Bags, Boxes, Packets, Wrappers

"Mister Softee Cart Wheel. The very best sandwich. Ice milk. Net contents, 3 fl. ozs. Mr. Softee, Runnemede, N.J."

"Conestoga Coffee Blend, one pound net, Lancaster Wholesale Grocery Co., distributors, Lancaster, Penna." Although the landscape surrounding the Conestoga wagon in this illustration from the front of a paper coffee bag depicts the rugged terrain of the American West, early settlers actually used a different type of covered wagon (often just a simple farm wagon enclosed in canvas) to travel westward. The Conestoga wagon originated in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania , and its name may have come from the county's Conestoga Township or Conestoga River ("Conestoga" originally referred to a Native American group now more commonly known as the Susquehannocks ). It was a sturdy vehicle capable of handling large loads over the undeveloped dirt roads in Pennsylvania and surrounding states during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Given the local origin of the Conestoga wagon, it's not surprising that the Lancaster Wholesale Grocery Company chose the name for its coffee. And it's certainly more dramatic--through not accurate--to see the wagon traveling through a mountainous Western landscape rather than slogging through the muddy roads in the eastern United States. See also Howard C. Frey, Refurbisher of Conestoga Wagons .

"Potato Chips, 1¢, Packed for Interstate Biscuit Co., Bronx, New York. Net weight one-quarter ounce or over. Before eating. After eating." For a similar item, see I Eat at the Royal Coffee Shoppe / I Don't :

"Pocket Chess and Checkers. Always handy and a boon when traveling. Made in Hong Kong."

"Checkers with board. Contents, 24 pieces." This is the top of a box containing a pocket-size checkerboard.

Top panel from a small packet of Dot Razor Blades. See also Clix Thin Double-Edge Razor Blades .

Top panel from a small packet of Clix Thin Double-Edge Razor Blades. See also Dot Razor Blades .

"Hinkle's Handy Egg Colors. Manufactured by Hinkle Drug Co., Columbia, Pa....Not for use in coloring any food except shell eggs. Contents--6 one-dram bottles." Front panel of a small box containing six small glass tubes with corks. Inside the glass tubes are the dried-out remains of the different colors of Easter egg dye.

"Holiday House. Fireproof Christmas Snow for decorating Christmas trees." Front panel of a cardboard box that still contained a few of the shiny fireproof Christmas snowflakes (these were mica flakes, fortunately, and not asbestos snow ).

"Spencerian Steel Pens are the best. Da locum melioribus." Cover of a folded nib card, circa 1890s. Nib pens (or dip pens ) were used for Spencerian Script and other writing styles. The metal tips, or nibs, of the pens were sold separately, and some came in small cardboard folders that had covers with elaborate designs like this.

"Nasturtium Dwarf. Price 5¢." An early chromolithographed seed packet from the William D. Burt seed company of Dalton, N.Y.

"Leave It to Beaver Rocket to the Moon Space Game. Thrills with Beaver on a race to the moon. As seen on A.B.C. television coast-to-coast." The disembodied head of Beaver Cleaver floats in space somewhere between the earth and moon on the lid of this 1958 board game tie-in with the TV show Leave It to Beaver .

"Quaker Rolled White Oats. Manufactured by the American Cereal Co. Address: Chicago, Ill., U.S.A. Use only Quaker brand rolled oats. Pure Quaker Oats. 2 pounds. A Family Affair." Five views of a nineteenth-century metamorphic trade card, which--as it's unfolded--changes from a Quaker Oats cereal box to a scene of children eating cereal at the breakfast table (with the Quaker Oats man lurking in the background).

Sparkler box with unique typefaces for Fourth of July merriment.