Ridge's Food - Murder Bottle - Woolrich & Co. - Trade Card, c. 1800s

(3 1/2 x 5 1/8 In) This is an original antique lithograph trade card from the 1800s. It shows a Victorian baby drinking from a banjo style baby bottle or "Murder Bottle" advertising Ridge's Food, a product of Woolrich & Co. in Palmer, Massachusetts.  Invented as a time-saver for mother, these feeding bottles allowed babies to feed themselves freeing Mom to do other chores and housework. However they were extremely unsanitary and impossible to keep clean, thanks to the narrow bottle and rubber tubing. Thus posing a serious health risk to the babies that used them. Although doctors openly condemned the bottles for causing bacterial infections, parents continued to buy and use them well into the 1920s. The bottles were so deadly they eventually earned the nickname of, "The Killer Bottle", or “Murder Bottles.”  "Ridge's Food - Is used with greater success than any other article of the kind, because it contains all the elements of growth and repair. The finest children are those fed on