Smithsonian - National Museum of American History, Behring Center
Taking America to Lunch
The Other Box
Cool Lunches and Cold Steel
 
Muppets lunch box

Click to enlarge imageMuppets

by Thermos, 1979

View larger


As grade school children became teenagers, box makers devised new themes to keep boxes selling. Musical groups, hit movies, athletes, bold TV shows, and wild geometric patterns added zip to boxes of the 1960s and 1970s.

By the mid-1980s, box makers had replaced steel with less costly synthetic materials. The rule of the metal lunch box was over.

 

"KISS" lunch box

Click to enlarge image"KISS"

by Thermos, 1977

View larger

 
Julia lunch box

Click to enlarge imageJulia

by Thermos, 1969

View larger

 
"Plaid" lunch box

Click to enlarge image"Plaid"

by Thermos, 1960

View larger

 
Jonathan Livingston Seagull lunch box

Click to enlarge imageJonathan Livingston Seagull

by Aladdin, 1974

View larger

 
"Psychedelic" lunch box

Click to enlarge image"Psychedelic"

by Aladdin, 1969

View larger

 
"Barbie" vinyl  lunch box

Click to enlarge image"Barbie" vinyl

by Thermos, 1962

View larger

 
"The Beatles" lunch box

Click to enlarge image"The Beatles"

by Aladdin, 1965

View larger

 
"Campus Queen" lunch box

Click to enlarge image"Campus Queen"

by Aladdin, 1967

View larger

 

Click to enlarge image"The Harlem Globetrotters"

by Thermos, 1971

View larger

 

right arrow Return to Introduction