Jersey Farms Milk Service photographs, ca. 1928.
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Organization: original order of photographs as they appeared in original booklet has been retained. (Cover of original booklet discarded due to condition.) Note: captions appearing on the back of images go with the following image.

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

Condition note: There is a small amount of mildew damage and staining on some photographs.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Scope and content: The Jersey Farms Milk Service Photographs (c. 1920s-early 1930s) is a collection of eight (8) black and white photographs derived from an early sales or promotional booklet. The photo booklet was originally bound and was most likely used to advertise to consumers both the type and quality of products offered by this local company. The photographs demonstrate the various steps, as well as the machinery and equipment used, in dairy processing. Images included are as follows: herds, testing, pasteurization, bottle washing and filling, the butter department and the end products that resulted (i.e. milk, chocolate milk, butter, cottage cheese, and others). Unidentified male workers are included in a number of the photographs. Researchers should note that the typed captions attached to the backs of photos correspond to the next photo in the collection.

Cite as: Jersey Farms Milk Service Photographs, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library

Nashville Public Library does not have intellectual property rights to these materials.

Tracey Howerton, library staff member;,Gift;,2006.,Acc. 2006.046.

Related Materials: A number of Nashville city maps from the mid-twentieth century produced by Jersey Farms can be found in the Nashville Room Map Collection.

Jersey Farms Milk Service began providing home delivery of bottled milk and dairy products to Nashvillians in the early 1920s. Its first listing and advertisement in the Nashville city directory appeared in 1922; the company was incorporated circa 1928. The primary address for the majority of the company's history was 825-829 Eighth Avenue South. Jersey Farms Milk Service, Inc. became one of four leading dairy processing and distribution companies in the Nashville area in the middle 20th century. Leslie F. Vantrease joined the company in 1928 as a cream-improver and butter-maker; he became president in 1946 and served in that role until 1970. The company was locally owned up to the early 1970s, and in 1975-76, was sold to Flavo-Rich, Inc. out of Knoxville, Tennessee. The advent of grocery stores led to a gradual decline in the popularity of home milk delivery.

In English

Tracey Howerton purchased the Jersey Farms promotional booklet from a yard sale in East Nashville in 2006. The book may have been owned by Roscoe Hart, an employee of Jersey Farms and brother of Mayme Hart. Ms. Hart had lived for many years at the home where the sale was being hosted by another relative.

Process;,2012;,Tracey Howerton.

No further accruals are expected.

Book jacket image digital identifier: Jersey Farms Milk Service, photo 6, Filler Room (2)