DOSE GLASS COLLECTOR

It can be fun collecting dose glasses that do not mention the city or state from where they came. Buying these dose glasses, commonly referred to as "unknowns," is a way of building an interesting collection without spending a lot of money. Usually, these unknowns cost less than ones of known origin. The buyer does not have to compete with collectors that are looking for items from a particular city or state. 

The allure of unknowns varies from those with eye appeal (monograms, pictures, logos, or interesting layout of the text), to those with interesting slogans, and those that give us some insight into business in a turn-the-century drug store. You will see what I mean by simply looking over the list below. Some collectors are additionally intrigued by the challenge of trying to determine where a glass is from. Sometimes, through research, you can solve the mystery of an unknown. 

Using internet search engines may help reveal clues as to where the glass is from. For example, you can Google a business' name for possible hits. A Google search may even find matches in turn-of-the-century city phone directories or census listings that appear online. You can also go to sites such as www.naco.org (under About Counties tab, click Data & Demographics, then City Search) to determine the state where a particular city is located. You can also use sites like MapQuest.com to see if a particular street or address exists in a particular city/town. These tools don't always help, as in the case of a glass embossed "Springfield." It is a fact that almost every state in the US has a city or town by the name of Springfield. Common street names such as Main Street and common business names such as Smith Brothers can also make for difficult internet research. It would be advisable to document all useful information discovered during your internet investigation. 

If you suspect that a glass is from a certain area, local historical societies, museums or regional public libraries are great sources to verify the existence of former businesses or residents. Many of these organizations are now online and can be contacted via email. 

Another approach is to look for other related collectibles. You may find another item that relates to your unknown. For example, an unknown glass (Knight / Fills Rx's / Right / 6th Floor / Century Bldg.) was identified by a watch fob sited on eBay. The watch fob says on front: C.F. KNIGHT / SIXTH / FLOOR / CENTURY BLDG. And on the back: REWARD IF / RETURNED / TO / C.F. KNIGHT / CENTURY BLDG / ST. LOUIS, MO. What more evidence does one need? Also, old bottles can provide information used to identify unknown dose glasses. Because of their larger size, bottles could carry more embossed information than a dose glass. Thus, a bottle may mention the city and state, whereas this may have been omitted on a dose glass from the same location. 

Talk to other collectors who may have knowledge of a particular drug store that you are trying to identify. Maybe they will recognize a druggist or drug store from your list of unknowns. Others may be familiar with businesses that were in operation in their home town or those that were well known in their city or state. Many regional bottle clubs have web sites. A member or an officer can be contacted for help in identifying an unknown glass.

It may be helpful to find someone with access to U.S. Federal Census information. Especially, census data that can be searched using a computer. Most useful would be occupational census data for 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, and 1920. One might be able to search for a name which appears on a dose glass and match their employment as a druggist or pharmacist to find the city and state where that person was employed. 

In recent years, copies of THE ERA DRUGGISTS' DIRECTORY have become available.  These books are annual listings of druggists that were in business during said year(s), printed for THE PHARMACEUTICAL ERA periodical (which claimed to be "The Great Advertising Medium For The Drug Trade"), and published by D.O. Haynes & Co., New York.  If you have a copy of the directory, you can verify a suspicion that a glass was from a certain location by looking up the listings for that particular city.  In an even more recent development, certain groups and organizations have scanned these directories into PDF file formats and made them available online and for download.  What makes this such a useful tool is the fact that these files are searchable by keyword!  So now, all you have to do is search the name or address that appears on your glass, without even having a suspicion as to where the glass is from.  Below, you will find links to online copies of THE ERA DRUGGISTS' DIRECTORIES, ranging from 1905 to 1922 (click on the year to open a copy of the file).  I have a couple of directories in print form (1892, 1927, and 1928), if anyone would like me to look up something in one of them.