Step into the soda fountains and corner groceries of the roaring twenties with this antique 1920s Sanitary Brand Root Beer label from Sanitary Bottling Works in Indiana Harbor, Indiana. 🧴🌙 Measuring about 4½" x 3¼", this unused label features a storybook scene: a court jester serenading a lady or princess beneath a crescent moon, framed by towers and castle walls, all printed in rich color with metallic gold accents that still shimmer after nearly a century.

Behind this charming artwork is a company with a surprisingly dramatic history. Sanitary Bottling Works of Indiana Harbor operated in the early decades of the 20th century, bottling sodas and other beverages for a booming industrial community on the south shore of Lake Michigan. Indiana Harbor (today part of East Chicago) grew explosively after Inland Steel and other heavy industries built massive plants there beginning in 1901; by mid‑century the district employed tens of thousands of workers in steel, rail, and related trades. Like many early bottlers, Sanitary Bottling Works rode that wave, supplying workers and families with flavored sodas and “temperance” drinks in the era when bottled soft drinks were the safer, modern alternative to alcohol.

The “Sanitary” name carried a promise in an age when pure food laws were new and consumers were nervous. 🧼 But this particular company became infamous for pushing those boundaries: a contemporary newspaper account records Sanitary Bottling Works being convicted on multiple counts for selling pop sweetened with benzoate of soda and saccharin instead of sugar, at a time when federal chemist Harvey Wiley was crusading against saccharin under the Pure Food and Drug Act. The firm was fined a total of $110.50—a sizeable sum in the 1910s—and grouped in print with a list of bakeries and grocers cited for similar substitutions. After appearing in trade references and advertising from the early 1900s, Sanitary Bottling Works fades from the record by the early 1930s, leaving behind bottles, labels, and a memorable name that now fascinates collectors.

This label is true NOS (new old stock): it was never glued to a bottle, never wet, and never run through a cooler. The paper remains clean and the printing crisp, with the gold border and details still catching the light beautifully. The combination of whimsical fairy‑tale artwork and gritty industrial history makes it a perfect piece for framing in a kitchen, bar, or game room, or pairing with vintage soda bottles and crate ends. It’s also a great crossover item for collectors of Indiana Harbor / East Chicago history, Prohibition‑era soft drinks, or early 20th‑century advertising art.

Imagine this on your wall: a court jester playing to his lady while, just a few blocks away, steel mills roared and inspectors argued about saccharin. That contrast is exactly what makes early soda ephemera so compelling.

Details 📝

• Antique Sanitary Brand Root Beer label

• Bottler: Sanitary Bottling Works, Indiana Harbor, Indiana

• Era: 1920s–early 1930s, when Indiana Harbor’s bottlers served a booming steel town

• Approx. size: 4½" x 3¼"

• Condition: NOS, unused vintage label with metallic gold detailing

• Features court jester and lady/princess with castles and night sky

A rare combination of fantasy art, soda history, and Indiana industrial heritage in one gorgeous piece of original lithographed paper.