Johnson Dairy Farm 10 Gallon Milk Can

Object/Artifact

-

Chester Historical Society

Johnson Dairy Farm 10 Gallon Milk Can: The image shows an old, 10-gallon metal milk can with handles and a weathered appearance. With initials "CFJ" painted on the can's shoulder between the handles.
Johnson Dairy Farm 10 Gallon Milk Can

The image shows an old, 10-gallon metal milk can with handles and a weathered appearance. With initials "CFJ" painted on the can's shoulder between the handles.

Name/Title

Johnson Dairy Farm 10 Gallon Milk Can

Entry/Object ID

chs-014986

Description

An old, 10-gallon metal milk can with lid and handles and a weathered appearance. With initials "CFJ" painted on the can's shoulder between the handles. Borden is embossed on the lid.

Use

Before bulk tanker trucks picked up raw milk from farms, milk was transported daily to local creameries for processing, typically in 10 gallon metal milk cans such as this one. Most farms marked or otherwise identified their cans to ensure that the creamery returned their cans to them after emptying the contents and steam-cleaning (sterilizing) them.

Context

"This milk can was last used in 1953. At that time we installed a 400 gallon bulk tank. Now we have a 3,000 gallon tank." Charles F. Johnson 2014-05-03

Collection

Johnson Family Collection

Category

Johnson Farm
Farms

Acquisition

Notes

5/3/2014 Gift from Charles F. “Sandy” Johnson.

Made/Created

Date made

circa 1953

Dimensions

Height

36 cm

Width

36 cm

Depth

65 cm

Create Date

January 14, 2025

Update Date

April 16, 2025