EARLY ROYAL CROWN GINGER ALE PAPER LABEL

[iggyworf]

Do you think they could have printed up labels in the basement? Or would they have needed a more complex printing machine. Whatever was available in the early 19th century.Could they have printed labels like ours in a basement?

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

I'm thinking one of the various addresses was where things originated. But I'm not sure at the moment which address was which nor which address was that of the basement. I'm sure the answer is a simple one, but we just need to sort things out and find it.

 

[iggyworf]

Interesting! http://historical-places....pton-Wholesale-Grocers In 1901, the Cole-Hampton-Hatcher Grocery Store was established in Columbus, Georgia. In 1903 the Hatcher family took sole ownership and the name was changed to the Hatcher Grocery Store. The grocery store was located near the corner of Tenth St. and Front Ave.

 

[iggyworf]

Also this. A little more specific.

 From the basement of the Hatcher Grocery Com¬pany, then located on Eleventh <br>Street between Broadway and Front Avenue, came the first bona fide Columbus <br>soft drink creation to achieve status - Royal Crown Ginger Ale. Claud then <br>created a line of fruit¬ flavored carbonated drinks called Melo.<br>The Hatcher Grocery Company was a built-in dis¬tribution system and, the <br>Hatcher soft drink business was on the way. Claud Hatcher and his father <br>organized the Union Bottl¬ing Works. In 1907 the grocery firm moved to its <br>present location at Tenth Avenue and Tenth Street which was to become an <br>International soft drink headquarters - but a lot of hard work and a lot of ups <br>and downs were ahead.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/hatcher13430gph.txt">http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/hatcher13430gph.txt</a><br /><br />

 

[iggyworf]

Bob, about the delay in mailing the label to me. After rechecking at the envelope, You acidently put Mississippi as my state, when I actually live in Michigan. I must have not been specific when i sent you my address.
But all is well now. I had to order some 'acid free mylar film' to put the label in. As I could not find any at some local stores.

 

[iggyworf]

Here is my label framed.[attachment=RC ginger ale label.jpg]

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Rich: 1. I bought the envelope and packing material for your label at the post office and addressed it there. I don't recall writing Mississippi on the envelope but I apparently did for some unknown reason. I knew MI stood for Michigan but must have had a brief brain-melt when I wrote it on the envelope. Anyhoo, they must have figured out my goof-up by the zip code. 2. Your label looks great framed and right at hope with your bottles. 3. Thanks for the addresses. Here's the chronology if the various histories are accurate ... 1901 Basement ~ Eleventh Street Between Broadway and Front Avenue 1903 Hatcher Grocery ~ Near the Corner of Tenth and Front Avenue 1906 Cole-Hatcher-Hampton Co. ~ New Bottling Plant ~ Twelfth Ave. and Front St. We may never know what took place in the basement and whether they actually bottled and labeled anything there, but I suppose its possible if the basement was large enough to handle the necessary equipment such as syrup mixers, carbonators, filling machines, labelers, etc. The Cecil Munsey history refers to the basement as a "small laboratory" where Hatcher did his initial experiments but doesn't say anything about any actual bottling being done there. I suspect the first bottling, etc. took place at the grocery store where they had more room. ??? Speaking of labels, they would most likely have been ordered from and made by either a local printer or one of the numerous companies that specialized in them. As for applying the labels to the bottles, the attachments below will give us some idea about that process, which the bottlers would have done themselves. These snippets are from the January 1905 issue of The American Bottler magazine ... 1. Misc. Labels2. Label Paste3. Label Applying Machine

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

This is also from the 1905 American Bottler. I especially like it because it touches on the topic of labels and infringements I spoke about earlier ..

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

P.S. There are literally hundreds of ads for bottle labels in the American Bottler magazines between 1903 and 1921. If we look at enough of those ads we might find a picture of ours. But be prepared for about a hundred hours of searching because that's what it would probably take to open every ad in every issue. I looked at many of them but gave up after about an hour.

 

[iggyworf]

Yeah, that is a mountain of stuff to look thru. I have just a little time right now to look thru some. But finding our label will be like a needle in a thousand haystacks. But its still fun and enjoyable to look thru all the different history of the bottlers story.
This has been another great thread. Thanx again Bob.