The giants of soda - Coca Cola, Pepsi, and the like, have become so ubiquitous and universally recognizable it is easy to forget that soda used to be a very local thing.
Artificially carbonated water began to become available in North America around the beginning of the19th Century.
Starting around 1820, small carbonated bottling operations began to be established across Canada. Local bottlers in every city and town in Canada developed their own recipe books, names, logos and advertising slogans. They were a familiar part of the communities, often multigenerational family operations.
Around that same time, carbonated soda began to be sold in refillable glass bottles with cork stoppers. In 1905, the familiar design of the "crown cap" was introduced. The earliest Applied Colour Label (ACL) bottles began to appear in the 1930's, and the classic vibrant soda bottle form, familiar to most of us, took shape.
It is from the early ACL era that the labels featured in Pop Culture Kingston collection date from.
Kingston has a proud local bottling tradition, with some interesting stories well-preserved by local bottle collectors and enthusiasts.
With both the T-Shirts and the blog posts to follow, I hope to share some of those stories to bring them bubbling a little closer to the surface.
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