The NMAJH Registry is a digital catalog of artifacts, documents, photographs and other objects that tell the story of the Jewish people in America. Each month, the NMAJH will feature a different artifact from the Registry. The first few featured artifacts come from the NMAJH’s collection, but future featured artifacts will illustrate the extraordinary collections of other museums, institutions and individuals across the country and represented in the NMAJH Registry.



Seltzer Bottle, ca. 1910-1940

National Museum of American Jewish History
Peter H. Schweitzer Collection
Photograph by Jeffrey E. Holder

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The word “seltzer” originated in Niederselters, Germany, where natural springs produced carbonated water enjoyed by the locals. Europeans drank seltzer as an alternative to often-polluted water systems and reveled in its medicinal properties. Jewish immigrants brought their love of seltzer to the United States. During seltzer’s heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, Jewish seltzer salesmen could be found throughout America offering “two cents plain,” the slang for a bottle of seltzer with no syrup.

This object is one of over 10,000 items from the Peter H. Schweitzer Collection, one of the most important private collections of Jewish Americana. Recently donated by Rabbi Schweitzer to the NMAJH, this collection features a range of materials including documents and photographs, and a wide variety of objects such as clocks, typewriters, signs, and political buttons, among others. The NMAJH is honored to be the permanent home of this collection. To learn more about this donation, click here.