Museum Artifact: Three Musketeers, Milky Way, Snickers, and Mars Toasted Almond Bar Display Boxes, 1930s-1950s
Made By: Mars Incorporated, 2019 N. Oak Park Ave, Chicago, IL
“The finest quality ingredients blended by the most skillful workers in the most modern institution of its kind.” – Mars Bar display box, 1930s
Still consistently ranked among the top ten largest privately owned companies,
Museum Artifact: $1000 Guaranteed Moth Killer, 1928
Made By: B. Heller & Co. / Chicago Insecticide Laboratory, S. Calumet Ave. and E. 40th St., Chicago, IL
“We guarantee that $1,000.00 Guaranteed Moth Killer will kill clothes moths—and carpet beetles and their eggs and larvae—when it is thoroughly sprayed upon them, and agree to forfeit $1,000.00 to anyone proving to us that it cannot do this.” —Chicago Insecticide Company,
Museum Artifact: Pines Automatic Winterfront Radiator Shutter, c. 1920s
Made By: Pines Winterfront Company, 1135 N. Cicero Ave., Chicago, IL
“Winterfront is a necessity for winter driving because it regulates the inflow of cold, thereby maintaining the motor at highest efficiency. It is an important factor in keeping thousands of cars in operation during the winter and has been of big help in bringing about the ’12-month motor car.’” —Pines Winterfront advertisement,
Museum Artifact: Tintype Photo Medallion of Woman, c. 1910s
Made By: Columbia Medallion Studios / Columbia Portrait Co., 6616-6620 South Cottage Grove Ave., Chicago, IL
“These beautiful photo medallions are the most artistic portraits ever produced. They are mounted on non-corrosive metal specially prepared. The portrait is burnt in, same as on porcelain, and covered with heavy celluloid, making the picture strong and imperishable,
Museum Artifact: “Little Playmates” Musical Postcard / Christmas Card and “Chicago” Musical Postcard, c. 1960
Made By: Musical Postcard Company, 415 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, IL
Donated By: Nyla Panzilius
It’s no news to anyone that you can’t fit a square peg in a round hole. But what about playing a rectangular paper record on a round turntable? If you’re simultaneously intrigued and skeptical,
Museum Artifact: Playskool Crib Rail Boat Toy, c. 1960
Made By: Playskool Manufacturing Company, 1750 N. Lawndale Ave.
“Next to baby-sitting grandmothers, the stylized wooden toys made by a Chicago firm called Playskool Manufacturing Co. may well be the greatest parent-savers of the age. Two-year olds have been known to play with a Playskool gadget for up to fifteen minutes without once bothering mommy or daddy—and that is about as long as any toy,
Museum Artifact: Airguide “Highlander” Wall Barometer, MK III Clinometer, and No. 36 Field Glasses – 1940s
Made by: Airguide Instrument Co. / Fee & Stemwedel, Inc, 2210 W. Wabansia Ave.
“Into every Airguide instrument go the finest of materials, the painstaking care of skillful workers, and the thorough inspection of an exacting laboratory. No instrument leaves the factory until it has proved its dependability under conditions more severe than those actually encountered throughout the year.
Museum Artifact: Crane 1/2″ No 1204 Brass Globe Valve (c. 1930s) and 75th Anniversary Medallion (1930)
Made By: Crane Company, 4100 S. Kedzie Ave., Chicago, IL
“I am resolved to conduct my business in the strictest Honesty and Fairness; to avoid all deception and trickery; to deal Fairly with both Customers and Competitors; to be Liberal and Just toward Employees; and to put my Whole Mind upon the Business.” —Resolution supposedly made by R.
Museum Artifacts: Boyer “Flowers of Beauty” and No. 34 Face Powder, 1930s-40s
Made By: Boyer Chemical Laboratory Co. / Boyer International Laboratories, Inc., 2700 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, IL
“In France are the great masters of the art of perfumery and preparations for beauty. Nowhere else in the world is the art as highly developed or the materials available as fine or rare in quality.
Museum Artifact: Duro “Sign Maker” Letter and Number Decals + Display Box, c. 1960s
Made By: Duro Decal Co., Inc. / Duro Art Supply, Inc. / Duro Art Industries, 1832 W. Juneway Terrace, Chicago, IL
Donated By: Jeff Levine
“Duro Letters and Numbers speed up work and are easy to transfer, making every sign a perfect job. Each character is precision made of Best Grade Black Lacquer and Gold Bronze to insure uniformity and quality.
Museum Artifact: “The Bear” Ortho-Scope 3-D Children’s Book, 1934
Made By: The Orthovis Company / Orthovis Publishing Co., 1328 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, IL
“The amazing illustrations in ORTHOVIS educational books give the illusion of life-like depth and atmospheric distance. Through the eyes of the orthoscope that comes with each book, animals, birds and objects seem to become alive.” —Orthovis advertisement,
Museum Artifacts: Victor Adding Machines – Model 210 (c. 1925, donated by Robert Eichhorn) and 600 Series (c. 1939)
Made By: Victor Adding Machine Company, 3900 N. Rockwell St., Chicago, IL
“The design of the VICTOR is a work of art, and has been pronounced by experts the most beautiful adding machine ever produced. It has about one-third the working parts ordinarily used in adding machine construction,
Museum Artifact: Super-Sensitive Stainless Strings – Viola A and D Strings, c. 1950s
Made By: Super Sensitive Musical String Company, 4814 W. Division St., Chicago, IL
The Super-Sensitive Musical String Company has the longest name of any business featured in the Made In Chicago Museum, but its time in Chicago was comparatively brief; and its clientele notably niche. Before and after moving its operation to Florida in the early 1970s,
Museum Artifact: Glass Carafe and Warmer, 1950s
Made By: Inland Glass Works (aka Inland Glass Co.), div. of Club Aluminum Products Co. 6101 W. 65th Street, Chicago, IL
“Center of attention . . . your fashionable INLAND Carafe! Family and guests will love the scintillating beauty of this hand-blown glass server, smartly trimmed in either gleaming copper or platinum. Matching tripod candle warmer adds charm,
Museum Artifacts: Superior Match Promotional Matchbook and Company Catalog No. 612, 1940s
Made By: Superior Match Company, 7530 S. Greenwood Ave., Chicago, IL
“Book Matches are silent salesmen, on the job for you constantly, never taking a day off, never late for work, never taking a vacation or asking for a raise in pay! . . . For just as surely as a match is used to light a cigarette,
Museum Artifact: Alvah Sewing Machine, c. 1893
Made By: Alvah MFG Co. / Sears, Roebuck & Co. / Ely MFG Co., 149 W. Van Buren St., Chicago, IL
Donated to the Museum By: Jerry Cook
This Alvah Sewing Machine, kindly donated to our collection by Mr. Jerry Cook, represents a very specific moment in time–albeit one outside the usual 20th century focus of our museum.
Museum Artifact: Burma Brand Spices: Pure Ground Cinnamon Tin, c. 1940s
Made By: Empire Spice Mills Manufacturing Company, 917 S. Western Ave., Chicago, IL
Chicago’s Empire Spice Mills Manufacturing Company (no relation to the current Empire Spice Mills of Winnipeg, Canada) was a peculiar little enterprise that only existed for a little over a decade, from the late 1930s to a few years beyond the Second World War.
Museum Artifact: Vaughan’s Grip-Tite Bottle Stopper, Perfo-Siphon Bottle Stopper, and Fox Deluxe Punch-Style Bottle Opener, c. 1950s
Made By: Vaughan Novelty MFG Co., 3211 W. Carroll Ave., Chicago, IL
The bottle and the bottle opener—a vital symbiotic relationship that’s been mildly inconveniencing mankind for generations. No one ever knows exactly where their bottle opener is at any given moment, nor where it came from in the first place.
Museum Artifact: Schwinn “Hollywood” Bicycle, c. 1970
Made By: Arnold, Schwinn & Co. / Schwinn Bicycle Company, 1718-1740 N. Kildare & 1856 N. Kostner Ave., Chicago, IL
The last Chicago-built Schwinn bicycle rolled off the assembly line in 1982, and while the brand name is still embossed on the badges of various Chinese imports, anybody who buys a new one is bound to hear the inevitable cranky lament from a passerby: “they don’t make ‘em like they used to.”
The Schwinn in our own collection is a “campus green” Hollywood model,
Museum Artifact: Planert Ice Skate Sharpening Jig (1910s) and Ice Skate Box (1930s)
Made By: F.W. Planert & Sons, Inc., 935-941 N Damen Ave., Chicago, IL
“Perfect design—perfect alignment—perfect fit and perfect performance. The New Planert All Steel—Full Tubular Skates are now the most popular of all skates. Their beautiful stream lines—their perfect fitting fine leather shoes and wonderful quality steel construction has won the hearts of every boy and girl who appreciates speed,
Museum Artifacts: “Lucky Brown” Hair Pressing Oil (1938) and “Slick Black” Promo Poster, c. 1940s
Made By: Valmor Products Co. / Famous Products Co., 2241 S. Indiana Ave., Chicago, IL
Whether you enjoy debating the ethics of cultural appropriation, the definition of true art, or the line between female empowerment and objectification, the story of the Valmor Products Company basically covers all the bases—like a pulp-novel catalog of 20th century American contradictions.
Museum Artifact: Salesman’s Pamphlet with Original Felt Samples, c. 1920s
Made By: Western Felt Works, 4029-4117 W. Ogden Ave., Chicago, IL
“Today is felt’s heyday. Its use is almost universal, and its appeal . . . well, its appeal is the appeal the individual is capable of creating. For every display use, there has never been a more versatile material.” —Display World magazine,
Museum Artifact: Barber Chair Footrest (Lower Plate), c. 1920s
Made By: Theo. A. Kochs Company, 659-679 N. Wells Street, Chicago, IL
“Quality is our watchword, and chairs of our manufacture can be depended upon to be as near perfection as is possible. We aim to make only the very best, and economy is never allowed to interfere with the quality of the goods.
