Family & Social Life - Overview
Donations to the Museum have preserved irreplaceable evidence about generations of ordinary Americans. Objects from the Copp household of Stonington, Connecticut, include many items used by a single family from 1740 to 1850. Other donations have brought treasured family artifacts from jewelry to prom gowns. These gifts and many others are all part of the Museum's family and social life collections.
Children's books and Sunday school lessons, tea sets and family portraits also mark the connections between members of a family and between families and the larger society. Prints, advertisements, and artifacts offer nostalgic or idealized images of family life and society in times past. And the collections include a few modern conveniences that have had profound effects on American families and social life, such as televisions, video games, and personal computers.
"Family & Social Life - Overview" showing 72 items.
Page 1 of 8
Luggage Lunch Box
- Description (Brief)
- This steel lunch box was manufactured by Thermos in 1957. It features a metal snap for a hinged lid and a collapsible metal handle, and the exterior design simulates a brown leather suitcase.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1957
- maker
- American Thermos Bottle Company
- ID Number
- 2001.3087.04
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3087
- catalog number
- 2001.3087.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Plaid Lunch Box
- Description (Brief)
- This steel lunch box was manufactured by the Ohio Art Company in1957. It features a metal snap for a hinged lid and a collapsible red, plastic handle. The exterior design is a red, brown and yellow plaid design.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1957
- maker
- Ohio Art Company
- ID Number
- 2001.3087.05
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3087
- catalog number
- 2001.3087.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Satellite Lunch Box
- Description (Brief)
- The Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite in late 1957 sparked interest in the United States in science education even among elementary school children. In 1958, King Seeley Thermos produced this imaginative box evoking space travel and landings on distant moons and planets. Children provided a receptive audience to this imaginary yet hopeful view of scientific achievement in the early years of the space race. This is one of the few pop culture lunch boxes from the late 1950s not designed around a television show.
- Description
- The Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite in late 1957 sparked interest in the United States in science education even among elementary school children. In 1958, King Seeley Thermos produced this imaginative box evoking space travel and landings on distant moons and planets. Children provided a receptive audience to this imaginary yet hopeful view of scientific achievement in the early years of the space race. This is one of the few pop culture lunch boxes from the late 1950s not designed around a television show.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1957
- 1958
- maker
- American Thermos Products Co.
- ID Number
- 2001.3087.06.01
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3087
- catalog number
- 2001.3087.06.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Debutante Lunch Box
- Description (Brief)
- This top-opening square metal lunch box was made by Aladdin Industries in 1958. It has a metal snap for hinged lid and a hinged peach plastic handle. The lunch box has a peach and beige faux basket weave pattern lithographed on exterior, while the interior has white butterfly pattern on peach field.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1958
- maker
- Aladdin
- ID Number
- 2003.3070.19.01
- nonaccession number
- 2003.3070
- catalog number
- 2003.3070.19.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Debutante Thermos
- Description (Brief)
- This metal, glass and plastic thermos bottle was made by Aladdin Industries in 1958. It has a screw-on peach plastic cup with handle and red plastic stopper. The thermos has a peach and beige faux basket weave pattern.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1958
- maker
- Aladdin
- ID Number
- 2003.3070.19.02
- nonaccession number
- 2003.3070
- catalog number
- 2003.3070.19.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Satellite Thermos Bottle
- Description (Brief)
- This plastic and glass vacuum thermos bottle was manufactured by the American Thermos Products Company and served as a companion bottle to the Satellite Lunch Box, object number 2001.0387.06.01. The bottle is adorned with action scenes in space featuring rockets and satellites hovering over the surface of the moon.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1958
- maker
- American Thermos Bottle Company
- ID Number
- 2001.3087.06.02
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3087
- catalog number
- 2001.3087.06.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tartan Dome Lunch Box
- Description (Brief)
- This domed, steel, lunch box was manufactured by Thermos in 1958. The lunch box has two metal snaps for a hinged lid and a collapsible red, plastic handle. The exterior design is a red, white and black tartan design.
- Date made
- 1958
- maker
- American Thermos Products Co.
- ID Number
- 2001.3087.07
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3087
- catalog number
- 2001.3087.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Lunch Box
- Description (Brief)
- This metal lunch box was manufactured by Thermos in 1954, and it came with an aluminum thermos. This Roy Rogers and Dale Evans lunch box features an image on front lid of Dale in a red dress, greeting Roy on his horse Trigger at gate of the "DOUBLE R BAR RANCH". The back has a wood grain print with "RR" brand and name for box owner on the back, 2 vent slots. This was one Thermos’s first entries into the market of licensed lunch boxes, as a response to Aladdin’s Hopalong Cassidy box.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1954
- depicted
- Rogers, Roy
- Evans, Dale
- maker
- American Thermos Bottle Company
- ID Number
- 2001.3099.07.01
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3099
- catalog number
- 2001.3099.07.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Thermos
- Description (Brief)
- This Roy Rogers thermos was manufactured by Thermos in 1954. It features an image similar to the previous lunch box, object number 2001.3099.07.01. Roy Rogers is posing with a kneeling Dale Evans, his horse Trigger, and his dog Bullet, under the sign for Roy Rogers and Dale Evans DOUBLE R BAR RANCH.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1953
- 1954
- depicted
- Rogers, Roy
- Evans, Dale
- ID Number
- 2001.3099.07.02
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3099
- catalog number
- 2001.3099.07.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Gene Autry Lunch Box
- Description (Brief)
- This tin lunch box was made by Aladdin Industries in 1954. It features a picture of Gene Autry riding a bucking horse, and the back of the box features a tan and white design to resemble a cowhide. Autry was known as “The Singing Cowboy,” performing in radio, movies, and television from the 1930s to 1960s, becoming most famous for such songs as “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” and “Frosty the Snowman.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1954
- depicted
- Autry, Gene
- maker
- Aladdin
- ID Number
- 2001.3100.10
- nonaccession number
- 2001.3100
- catalog number
- 2001.3100.10
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center