About This Episode
Coca Cola collectibles carry one of the best-known logos in the world, one that has become almost a shorthand for United States consumer culture.
With every imaginable item relating to the bottling, advertising, and consumption of Coca-Cola in their collection, the Root Family Museum has one of the most historically important compilations of Coca Cola collectibles on which their family fortune was founded. Through a selection of glass bottles representing the changing trends in bottling over the decades, this exhibit chronicles the transition of the Root Family Glass Works into associated Coca-Cola, the largest independent Coca-Cola bottler in the nation. This collection includes everything Coca-Cola, from the evolution of the Coca-Cola vending machines to the science behind the construction of the Coca-Cola bottle.
One of the most recognizable brands in the world is Coca-Cola. From the iconic design of the Coke bottle to some of the most famous advertising slogans, fans of Coke are also avid collectors of all things related to the brand.
Transcript
One of the most recognizable brands in the world is Coca-Cola. From the iconic design of the Coke bottle to some of the most famous advertising slogans, fans of Coke are also avid collectors of all things related to the brand.
One of the largest private collections of unique Coca-Cola memorabilia resides just minutes from Orlando at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach. Gifted to the museum by the very family who designed the iconic Coke bottle. This unique collection is only surpassed by the one in Atlanta at Coke headquarters. For fans of Coca-Cola, it is a trip one MUST take. We will learn about the Root family, and learn how the wonders of this collection came to be here, on this episode of The Orlando Guy.
The Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach is just 45 minutes northeast on Interstate 4 from downtown Orlando. Serving as the primary art, science and history museum in Central Florida, it is also the largest – and home to over 30,000 objects including the largest permanent exhibition of Cuban art outside of Cuba, the most complete giant ground sloth skeleton found in North America, the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art which contains the largest collection of Florida art in the world and the Root Family Museum which features the family’s collection of Americana, fully restored railroad and Indy race cars and contains one of the largest and historically important collections of vintage Coca-Cola memorabilia in the world. But who is the Root Family, what is their relationship with Coca-Cola, and how did this amazing collection come to reside in Daytona Beach? It is a fascinating story.
In the Spring of 1915, the Coca-Cola Company, weary of other soft drink companies trying to imitate the famous trademark of Coca-Cola to deceive the public into buying their drinks, issued one of the shortest creative briefs in history to nearly a dozen of its bottle manufacturers: “Design us a bottle so distinct that you would recognize if by feel in the dark or lying broken on the ground.”
The bottles used for soft drinks at the turn of the twentieth century were simple straight-sided bottles that were typically made of brown or clear glass, with simple embossed logos or paper labels attached to the bottles to identify their contents – and were easy for unscrupulous companies to reproduce.
In Terre Haute, Indiana, the Root Glass Company lead by Chapman J Root, who had a notable history in the glass industry, and as a leader in the development of semi-automatic bottle making machines, gathered his team together – composed of himself, his son William, Alexander Samuelson, Earl Dean and Clyde Edwards. Samuelson reportedly asked during the meeting, “what was Cola-Cola made of?” and Clyde and Earl, a bottle designer, were tasked to come up with a new design for Coca-Cola that would win them the business. After researching for ideas at the Emeline Fairbanks Memorial Library, they came across an illustration in the 1910 Encyclopedia Britannica of the Cacao pod with an elongated shape and distinct ribs that would serve as the inspiration. Earl Dean was under immense pressure to complete the concept, design, and casting of molds to produce prototypes of the bottle. Union rules dictated that at noon on a published schedule the tanks of hot molten glass at the bottle works would be emptied, known as “fire out”, in order to allow the tanks to be cleaned and repaired. If Earl missed the deadline to get casts made of his design and installed on the machinery to create the prototypes to submit to Coca-Cola, the opportunity may have been lost. With 15 minutes to spare a few bottles were cast and submitted to Coca-Cola, who chose the Root bottle to represent the new packaging for Coca-Cola. For their efforts, the Root Glass company was paid a royalty from the manufacture of the new contour Coca-Cola bottle.
But there were changes to come. Ones that would lead the family away from Indiana, to make a new home in Central Florida.
Chapman J Root’s son, William Root, had been groomed to take over the family business in Indiana. In 1922, he was elected vice president and director of the Root Glass Company. He and his wife Virgina had a son, born Chapman Shaw Root in May of 1925.
Tragically, William passed away at only 32 years old in an airplane crash in June of 1932. His father would sell the Root Glass Company to Owens Illinois that same year. Grandson, Chapman Shaw Root, would be raised by his grandfather, who released the patents for the bottle to Coca-Cola and at the age of 75, acquired several bottling franchises to form Associated Coca-Cola Bottlers – becoming the country’s largest independent Coke bottler for the next 30 years.
Root Glass Company founder, Chapman J Root passed way in 1945 and in 1950, at the young age of 25, his grandson, Chapman Shaw Root would gain control over the family’s bottling company. Awarded a Coke franchise for the Southeast, Chapman Shaw Root, along with his wife Susan Spear Root, would move the business from Indiana to Daytona Beach, Florida in 1951.
Chapman and his wife Susan were avid collectors of Americana artifacts – a passion that began with their marriage in 1948. Over the next four decades Chapman and Susan amassed over 100,000 objects of American memorabilia and art, railroad artifacts, including five fully-restored train cars, and of course one of the most historically significant collections of Coca-Cola memorabilia – in the world! It is an exceptional accumulation from the industrial age to the present day.
In 1988, this enormous collection was gifted to the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida, and in 2001 after years of cataloging and research, the Root Family Museum opened as a permanent display showcasing the family’s immense passion for Americana, railroading, racing, and of course – Coca-Cola.
The Root Family Coca-Cola collection includes an invaluable history of fully restored and authentic Coca-Cola ice chests and vending machines spanning the early 1900s through the late twentieth century.
The collection also includes restored vintage Coca-Cola sales and delivery vehicles – some that were used by Chapman Shaw Root himself, as a young employee of Associated Coke Bottlers.
Also on display is antique bottling equipment that serves as an unmatched exhibit highlighting the technology of the early 20th century industrial age.
This priceless bottle collection includes nearly every Coke bottle ever made.
Some of the more irreplaceable pieces include this 19th Century Coke syrup dispenser that ushered Coca-Cola from a tonic into the soft-drink era – this stained-glass bottle rumored to be designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and a pristine example of an original early 20th Century promotional paper kite so rare it is considered one of the holy grails for Coca-Cola aficionados.
There are several displays containing rare examples of early to mid-twentieth century Coca-Cola advertising and promotional materials.
But the collection’s highlight undoubtedly, are the original Coke bottle patent papers and one of only 2 remaining examples of Earl Dean’s 1915 prototype Coke bottle, one in Atlanta kept in a safe, and this one on permanent display in the Root Family Museum.
Other treasures you will discover include a completely restored turn of the century pharmacy with display cases, glass tinctures and diner section rescued and restored by Chapman Shaw Root himself.
As an avid collector of Americana herself, Susan Root’s collection of over a thousand distinctive teddy bears spans over 40 years in the making.
The museum displays two fully restored train cars – including a completely restored 1930’s Hiawatha, and the Root family’s personal rail car – The Silver Holly which conveyed the family across the nation during summer vacations.
There is so much more to discover in the Root Family Museum, but I will leave those hidden treasures for you to find. If you are a fan of Coca-Cola and Americana artifacts related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States, you must include a trip to experience the Root Family Museum and the many other treasures waiting to be discovered at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida – the next time you visit, Orlando.