I learn so much from old advertisements. For example, commercially produced baby bottles have been around for more than a hundred years.
1918 Sweet Babee Bottle Advertisement
I learn so much from old advertisements. For example, commercially produced baby bottles have been around for more than a hundred years.
A Hundred Years Ago 
I wonder if Charles Schulz based Sally’s affectionate term for Linus — “My sweet baboo” –on this product?
hmm. . . could be
The reversible nipple was interesting. It looked like it just stretched over the bottle.
I also thought that it was interesting. I wonder why it was reversible . . . maybe it’s to make it easier to clean.
I didn’t know that baby bottles used to be made from glass. That would have made them very easy to sterilize, but I wonder how often they were accidentally broken? Babies must have been closely supervised when they were using them. 🙂
For years my parents had a collection of glass baby bottles in the basement, from when I was a kid, so they must have still been glass in the early 60s.
This is one of those many topics I’ve never thought about. It seems like they’re an item that must have always existed, but obviously, they didn’t.
So many things have changed across the years – and some of those changes somehow occur almost unnoticed. Until I started reading these comments, I hadn’t really thought about when bottles shifted from glass to plastic.
My mother used glass bottles when we were small and then switched over to the plastic ones when we were old enough to hold the bottle. Evenflo nursers was the brand; I’m sure glass was preferred because of the intense sterilization process. When my first child was born in 1978 I used those same glass bottles. Second child had plastic! I did use an electric sterilizer just as a safety check. How far we’ve come.
I can remember the large kettle that my mother used to sterilize bottles. It had a rack to hold the bottles.
When I was a child, people still used glass bottles. I guess that people were just careful when using the glass bottles.
I guess they want the druggists name so they can promptly sell him a display! Reversible nipple? Does that mean it can be turned inside out and used on either side? Makes for easy cleaning if nothing else! ~Elle
Yep – it sounds like they wanted the druggist’s name so they could try to convince him to sell these bottles. It’s an interesting approach to marketing.
There are some things I never thought to wonder about. This is one of them. I enjoy the old things you dig up. Most interesting!
It’s nice to hear that you enjoyed this post. I tend to look through old magazines ,and if an ad or article piques my interest I’ll select it for a post (and hope that others also find it interesting).
We do!
I remember glass bottles but those reversible nipples? And the poor baby propped up to feed himself, looks so little.
The company selected an odd picture to illustrate the ad. A hundred years ago, it apparently was common to prop babies up to feed themselves – otherwise it doesn’t seem like this picture would have been used as the image in the ad. Yet, in addition to all the general issues about babies feeding themselves, it seems like it would have been dangerous to let babies hold glass bottles.
Thirty cents? Does that seem expensive or it is supposed to be discounted for narcing on the druggist?
In general, I think that items are about 16 times as expensive now as they were 1918. So, that bottle would cost about $4.80 in today’s dollars. Is that comparable to the cost of baby bottles now? I have no idea they currently cost.
There is a range of prices, but I think you could get them less expensively today if you want to buy the lower end. Maybe that’s because everything is “made in China.”
1918. My mother was a newlywed — no babies yet. And I had no idea bottled mile would have been available to her in 1919 when my brother was born. I wonder … Too late to ask…
oops. typo. Obviously I meant bottled milk. I don’t think I can blame autocorrect for that one.
Baby formula has been around for more than a hundred years. Several years ago I did a post that contained an ad for Nestles Food which was used as an infant formula back then.
I am looking at the graphics of the ad. Why those little white blocks, and the oval seems to be “attached” to the background with double stitching. All a bit distracting from the product and message. The headline font looks like it is trying to enter the more streamlined deco 1920s . . . some designer is trying to be modern! Love the actual bottle design. Always fun seeing old ads!
It’s fascinating to think about this from the prospective of a graphic designer, and to try to guess about why these design decisions were made. It’s really odd how the oval almost looks like it is a patch that was stitched onto the textured background.
What a fun find!
It’s wonderful to hear that you liked this post.
I remember glass bottles but they didn’t look like this, great ad!
I’m glad you liked this ad.