Museum Artifacts: Chicago Roller Skates w/ White Boots and No. 78 SPL Wheels (c. 1939), Chicago Roller Skates w/ Brown Boots (c. 1945), and Chicago Skates without boots (c. 1920s)
Made By: Chicago Roller Skate Company, 4458 W. Lake St., Chicago, IL
“They used to call him ‘Slow-Poke’ when he had those old-fashioned, slow, hard-rolling skates. But, Oh Boy! On ‘Chicagos’ he whizzes to the lead like a flash.
Museum Artifact: “Blind Dates” Arcade Collector Cards, 1941
Made By: Exhibit Supply Company, 4222-4230 W. Lake Street, Chicago, IL
“One cannot mention the words ‘penny arcade’ without thinking of the Exhibit Supply Company of Chicago. For over twenty-seven years its president, Mr. J. Frank Meyer, has been engaged in his tireless task of advancing the arcade business. Today, the acorn of more than a score of years ago has developed into a giant oak tree and the Exhibit Supply Company has become the symbol of all that is fine in the line of penny arcade machines.” —Bernard Madorsky (Eastern Distributor for Exhibit Supply Co.),
Museum Artifacts: Rain King Model D Sprinkler, Sunbeam Mixmaster Junior, and Sunbeam Steam or Dry Iron, 1950s
Made By: Sunbeam Corp. / Chicago Flexible Shaft Co., 5600 W. Roosevelt Rd., Chicago, IL
“Whenever a Sunbeam appliance goes into a home, it isn’t long before others follow. That’s because Sunbeam appliances all give that extra measure of satisfaction that creates sincere enthusiasm and confidence.” —Sunbeam Mixmaster Junior instruction manual,
Museum Artifact: No. 2745 Handy Pen-Filling Ink Stand, c. 1930
Made By: Eugene Dietzgen Co., 990 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago, IL
“Wherever Dietzgen products go, something important is always brewing. It may be in a little office in some huge factory where a new high-altitude plane is being born on the drawing board. It may be in far-off Africa where new flying fields or military highways are to take shape amid burning sands for a new turn in war strategy.
Museum Artifact: Woodstock Standard Typewriter, Model No. 5, 1922
Made By: Woodstock Typewriter Company, 300 N. Seminary Ave., Woodstock, IL (Offices at 35 N Dearborn St, Chicago)
“The record of the Woodstock Typewriter stands out conspicuously as one of the great achievements in typewriter history. Probably no writing machine has stepped into prominence with less ado or been received with such universal favor.” —Woodstock Typewriter Co.
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: Tonk Sterling Shankless Trumpet, c. 1920s
Made By: Tonk Brothers Company (Distributor), 623 S. Wabash Ave., connected with Tonk MFG Co., 2028 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago, IL
In a 1966 interview with Life magazine, jazz legend Louis Armstrong told the tale of the first horn he ever bought as a young boy in New Orleans, circa 1916:
“I couldn’t get enough money together to even talk about a horn of my own— used to rent one for each gig,” he recalled.
Museum Artifact: Brach’s “Chocolates of Quality” Box, c. 1920s
Made By: E.J. Brach & Sons, 4656 W. Kinzie Street, Chicago, IL
“When my sons and I opened a little candy store forty years ago, we hoped folks would like our candy. But we never dreamed they’d like Brach candies so well we’d outgrow our little ‘Palace of Sweets’ in just a few brief years.
Museum Artifact: DeVry 16mm Movie Camera, 1929
Made By: DeVry Corp. / QRS-DeVry Corp., 1111 W. Armitage Ave., Chicago, IL
“For three decades, Dr. Herman A. DeVry—the man who conceived the idea of projector portability—made a succession of engineering contributions to the progress of visual education that won him a place with Thomas A. Edison and George Eastman on the Honor Roll of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers.” —DeVry Corp.
Museum Artifact: Addressograph Print Ribbon Tins, c. 1920s
Made by: The Addressograph Company, 915 W. Van Buren St., Chicago, IL
“If tomorrow morning the Addressograph were set down in your office, any sixteen year-old boy or girl in your employ could readily operate it and by noon be addressing envelopes, cards, statements, payroll forms, anything, everything, at the rate of 1,000 an hour.
Museum Artifact: Wide Gauge “Pocahontas” Electric Model Train Set with No. 4637 “Shasta” Locomotive, c. 1928, and O-Gauge Cast Iron Locomotive No. 3195, c. 1930.
Made by: American Flyer MFG Co., 2229 S. Halsted St., Chicago, IL
“Just Like Real Trains: The new 1928 American Flyer Rainbow Line radiates an atmosphere of supreme quality. Its exquisite beauty, realistic design, and skillful workmanship will instantly capture your admiration.
Museum Artifact: “A Trip Through Sears Roebuck & Co.” – Set of 50 Stereoview Photo Cards, c. 1908
Made By: Sears, Roebuck & Company, 925 S. Homan Avenue, Chicago, IL
“Which company do you think has the most stores, the most customers, the most sales, the most profits – and at the same time is the most loved, the most far-flung, the most legendary,
Museum Artifact: Nautical Lantern, 1910s
Made By: Geo. B. Carpenter & Company, 440 N. Wells St.
“Navigation lamp” or “nautical lantern” would be the more distinguished terms, but according to the official 1917 catalogue of George B. Carpenter & Co., the beat-up brass relic pictured above was actually categorized as a “motor boat light,” with a more specific designation as the “No. 5 Combination Light.” It originally would have included two separate Fresnel lenses (like the kind in a lighthouse),
Museum Artifacts: Franklin D. Roosevelt Pinback Campaign Button (1936), and 22 Pinbacks of Flags from Around the World (c. 1920s)
Made By: The Green Duck Company, 1725 W. North Ave., Chicago, IL
“We were as happy to be of service to the GOP as to the Democrats, and vice versa. Where politics is concerned, ‘I’m For Me’ and Green Duck is for Green Duck.
Museum Artifact: Allen “Red Arrow” and “The Ring” Lawn Sprinklers, c. 1940s
Made By: W. D. Allen MFG Co., 5650 W. Roosevelt Rd., Chicago, IL , offices at 566 W. Lake Street
W. D. Allen’s cast-iron “Red Arrow” lawn sprinkler first blasted off in the late 1930s, taking on an eventual space-rocket shape that landed it somewhere between the trends of Streamline Moderne and Atomic Age design.
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: Cadet Bicycle Speedometer and Stewart-Warner Television + Stand, 1950s
Made By: Stewart-Warner Corp., 1826 W. Diversey Pkwy, Chicago, IL
“The ‘Cadet’ Bike Speedometer is not a toy! It’s a precision instrument, just like the one on your Dad’s car! It’s made by famous Stewart-Warner, the same company that has made millions of speedometers for cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles.” —Stewart-Warner advertisement,
Museum Artifact: Automatic Fire Extinguisher, c. 1920s
Made By: Geo. W. Diener MFG Co., 400-420 N. Monticello Ave., Chicago, IL
“Fire Insurance is always an unsatisfactory recompense for fire loss. Fire prevention is better. We manufacture everything for fire prevention and fire fighting.” –Geo. W. Diener MFG Co. advertisement, 1921
While only one of their names went on the banner,
Museum Artifacts: Chicago Clipper (c. 1902), Stewart Clipper (c. 1910), Stewart Carriage Heater (c. 1908), and Rain King Sprinkler (c. 1920)
Made By: Chicago Flexible Shaft Co., LaSalle Ave. and Ontario St., Chicago, IL
Don’t be fooled by the rusty and rustic-looking artifacts pictured above. When the Chicago Flexible Shaft Company introduced its line of hand-cranked horse clippers and sheep shearers at the end of the 19th century,
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: Foley Banner Salve, c. 1900s
Made By: Foley & Co., 319-333 W. Ohio St., Chicago, IL
John Burton Foley was one the many opportunistic men of the Gilded Age to find his fortune in proprietary medicines; aka, patent drugs—the “cure-alls” that required no scientific substantiation to sell to the public. The Made In Chicago Museum has tracked several similar quackery kingpins from this same era,
Museum Artifact: Yourex “Silver Saver” Silverware Protector, c. 1920s
Made By: Associated Silver Company, 4450 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, IL
“Ladies, did you ever get your nice silverware out to use for company and find it was badly tarnished, and that you had to rub and rub and rub to get it to look right? There is another way! We have just received a shipment of the marvelous Yourex Silver Saver.
Museum Artifact: Bally Mechanical Slot Machine Reel, c. 1930s
Made By: Bally MFG Co., 2640 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, IL
Bally is one of the most recognizable and yet seemingly untethered brand names in America. It’s been associated—depending on your age and demographic—with arcade video games, casinos, rollercoaster theme parks, fitness club chains, and, starting in 2021, a stable of regional TV sports networks.
