This metal lunch box was manufactured by Thermos in 1981. The lunch box features imagery based on the TV show, Knight Rider, which aired from 1982-1986 on NBC. Knight Rider chronicled the adventures of K.I.T.T. the talking car, and K.I.T.T.’s driver Michael Knight, played by David Hasselhoff.
This metal lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin Industries in 1967. The lunch box bears imagery based on the movie and subsequent television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was a 1961 film created by Irwin Allen, which was followed by a TV series that ran from 1964-1968 and used the same sets, costumes, and props.
This tin lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin Industries in 1983. The lunch box features colorful action scenes and characters from the television series Sesame Street. Sesame Street was created in 1969 and continues to this day. This lunchbox features Bert and Ernie, with Ernie’s famous rubber ducky, both walking in the rain.
This steel lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin Industries in 1968.The lunch box features images from the television show The Flying Nun that ran from 1967-1970 on ABC. The Flying Nun starred Sally Fields as Sister Bertrille, whose flying ability was explained by saying "When lift plus thrust is greater than load plus drag, anything can fly." Due to her small stature and heavily starched cornette, Sister Bertrille could catch a breeze and fly, helping her to solve the problem of the episode, but also causing a few along the way!
This metal lunch box was manufactured by Thermos in 1985. The lunch box depicts Sylvester Stallone as Rambo on front and rear, and has camouflage print on sides. This Rambo lunch box has the distinction of being the last metal lunch box produced before safety and economic concerns caused manufacturers to switch to plastic alternatives.
This tin lunch box was manufactured by Thermos in the 1990s. The lunch box is licensed by Barbie, although the typical Barbie image does not appear on the box. Pink, green and yellow drawings of Barbie dolls are on the front and back and floral patterns are on the lid and back. Barbie was originally invented in 1959 by Ruth Handler, and the Mattel Corporation has sold over a billion Barbie dolls world wide since that time.
This tin lunch box was made by Thermos in 1973. It has a white plastic snap for a hinged lid and a collapsible, yellow plastic handle. The box features colorful action scenes and portrait drawings from the cartoon series The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan on the lid, back and sides. The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan ran for one season on CBS in 1972. The show focused on Mr. Chan solving crimes around the world with the help of his ten children and dog.
This domed, tin lunch box was manufactured by Thermos in 1960. The lunch box has two metal snaps for a hinged lid and a collapsible red plastic handle. The lunch box is covered with images of space scenes, including lunar exploration, satellites, and spaceships.
This tin lunch box was manufactured by Thermos in 1978. It has a yellow plastic snap for a hinged lid and a collapsible yellow, plastic handle. The lunch box features blue, white, yellow and green designs of colorful drawings of a dog and a cat playing together in cute ways.
This steel lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin Industries in 1956. The lunch box features an image of Daniel Boone fighting a group of Native Americans on one side, and shooting a charging bear on the other. Both Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett became very popular characters in the mid-20th century due to their television shows, and coonskin caps became a rage among young children.
This steel lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin Industries in 1970. The lunch box has a metal snap for a hinged lid and a collapsible green, plastic handle. Johnny Lightning was a die cast model car brand manufactured from 1969-1971 and 1994-present. There is an illustrated National Safety Council “Safety First” message printed in black and white on the interior lid.
This steel lunch box was made by Aladdin in 1976. It has a metal snap for hinged lid and collapsible black plastic handle. The box features a collection of Marvel superheroes. The lid shows the Fantastic Four, while the back has images of Thor, Spider-Man, and Captain America. One side shows three images of Bruce Banner in the act of transforming into the Hulk, while the other side shows Daredevil, the Scarlet Witch, and Yellowjacket. The multitude of characters and colors made this a very popular box.
This tin lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin Industries in 1977. The Bionic Woman lunch box features images from the television show, which aired one season from 1976-1977 on ABC and one season 1977-1978 on NBC. The Bionic Woman was a spin-off of the more popular The Six Million Dollar Man, and starred Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers.
The school lunch box has long been an item of interest in post-war America, just as school lunch itself is of recent interest in discussions of American food policy and nutrition. The National Museum of American History has a rather large collection of school lunch boxes, and there are many private collectors of such boxes. The museum has even had a small exhibition of some of these iconic boxes (see http://americanhistory.si.edu/lunchboxes) from the earliest, which featured working man’s lunch boxes and dinner pails (often made from repurposed food tins) to the inauguration of school lunch boxes specifically manufactured for children’s lunches from the 1940s on to the 1970s.
Updating the older collections of lunch boxes inevitably had to involve taking substantial changes in what and how we eat. Two factors that made Americans change what and how they eat, from 1950 to the present (in 2013) concern the increased travel abroad by Americans since the post-World War II period and, conversely, new resettlements of millions of people from the global world to America. These resettlements caused millions of Americans to be exposed to new foods and once-exotic cuisines, even to new containers for meals taken to school and work.
The two layer multiple compartmented soft plastic Japanese lunch box, a pink bento box in the popular “character” bento “Hello Kitty” design, was made to carry a child’s lunch (with rice, fish, meat, fruit, or vegetables nicely arranged inside) from home to school, a picnic, or sports event. This one was made for repeat usage, though ekiben (portable bento) made of cheap plastic or cardboard, can be purchased at train stations or airplane terminals and thrown away. Though this bento is Japanese, where bento making is competitive and taken very seriously, other bento using cultures include Taiwan and China, and India, where workers carry multiple compartment and tiered lunch boxes called tiffin.
Like the bento box, “Hello Kitty” (Haro Kitty) has become popular in the United States, but like the bento, “Kitty” (or Kitty White, a white bobtail cat) is of Japanese origin and has been an important figure in Japanese popular culture and popular in commerce since 1974 when she and many associated consumer products were first introduced. Pre-adolescents and adults alike buy and adore the “cute” school supplies, wearables, and theme-park/animated television show/video-game based goods identified with Kitty, her friends, and family members.
Medium sized aluminum metal lunch pail with a long, thin handle on the pail and a lid with a shorter handle. It would have been used for liquids such as soups or milk, and could have accompanied other food containers from tobacco or food, or wrappings or pouches made of paper, leather or fabric. Lunch pails more typically were used in rural schools when students would have eaten on school grounds and not gone home for lunch.
This lunch pail is marked with a registered trademark of VIKO/ The Popular Aluminum/ MADE IN U.S.A. It is the brand for Aluminum Goods Manufacturing Company of Manitowoc , Wisconsin (also known as "Goods" The company was formed in 1909 from a merger of Henry Vit's Manitowoc Novelty Company, Joseph Koenig's Aluminum Manufacturing, and New Jersey Aluminum Company of Newark. The brand name VIKO is an amalgamation of the founder's names: VI from Vits and KO from Koenig. With the outbreak of World War I, the company was producing not only pots and pans and hubcaps, but also mess kits, canteens, cooking utensils, and school lunch pails. Over 1 million canteens were produced by "Goods"; by 1917 the company had also introduced the brand name of Mirro.
This metal lunch box was manufactured by Thermos in 1974. The lunch box features imagery of the short-lived TV series, Space: 1999, which ran from 1975-1978 in syndication. In Space: 1999, an accidental explosion of nuclear waste stored on the moon propelled the moon out of its orbit and sent it hurtling through space sending the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha looking for a new home and encountering adventures along the way.