PETERBORO, N.Y. — When Peter Bleiberg’s eye caught sight of a colorful milk bottle in an antique store in Vermont, he didn’t realize it was the beginning of a 24-year passion. He can’t easily explain the attraction.

“I don’t know. I did not grow up on a farm, and I have no family in the dairy industry. After glancing, I bought one,” Bleiberg said, matter-of-factly.

Now, his basement walls are lined, floor to ceiling, with 2,000 milk bottles from all over the country, each with a different illustration that tells a story. In all, the New Hartford, N.Y., resident owns 3,000 bottles.

Bleiberg will present a talk on “Marketing of Milk in the 1940s,” along with slides of hundreds of his bottles, at the third annual Holstein Heritage event this Sunday at 2 p.m. in Peterboro, NY.

“Most milk bottle collectors focus on a geographical area, such as the state or county the bottle came from. That does not matter to me; my interest is in the huge variety of subjects in the illustrations on the bottles,” Bleiberg said.

While the usual pictures of cows, barns and dairy buildings abound, Bleiberg has found other subjects of interest: nursery rhymes, athletics and World War II, a peak period for milk bottles.

The illustrations often are thinly veiled advertisements for various dairy products, such as butter, cottage cheese and ice cream, or contain slogans about the health benefits of milk, such as “Milk is nature’s most perfect food” or  “You never outgrow your need for milk,” accompanied by pictures of babies, youths and the elderly.

“That was before the fat content of milk became a concern,” Bleiberg said.

Also a theme that has resurged in recent years, recycling messages were printed on the sides of bottles since they were reused many times, Bleiberg stated.

A large variety of sizes were also common, as milk came in gallon, half-gallon, quart, pint, 10-ounce or half-pint bottles, depending on differing state regulations. Even a gill, or one-quarter pint (4 ounces), was sometimes available, Bleiberg said.

The quart-sized bottles are the most popular collectibles, but Bleiberg prefers gallon-sized because the pictures on the side are clearer. Similarly, most collectors like the older bottles, dating back to 1910-20, but he likes the more colorful bottles of the 1930s and 1940s.

In the heyday of home delivery, small dairy farms were more common. Farmers would wake at 4 a.m. to milk cows and deliver the milk to the doorsteps of consumers or a dairy facility, which would process the milk and deliver it a day later, Bleiberg said.“Now there are fewer dairy producers, and they are large. There is a sense of romanticism in preserving the family farm associated with the milk bottles,” he acknowledged.

As a former economics major in college and a banker, he does not fault dairy producers for getting larger. “Milk would be much more expensive if we went back to small dairy farms and many farmhands helping on the farm,” he said.

At 56, Bleiberg is old enough to remember when milk was delivered to his door. “I was six years old. It was in the mid-1960s, when home delivery was rapidly declining due to improved refrigeration and safe transport of milk,” he said.

Bleiberg still frequents antique stores but finds many of his bottles on eBay. While speaking with Farm World, in fact, he was closely watching an online auction to discover his next milk bottle.

As the next editor of The Milk Route, the official newsletter of the National Assoc. of Milk Bottle Collectors, Bleiberg thinks they are an excellent collectible. “The hobby is easy to get into. The bottles are plentiful. Unlike historical hand-blown flasks, which can be thousands of dollars, they are not expensive,” he added.

The average bottle costs about $5-$10. Though the initial price has its influence, the banker and former economics student does not collect milk bottles as an investment.

“That’s not what makes it interesting to me. The value of my collection may go up, but I don’t bank on that,” he explained.

Bleiberg’s talk at the Heritage Holstein event coincides with National Dairy Month in June. Milton C. Sernett, Ph.D., will give the history of the Holstein dairy breed, originating in Peterboro, N.Y. (see related story). Mike Gleason also will show his antique milking machines.

The cost to attend is $3, and the location is the Smithfield Community Center, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road in Peterboro. For more information, contact Dorothy Willsey at 315-684-3262.