Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
Historical Lunch Boxes by Thermos LLC through 1985
Beginning in the 1950s, TV transformed the lunch box from an ordinary food conveyor into a storyteller. The screen-like sides of the lunch box offered children a new form of self-expression.
Box makers paid for the right to use TV shows to promote box sales. The studios used boxes to gain market exposure. And children acquired a new statement of their power and influence in the emerging world of mass-marketed consumer goods.
These items are some of 137 million artifacts, works of art and specimens in the Smithsonian’s collection. They are on display at the National Museum of American History.
For more info, visit https://americanhistory.si.edu/lunchboxes/
