Vintage Lunch Boxes

The National Museum of American History has a huge collection of vintage lunch boxes. When I was a kid we had to tote our peanut butter sandwiches to school every day and getting a new metal lunch box was part of the back to school routine each September. One year I had the plaid one below.

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.

This tin-plated iron lunch box was patented in 1871 by Charles C. Moore. 
The box folds in flat on itself. bout three inches tall in its box form; 
it collapses down to less than half an inch when folded. 

This tin-plated steel lunch box was manufactured by the Ohio Art Company
in the 1920s. It features a removable lid and two pinned metal handles,
as well as images of children playing with a cat on the top and sides of the box.

This tin, plastic and glass thermos bottle was made by Thermos in 1960.
It has a red plastic, screw-on cup lid and a red and white plastic, screw-on stopper.
The bottle has an image of an officer using a submarine’s periscope.

Lots more here