Glass Milk Bottle
Grantown Museum

Glass milk bottles were once the most common way to package milk. In the mid-1900s, there were over 300 dairy farms across the Highlands. Many, like J. A. Grant sold milk in their own branded bottles, delivered to customers by milkmen.

Bottles were embossed or painted with the dairy name so that the milk bottles could find their way back to their home dairy to be cleaned and reused.

The bottle is labelled ‘tuberculin tested’. Tuberculosis, often known as TB, is a bacterial infection that can be extremely harmful to humans. In the late 1800s, it was discovered that TB could be transmitted from cows through raw or ‘unpasteurised’ milk. The label was intended to reassure customers that the milk had been treated.

Most milk today is packaged in either plastic-coated paper cartons or plastic containers. These are lighter and cheaper to produce and often recyclable. There is currently much debate about which containers are the least damaging for the environment, with steps being taken to develop new products for the purpose.

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Date: 1947
Materials : Glass
Size : 8cm x 21.5cm

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