Frank Shaw displays milk bottles from his collection of over 4,000 during a recent visit to the Whitman Memorial Library in Woodstock. He began collecting in 1948 when his wife, Marion, and his mother bought Wyman’s Dairy. (Rose Lincoln/Staff Writer)

WOODSTOCK — One recent overcast morning, Frank Shaw sat across the table from Whitman Memorial Library Trustee Sonja Davis playing cribbage and reminiscing at the library. Alongside the deck of cards, he’d brought a small display of Bethel-area milk bottles. One read, “Bennetts,” another was a 1930s Dudley’s bottle from a long-gone farm in Bryant Pond.

“I’ve got more at home,” Shaw said casually – and he wasn’t exaggerating. His full collection totals more than 4,000 milk bottles, displayed floor-to-ceiling in a 12- by 22-foot garage. A central divider holds even more, and across the road, a separate “milk room” houses the overflow.

His collecting began in 1948, when his wife, Marion, and his mother bought Wyman’s Dairy. On a shelf in the farm shop sat a few old bottles. Not long after, at a flea market, they spotted others from Maine dairies. That’s when it started, Shaw said. “The rest is history.”

Frank Shaw shows milk bottles from his collection of over 4,000 during a recent visit to the Whitman Memorial Library in Woodstock. He started collecting in 1948. A bulk buy of 2,600 bottles in Bangor sealed his fate. (Rose Lincoln/Staff Writer)

Shaw grew up on Saco Valley Farm in Fryeburg. After college, he worked on several farms, including Winslow’s – a showpiece he still marvels at: a round barn, knotty pine walls, rubber carpet down the center aisle. “We lost that carpet every week,” he said with a grin. “The cows got washed weekly, too. Some guy even painted a mural on the wall…”

Collecting runs in the family. Marion, now deceased, was drawn to cookbooks, sewing machines, and, like Frank, quarter-pint milk bottles. The hunt took him to antique shops, junk stores and some yard sales. “You can burn a lot of gas doing that,” he joked. A bulk buy of 2,600 bottles in Bangor sealed his fate. He kept the Maine bottles and happily traded or sold the out-of-state ones.

His collection includes rarities, like a blue Katahdin Creamery bottle found on Cape Cod – traded for a Massachusetts bottle and a bit of cash. Another rare bottle, destined for a collector in Mexico, sat waiting in his car.

Inside the same car: a thick binder cataloging every bottle. It’s a tradition Marion once maintained, typing entries on a typewriter and later on a computer.

Mention a dairy in a Massachusetts town, and Shaw lights up. “Do you mean Hornstra Farm?” he’ll ask before you finish.

These days, Shaw lives with his daughter in Bethel after having a foot amputated. But most Thursdays, he’s in Woodstock playing cribbage – and maybe, just maybe, closing a deal on a milk bottle trade.