids: The only perfect substitute for Mother's Milk".
By the 1890's Mellin's Food was the most popular of the infant foods sold in the United States. This success was due primarily to aggressive marketing — advertisements for Mellin's often included supposed testimonials from parents that Mellin's had brought their children back from the brink of death.
----------------------------------
Since my background is a graphic designer and I designed quite a few product labels and boxes over the years. I couldn't help but notice that on the bottle the INFANT'S appears with an apostrophe before the "S" yet on the photo of the wrapper it is spelled INFANTS', with the apostrophe after the "S" . . .
A proofreaders nightmare!