After I noticed the signal for a Coca-Cola museum that includes “historical past and memorabilia,” I didn’t assume a lot of it. As an alternative, I figured it was simply one other place stuffed with the identical collectible Coke bottles and indicators I’d seen at a dozen different museums.
However I used to be unsuitable.
The museum was extra than simply collectibles. It was a spot the place Coca-Cola historical past occurred. It was a spot the place a sweet retailer service provider stuffed glass bottles with Coca-Cola for the very first time and altered every thing within the soda business. It was a spot I used to be glad I visited.
I spent two days exploring Vicksburg whereas highway tripping alongside the Natchez Hint Parkway from Natchez to Nashville. I toured the 16-mile loop at Vicksburg Nationwide Army Park. I loved lunch at a rooftop restaurant with a view of the Yazoo River. And I walked the decks of a large riverboat on the Decrease Mississippi River Museum.
However my favourite factor I found in Vicksburg, Mississippi, was the Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum.
Origins of Coca-Cola
In 1886, native pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton crafted a thick syrup that created a “scrumptious and refreshing” soda when mixed with carbonated water. Pemberton’s bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, prompt calling it Coca-Cola as a result of “the 2 Cs would look properly collectively in promoting.” Robinson created the well-known trademarked script for the emblem and scribbled out the identify by hand.
Pemberton took a jug of the syrup down the road to Jacobs’ Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. The pharmacist arrange a soda fountain, mixed the syrup with carbonated water, and bought the primary glass of Coca-Cola on Could 8, 1886.
Joseph Biedenharn – Sweet Retailer Service provider
In the course of the first 12 months, Coca-Cola gross sales averaged merely 9 drinks per day. However the phrase of mouth and intelligent advertising and marketing fostered recognition, and by 1900 the drink was bought at soda fountains in each state within the nation.
Joseph Biedenharn was born in 1866, the oldest son of twelve kids. Biedenharn’s father and uncle owned a two-story constructing in downtown Vicksburg the place they’d established a sweet retailer known as Biedenharn and Brother – a retailer that Joseph ultimately took over because the Biedenharn Sweet Firm. He took notice of the recognition of Coca-Cola soda fountain drinks, realizing that folks would generally stroll for miles into city simply to purchase a paper cup of the refreshing drink.
He contemplated a brand new strategy to get Coca-Cola into the countryside.
In 1894, Biedenharn approached Coca-Cola proprietor Asa Candler about promoting the soda fountain drink in a glass bottle. With Candler’s approval, Biedenharn developed a course of for bottling the soda fountain drink in Hutchinson bottles embossed with “Biedenharn Sweet Firm, Vicksburg, Miss.” He constructed the primary bottling plant in his sweet retailer on Washington Avenue and commenced promoting Coca-Cola in glass bottles for the very first time.
In 1899, Chattanooga legal professionals Joseph Whitehead and Benjamin Thomas acquired unique rights from Candler to bottle Coca-Cola within the South. Biedenharn, together with six of his brothers and one sister, bought franchise rights and opened bottling vegetation in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, together with one additional down Washington Avenue.
The 24,000 sq. foot bottling plant nonetheless stands, however right this moment it’s dwelling to The Open Market – appropriately, an vintage retailer the place guests can generally discover Coca-Cola collectibles.
Did You Know? In 1924, Collett Woolman and B.R. Coad established the world’s first crop dusting aviation firm in Macon, Georgia. The homeowners started in search of buyers for Huff Daland Dusters to develop their operations. In 1925, Joseph Biedenharn and his son, Malcolm, invested within the crop-dusting firm and expanded the fleet to 18 plane – the biggest personal fleet on this planet on the time. That preliminary aviation firm would later turn out to be Delta Airways.
The Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum
In 1938, the Biedenharns bought the constructing the place Coca-Cola was bottled for the primary time. The constructing was used for varied industrial companies over the following 4 many years. However then, in 1979, the Biedenharns bought the constructing once more, renovated it as a museum, and donated it to the Vicksburg Basis for Historic Preservation.
A go to to the Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum begins with a stroll via the historical past of Coca-Cola, the Biedenharn Household, and the story behind Coca-Cola’s promoting and distinctive script brand design. Interpretive displays characteristic historic pictures and many fascinating info to learn. Shows circumstances are chocked stuffed with collectibles, memorabilia, and historic artifacts.
The museum’s centerpiece is a copy of the tools used to bottle Coca-Cola for the primary time. Every bit of kit features a description of how the method for bottling Coke labored in 1894.
The self-guided tour ends within the recreation of the places of work and sweet retailer, full with interval furnishings. The wall behind the marble counter is loaded with vintage Coca-Cola bottles with diamond-shaped labels, nonetheless unopened after practically a century. Show circumstances beneath the counter characteristic bottles ordered chronologically, making it an interesting examine of the evolution of the Coke bottle.
Earlier than leaving, get a Coke float from the old school soda machine or an ice-cold glass bottle of Coca-Cola from the cooler.
1107 Washington Avenue, Vicksburg, MS | 601-638-6514 | www.biedenharncoca-colamuseum.com
