Hygeia Nursing Bottle
date: label: Date made
content: c 1900
label: date made
content: ca 1900
label: patent date
content: 1894-06-19
name: label: maker
content: Hygeia Nursing Bottle Company
notes: label: Description
content: Wide-mouthed, cylindrical glass nursing bottle with rubber nipple. Graduated in ounces; 6 oz.
label: Description
content: First "Hygeia" nursing bottle as patented by William M. Decker of Kingston, New York, on June 19, 1894 (Patent No. 521,773) and manufactured around 1900. Decker’s patent claimed that his design embodied “a perfect sanitary feeding device for infants, which will obviate disease that results from want of proper assimilation of food, and that will permit a correct administration of food in a perfectly clean condition.” The simple cylindrical construction of the “cell” was inexpensive and easy to clean. The elastic cover/nipple, which was “substantially-similar to a mother’s breast and nipple,” could be turned inside out “so that all food particles may be washed from its inner side, and thus render the entire device sweet and clean, which is a prime essential for the preservation of health of the child fed from the said receptacle.”
label: Description
content: This bottle along with three other Hygeia bottles manufactured in 1916, 1941, and 1948, were donated to the museum in 1953 by the Hygeia Nursing Bottle Company. The president of the company, W. M. Decker, son of the founder, offered the material to the museum after reading a newspaper article about a Smithsonian exhibit on the evolution of nursing bottles and nursing bottle patents.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Buffalo
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of the Hygeia Nursing Bottle Company, through W. M. Decker, President; Acc 198722 (1953)
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-06671
label: catalog number
content: M-06671
label: accession number
content: 198722
label: patent number
content: US521773A
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Infant Feeder
label: Object Name
content: infant feeder
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (nipple material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18.5 cm x 6.5 cm; 7 5/16 in x 2 9/16 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 3/4 in x 2 3/4 in; 19.685 cm x 6.985 cm