The Iconic "Georgia Green" is 100 Years Old

1915 Patent Coca-Cola Contour Bottle, 1916

Collection of and (c) The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company put out a call for a new bottle design in 1915.  The Root Glass Company is located in Terra Haute, Indiana. Root received the Coca-Cola's brief, and President Chapman J. Root sent bottle designer, Earl R. Dean, and auditor, Clyde Edwards, to a local library to get their creative juices flowing.  

The two gentlemen believed that the coca leaf and kola nut were two main ingredients in Coca-Cola, and sought to find images of these items.  They were not successful.  However, they did stumble upon an illustration of a cocoa pod in the Encyclopaedia Britannica . . . the pre-internet source of all information.   Even though cocoa is not an ingredient of Coca-Cola, Root Glass utilized its pod-shape and ribbed exterior into their original bottle design.

Photo Credit:  Carl Frank/Photo Researchers

Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana was the winner of the 1915 bottle competition. This distinctive and unique package for Coca-Cola was developed into the recognizable, narrower form and patented in November 1915 (top photo, above), and was put into production in 1916.  

To celebrate the birth of one of the world's most recognized icons 100 years ago, an exhibition opened on February 28, 2015, at the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, home of The Coca-Cola Company. 

Ansel Adams in a Truck (1953)
Artist:  Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976)
Collection of Joyce Linker

(c) 1953, 2015 Imogen Cunningham Trust

The second floor of the High Museum features three main areas: Design History of the Bottle; Pop Art, featuring more than 15 works by Andy Warhol; and Photography, tracking the iconic Coca-Cola bottle within the ever-changing cultural landscape of 20th and 21st century America.  This exhibition closes October 4, 2015.

Three Coke Bottles (1962)
Artist:  Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Silkscreen, ink, and graphite on linen
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. 1998.1.20
(c) 2015 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

The term "Georgia Green" was used to name these famous Coca-Cola contour bottles until 1956, tipping the hat to Coke's home state.  The green tint of the bottles was caused by impurities of the glass with iron oxide.  It seemed that it was too expensive at the time to use quartz sand that is free of impurities or it was not a technical standard to add dye removers.    

Click above to visit the efforts to build the exhibition, 

The Coca-Cola Bottle:  An American Icon at 100

High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia