Collections record Beta

Milk Bottle

2017-11-68

Glass milk bottle with round lip top, circular bottom, and tapered sides. One quart. Printed lettering on front and back, in green, "Arethusa Farm/LITCHFIELD, CONN."

Collected by Art Webster of Arethusa Farm and Arethusa Farm Dairy.

Charles Baldwin Webster purchased property on South Farms Road in 1868; his grandson, Ben Webster, bought a Guernsey herd and began selling surplus milk (some to Beach's creamery). The farm took over their own bottling and established a local delivery route, introducing electric milking machines in the 1920s. Art Webster, great-grandson of founder, took over the business. In the 1940s, a plant was installed for processing and bottling, and by the 1960s the farm was producing homogenized milk. The delivery route closed in 1978, after which the dairy continued to sell milk wholesale until the end of the decade. The herd was sold in 1981.

1940-1960

Overall height 9.5", diameter 3.75"

• glass