Vintage Biltmore Dairy Patch Collection

Here's a colorful collection of mid-century dairy uniform patches. These patches were originally worn on the uniforms of milkmen and other dairy workers.

In mid-century, milk delivery was a ubiquitous fact of daily life in neighborhoods across the country. Tom Waits perfectly captures the loss of this quaint and wonderful element of Americana at the end of the first stanza of In the Neighborhood: "Friday's a funeral/and Saturday's a bride/Sey's got a pistol/on the register side/and the goddamn delivery trucks/they make too much noise/and we don't get our butter delivered no more."

These patches remain as evidence of this once proud American tradition.