Objects Database

Glacier Cream

Accession Number

1679.2022.1

Object Name

Glacier Cream

Created

02/09/2022

Creator

Hermione Cooper

Accession Date

02/09/2022

Brief Description

Tube of Glacier Cream in cardboard box

Materials

Cream, cardboard, plastic

Dimensions

11(L) x 3(W) x. 3(D) cms

Number Of Objects

2

Inscription Description

“CHEMIST’S GLACIER CREAM. SAVORY & MOORE LTD LONDON W1 25.0 G. BY APPOINTMENT TO HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN”

Colour

Green, white

Maker

Savory & Moore

Object Production Place

England

Provenance

Folk have been covering their faces with various lotions and creams since the beginning of time; animal fat and dung were two of the less savoury items.
The earliest Everest explorers used umbrellas for shade and smothered their faces in zinc oxide for protection from the sun.
The fabulous photo opposite shows a group of Victorian lady mountaineers with faces blackened with burnt corks, presumably from the previous evenings wine bottles.
A Swiss guy, Franz Greiter, is credited with inventing sun cream as we know it today, after getting sunburnt while ascending a mountain called Piz Buin.
There are one or two other claimants to being the ‘first’ though they all used a similar formula, blending various chemical agents together to form a barrier, preventing ultra violet (UV) rays burning the skin.
The tube we have here in the collection dates from the 1960’s, the wording ‘Glacier Cream’ implying that it is made to a higher standard than ordinary sunscreen for the beach.

Acquisition Date

02/09/2022

Condition Check Date

02/09/2022

Rules

Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007

Modified

02/09/2022

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