Millville, New Jersey (1922-1938); (1938-1969); (1969-1978)
(Note: Dates given above refer to insulator production only).
The first glass factory in Millville, NJ was started in 1806 by James Lee and several others. The factory then went through a puzzling succession of ownerships, including Gideon Scull; Nathaniel Solomon; and Burgin, Wood & Bodine. In 1838, at which time the glassworks was then known as the "Phoenix Glass Works", Captain John M. Whitall entered the business in partnership with G.M.Haverstick and William Scattergood. Shortly afterward, the firm name became Scattergood & Whitall after the retirement of Haverstick.
Franklin Whitall, John's brother, then joined the firm in 1845. In 1848 the name of the firm became "Whitall, Brother & Company" after Edward Tatum became involved. In 1857 the name was again changed to "Whitall Tatum & Company", and finally in 1901, to "Whitall Tatum Company" which was the name used until 1938 when the works were bought by Armstrong.
There were two locations used by Whitall Tatum, first the original site (upper works) in Millville proper, and later the "lower works" in South Millville (formerly known as Schetterville). Eventually the South Millville location became the center of activity for the glassworks.
Whitall Tatum produced very large
quantities of bottles and fruit jars throughout much of the mid and late 19th century. Pharmacy, druggist, barber, perfume, chemical and other types of bottles
in various colors and styles were produced, and some of them are now avidly sought by antique bottle collectors. Whitall Tatum produced
huge quantities of prescription bottles for hundreds of local pharmacies across the country, embossed with their names and
addresses using interchangeable slug plates inserted into the mold. Most of the bottles that are marked "W.T. & Co." on the base generally date from about 1875 up to 1901. After the firm name was changed to "Whitall Tatum Company" in 1901, the marking then became "W.T.CO."
In the c.1920s and 1930s many types of bottles and some of their insulators are found with a "W and T inside a triangle" trademark.
Whitall Tatum
did not enter the insulator manufacturing market until around the time that Brookfield Glass Company closed it's doors, that is, in 1922. However, they made up for lost time by producing millions of them during the ensuing years.
Armstrong Cork Corporation bought W-T in 1938 (with insulator production continuing at a remarkable rate, with the existing molds eventually being re-engraved with the ARMSTRONG name) and finally Kerr Glass Manufacturing Corporation took over in April of 1969. Many of the insulators continued to carry the "Armstrong" embossing, until about 1973, by which time all carried the "KERR" embossing.
With the rapidly decreasing demand for glass insulators, production at the Kerr plant continued to diminish as the 1970s wore on. From information supplied to me by collector/researcher Richard Wentzel, the last glass insulators made at the Millville plant were made in either late 1975 or early 1976. Soon after, the insulator molds and equipment were moved to the Kerr Glass plant located in Dunkirk, Indiana. (The very last "KERR" embossed insulators made at Dunkirk are evidently the ones marked with 1978 date codes, and no Kerr insulators are known with a more recent year date code on them).
The former Whitall Tatum plant in Millville has in recent
years been owned by a succession of companies including Foster-Forbes and American
National Can Company. Ball-Foster took control of the factory in 1995, and in 1999, after 193 years of nearly continuous glass production, the factory was shut down. Glass production ceased permanently there in 1999 and has not been re-started. A recent update: I've received word that
the former Lower Works site is presently (2006) a self-storage facility, and the
buildings that once housed WTs glass furnaces have recently been
demolished. A sad ending for one of America's greatest glass manufacturing enterprises.
(Pictured: W.T.& Co. pharmacy bottle in
rich teal green (1880s) and a Whitall Tatum No. 1 insulator in purple (1920s).
[ Richard Wentzel (info from his article in McDougald, 1990, and personal communications); Adeline Pepper- The Glass Gaffers of New Jersey(1971); other sources]
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GLASS MANUFACTURERS' MARKS FOUND ON BOTTLES
