While the oval shape and reinforced lip finish of this bottle are typical for drug bottles of the time period, its large size is not. What sort of medicine was sold in this quantity is unknown. The bottle was made for Clark’s Drug Store in Springfield, Illinois, at 213 South Sixth Street. Robert Clarkson operated the business from 1906 to 1930. A newspaper advertisement announcing the opening of Clarkson’s “New Modern Drug Store” states that “Mr. Clarkson needs no introduction,” having "previously worked as a prescription clerk at Stuart Broadwell and as a partner in Clarkson & Mitchell’s Drug Store.” Clarkson was quoted in a trade journal of 1922 that his store featured large show windows “with plenty of light and goods particularly well displayed.” In addition to the outsized bottle pictured, the Illinois State Museum also has in its collection a bottle identical in shape and design but much smaller.

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]