This milk glass jar was recovered during the 2007 Kansas Archeology Training Program field school excavations at 14GH102, the Thomas Johnson/Henry Williams dugout in Graham County. The embossing on the base of the jar declares it to be Mentholatum, an ointment "which had the properties of relieving pain, easing itch, curing cold and soothing insect bites." Mentholatum was developed in Wichita, Kansas, in 1889 and is still manufactured today. The dugout was a domestic site related to the settlement of Nicodemus, an all black community in western Kansas.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
Mentholatum Jar from the Thomas Johnson,Henry Williams Dugout Site, 14GH102 - 1