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The Roots of Root Beer Exhibition Re-Cap

The Roots of Root Beer
An Installation Documenting the History of Root Beer
June 4-27, 2010
Art in the Age
116 N 3rd St
Philadelphia, PA 19106 

 

Friday kicked off Philly Beer Week in Old City at Art in the Age, featuring an installation documenting the tradition and history of Root Beer, much of which took place in the city of Brother Love.  The most notable figure in Root Beer History, Charles Hires, was a pharmacist located at Sixth and Spruce who pioneered the commercial production of the classic beverage.  Although there are countless theories on how he developed his recipe, the most popular was after he was served root tea from a hostess during his honeymoon in New Jersey.  He persuaded her to disclose the ingredients from which it came from a classic Native American recipe.  Although colonial settlers had been making Root Tea for centuries, it was during the Temperance Movement that Root Beer emerged, promoting it as the “Temperance Drink” and the classic cure-all beverage.  Since Hires Root Beer, there were many other popular brands that shortly emerged, such as Dad’s, A$W, Barq’s and many others including a brief production of Root Beer by Anheuser-Busch Company during Prohibition.  Today, although Hires is not as popular from when it started, currently owned by Cadbury-Scwheppes, it still prevails as the classic American Root Beer.

 

In this exhibition, Franklin Fountain was kind enough to loan artifacts from “The Collection of The Franklin Fountain”, consisting of Hires Root Beer cartons, bottles,mugs featuring the “Ugly Kid’ (ubiquitous figure in many Hires ads), an original unopened Hires Extract Bottle, tin lithographed dispenser and one of the last remaining Hires Six-pack bottles and carrier.  The window display holds a 20-gallon stoneware Root Beer Keg from the Berley family farm in Media, PA, dated ca. 1890 and was used to ferment roots and dispense the extract for household consumption.

 

If you missed our opening Friday, you also missed out on Root Beer Floats, being served in our promotional Root Mason Jar topped with our very own, Root using Vanilla Ice Cream from the Franklin Fountain, the city’s best in handmade ice cream.  Click on the thumbnails below to see details of the exhibition and event:

 

 

Stay tuned for the upcoming Fall, when PBS debuts a segment on Root Beer, featuring stills from items in this month’s exhibition!

For more information on Franklin Fountain, go to franklinfountainphilly.blogspot.com