John Bressmer’s dry goods business remained at the same location in downtown Springfield, Illinois, for his entire 54-year career. Whitall, Tatum Co., of Millville, New Jersey, produced this embossed, blown glass bottle for Bressmer’s store. Although the store opened in 1860, the bottle can date no earlier than 1889, when Whitall, Tatum Co., the bottle’s manufacturer, first opened for business. The Bressmer Department Store Building, built in 1905 at the southeast corner of Sixth and Adams Streets, still stands today. Bressmer, who sold pharmaceuticals as well as dry goods, died in 1914.

Source: “Good For What Ailed You” in Springfield, Illinois: Embossed Pharmaceutical Bottles Used by Springfield Druggists from the Civil War Era to the Early Twentieth Century, by Frederick M. Brown [2015]