“Archaeologists
use various relative and absolute dating techniques to refine the chronology of
the sites they research. One artifact that is especially helpful on many 20th
century western United States historic sites is the Hills Bros. coffee can.
Hills Bros., established in San Francisco, California in 1878, produced the
first vacuum-packed coffee available on the market. Through time, the
lithographic images and information on Hills Bros. cans changed in subtle yet
distinctive ways, which were first discussed and illustrated in T. Carroll
Wilson’s A Background Story of Hills
Bros. Coffee (1967). This field guide further refines the chronological
attributes identified in these cans’ lithographic panels. We decided the
easiest way to provide this data [sic]
was to produce images of the entire lithography of each unique can type
produced between 1900 and 1963. This time period spans from the first year that
a Hills Bros. coffee tin can was produced to an arbitrarily selected end date
associated with numerous technological changes in the cans’ manufacture.”
Read more here
(opens PDF) about this novel archaeological technique.
This is
the last post in our Summer series on unusual U.S. Government publications. We
hope that you have enjoyed the series.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat
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