Barbara,
My search of Whittemore came up with a few possibilities.  There was a
Whittemore in Essex, CT that made patent medicines in the mid-19th century
and these products have been cited in several sources (Fike, 1987;Nielson,
1978; Odell, 2000).  These pontilled bottled included Whittemore's
Diarrhoea Syrup (adv. in 1854), Whittemore's Eye Water (A. F. Whittemore,
Proprietor, adv. in 1851, Whittemore's Vegetable Syrup for Diarrhoea (adv.
in 1910), and Whittemore's Concentrated Vegetable Syrup (adv. 1842-1852). 
I found no evidence that the company moved from Essex to Boston.  I did
find reference to a bottle embossed Whittemore/Boston, but it was not
classified as a medicine.  Finally, I did investigate a Whittemore Brothers
Co. in Cambridge, MA (just across the river from Boston) in research on a
drugstore museum.  This company marketed shoe polishes in cork-stoppered
colorless rectangular bottles of roughly the same size as yours.  Is it
possible that the product in question was a shoe polish?  The shoe polishes
I looked at were 20th century and were embossed with the Hazel-Atlas logo
on the base that Toulouse dated from 1920-1964 and these bottles were not
embossed with the company name..  However, the advertising on the cardboard
container stated that the company was started in 1840.
Hope this is helpful.
Allen
















> [Original Message]
> From: Barbara Voss <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 3/11/2007 11:23:43 PM
> Subject: seeking info about Whittemore bottle
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> Can any of you help us with info about a glass bottle from the 
> 19th-century Market Street Chinatown (San Jose, CA)
>
> The bottle is a clear glass rectangular panel bottle with a rounded 
> flanged finish, and measures 125.6mm x 51.9mm x 34.6mm.
> It has one embossed panel that reads  "WHITTEMORE / BOSTON"
>
> We're seeking information about the Whittemore company - i.e., dates 
> of operations, and the types of medicines or ointments that might 
> have been manufactured and distributed under that name.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help you can provide,
> Barb Voss
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Barbara L. Voss, Assistant Professor
> Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology
> Main Quad Bldg 110
> Stanford University
> Stanford, California 94305-2145
> phone:  650-725-6884
> fax:  650-725-0605
> email:  [log in to unmask]