Collections record Beta

Milk Bottle Caps

2017-11-13 a-c

Three wax paper bottle caps produced for Arethusa Farms products. a: Orange sides with tan middle. Paper label affixed at center, black text reading "Arethusa Farm/ Guernsey/ Grade A Milk/ Pasteurized/ Litchfield, Conn." b: White sides with intersecting orange lines, off white middle. Paper label affixed at center, black text reading "Arethusa Farm/ Guernsey/ Grade A Milk/ Pasteurized/ Litchfield, Conn." c: Off-white sides with off-white middle. Paper label affixed at center, maroon text reading "Arethusa Farm/ Pasteurized/ Guernsey/ Heavy/ Cream/ Litchfield, Conn."

Collected by Art Webster, 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.

• Arethusa Farm Dairy

Early 20th Century.

Diameter 2.25"

• ink
• paper