The Hazel-Atlas Glass Company was a large producer of machine-molded glass containers headquartered in Wheeling, West Virginia

Wheeling, West Virginia

Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...

. It was founded in 1902 in Washington, Pennsylvania

Washington, Pennsylvania

Washington is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States, within the Pittsburgh Metro Area in the southwestern part of the state...

, as the merger of four companies:

• Hazel Glass and Metals Company (started in 1887)
• Atlas Glass Company (started 1896)
• Wheeling Metal Plant
• Republic Glass Company

History

By the 1930s, Hazel-Atlas had fifteen plants (plants included those in Clarksburg, WV; Zanesville, OH; Ada, OK; Montgomery, AL; Oakland, CA; Pomona, CA and other locations) and was the largest glass manufacturer in the world. Hazel-Atlas manufactured tremendous quantities of "depression" pressed glassware in a wide variety of patterns throughout the 1920s, '30s and '40s. They also produced many of the white milkglass "inserts" used inside zinc fruit jar lids, as well as many types of milkglass cold cream jars and salve containers. Also an important maker of a very large variety of bottles and jars for the commercial packaging industry. "Atlas" was the name brand of their most popular line of fruit jars for home canning. Hazel-Atlas, at that time the third largest producer of glass containers in the U.S.,became a subsidiary of the Continental Can Company

Continental Can Company

Continental Can Company was an American producer of metal containers and packaging company.The Continental Can Company was founded by Edwin Norton T.G. Cranwell in 1904, three years after the formation of its greatest rival, American Can Company...

 in 1957. The acquisition was challenged under the Clayton Antitrust Act

Clayton Antitrust Act

The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 , was enacted in the United States to add further substance to the U.S. antitrust law regime by seeking to prevent anticompetitive practices in their incipiency. That regime started with the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the first Federal law outlawing practices...

 in a case that was eventually decided by the U.S. Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 in United States v. Continental Can Co.

United States v. Continental Can Co.

United States v. Continental Can Co., , was a U.S. Supreme Court case which addressed antitrust issues. One issue it addressed was how should a market segment be defined for purposes of reviewing a merger of companies which manufacture different but related products.-Background:In 1956, Continental...

. It continued to make containers, glassware

Glassware

This list of glassware includes drinking vessels , tableware, such as dishes, and flatware used to set a table for eating a meal, general glass items such as vases, and glasses used in the catering industry whether made of glass or plastics such as polystyrene and...

 and tableware

Tableware

Tableware is the dishes or dishware , dinnerware , or china used for setting a table, serving food, and for dining. Tableware can be meant to include flatware and glassware...

 into the 1960s. In 1964, 10 of the 12 H-A plants in operation were sold to Brockway Glass

Brockway Glass

Brockway Glass Company Inc. was founded in 1907 in Brockway, Pennsylvania by the Brockway Machine Bottle Company . Brockway manufactured and sold glass containers and tubing, along with plastic products manufactured through wholly owned subsidiaries...

 Company, and it is unclear if the remaining two plants used the H-A trademark after that year.

Patterns

Hazel-Atlas produced dozens of different patterns, with unique names. The Hazel-Atlas mark, usually placed on the back of the product, is an "A" nestled underneath an "H". The mark was reportedly first used in 1923, according to trademark office records quoted by Peterson (400 Trademarks on Glass).

External links and references

• Hazel-Atlas Depression glass a field unto itself, from a February 2005 article in The San Diego Union-Tribune
  The San Diego Union-Tribune
  -Predecessors:The predecessor newspapers of the Union-Tribune were:* San Diego Sun, founded 1861 and merged with the Evening Tribune in 1939.* San Diego Union, founded October 10, 1868.* Evening Tribune, founded December 2, 1895.-Ownership:...
  
  

Official Hazel Atlas Glass Website
List of Glass Factory Marks on Bottles