Description:
Mold-blown, octagonal, colorless medicine glass bottle with a cork and a white label: VICTOR LINIMENT / CONTAINS / Grain alcohol,/ Laudanum,/ Chloroform,/ Camphor,/ Extract Witch Hazel. / TINCTURES OF/ Myrrh, Guaiac, Cata-chu, and Cayenne. Oils of Oraganum,/ (Imitation) Hemlock,/ Turpentine, Sassafras/ Wintergreen, (Birch) / VICTOR LINIMENT/ is hard to excel for/ Man or Beast/ and is/ universally es-/teemed for general purposes./ Manufactured by / J. R. Colton & CO.., / East Northfield, Mass." '"875" is stamped on the bottom of the bottle. The son of Isaac Colton (1760-1803) and Elizabeth Calkins Colton (d.1811), Richard Colton (1787-1872) was born in Wilbraham, Massachusetts; married Betsy Hale (1791-1865) of Enfield, Connecticut, in 1808; and moved to Northfield. Mass., in 1811. Richard was a plow and wagon maker, skilled surveyor, and active in civil affairs as a Northfield selectman, Representative in the Legislature in 1827, Justice of the Peace and County Commissioner. Richard and Betsy had six children: Eli Hale (1809-1882) who married Cynthia Terry (1813-1889) of Enfield in 1838; Eliza (1811-1891) who married George Alexander (1805-1887) of Northfield in 1834; Amanda (1814-1899) who married Charles Alexander (1810-1892) of Northfield in 1845; Alonzo (1816-1890) who married Sophronia Brewster (1821-1901) of South Hanson, Mass., in 1852, and moved to Hanson; Edwin Williams (1831-1862) who married Mary S. Newton in 1860; and Edwin's twin brother, Edward Wells (1831-1887) who married Susan Maxwell Heard (1837-1874) in 1861, and Fanny Matilda Warriner (1838-1917) of Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1877. Edward Wells and Susan Colton had three children: Everett Wells (1862-1929); Maria Heard (1864-1934) who married Newton Keet; and Joseph Richard Colton (1869-1952) who married Ada Newell Starr (1876-1979) in 1899 and continued to live in East Northfield. Joseph Richard Colton worked as a clothing agent of Wanamaker & Brown of Philadelphia, insurance agent, surveyor, entrepreneur, etc. Joseph and Ada Colton had three children: Florence Amanda (1899-1979); Evangeline Darrow (1904-1979) who married David Craven Cook in 1934; and Priscilla Maxwell (1908-1987) who married Harold James Carroll of NYC in 1908. This bottle descended through the family to Maria Cook Rogers, the daughter of David and Evangeline Colton Cook. After 1850. bottle glasshouses began to specialize in particular types of bottles such as wine, phials and medicine, perfume, etc. A few companies began to emboss their initials on some products, but for the most part it is difficult to attribute bottles to specific glass factories. As the use of full-size piece-molds became a common practice in bottle manufacturing, medicine bottles were molded for form, usually in two-piece molds or in private molds in which the name of the dispenser, patent medicine, etc., were cut. A recipe for making the Victor Liniment was found by the donor in 2010; a copy is in the data file.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2008.25.3 |
