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: Overton’s High Brown Face Powder, 1944
Made By: The Overton-Hygienic Manufacturing Company, 3621 S. State Street, Chicago, IL
“High-Brown Face Powder clings so closely and matches the skin so perfectly that no one ever suspects the powder is there. The quality is rare, the perfume rich and fragrant. . . . Every known facility and method for the manufacture of face powder are employed so as to yield the famous High Brown quality demanded by the ‘lady who knows.’” —Overton Hygienic MFG Co.
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 Artifacts: Morton’s Free Running Salt and Sausage Seasoning (1930s) + Morton Salt Cardboard Store Display and Advertising Blotters (1950s)
Made By: Morton Salt Company, 1357 N. Elston Ave., Chicago, IL
“Out of every 10 pounds of salt produced in this country, 9 you never see! . . . Of the salt you do see—table and household salt—only a little more than a billion pounds are consumed each year.
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: 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.
Museum Artifacts: Motor Trend magazines (1961-1964), Report of the Warren Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy – Paperback Book (1964), “House Dope” employee magazines (1942-1945)
Made By: W. F. Hall Printing Company, 4600 W. Diversey Ave., Chicago, IL
“A deluge of paper stock, ink, glue, and all other printing supplies and equipment enters the plant of W. F.
Museum Artifact: Marvel 60 Hole Punch, c. 1940s
Made By: Wilson Jones Company, 3300 W. Franklin Blvd., Chicago, IL
Long before any Marvel superhero ever punched a villain, the mighty Marvel Hole Punch was already dispensing its own brand of justice on unsuspecting sheets of binder paper. This lever-operated “paper perforator” was originally designed by Alexander and Chesley Dom of the Samuel C.
Museum Artifact: Webster “Electronic Memory” Wire Recorder, Model 180-1, c. 1949
Made By: Webster-Chicago Corp., aka WebCor, 5622 W. Bloomingdale Ave., Chicago, IL
“The Electronic Memory is truly one of the most useful additions to the modern home. Not only does it afford the never-failing amusement of hearing one’s own voice or dramatic productions, but it is also invaluable for wire-recording outstanding programs and fine music from radio or record discs,
Museum Artifact: Stereoscope w/ “World Series” Stereoview Cards c. 1905
Made By: Kawin & Company, 260-262 Fifth Avenue (850 N. Wells St.), Chicago, IL
“Kawin’s original stereoscope plan has crowded the stores of hundreds of the livest merchants in this great and prosperous country . . . Send us $1.25 and we will send you this genuine aluminum hood crystal lens stereoscope and a set of one hundred beautiful and interesting photo-colored views,
Museum Artifact: Big Beam No. 164 Sealed Beam Beacon Lamp and Big Beam No. 403 F Emergency Lamp, 1950s
Made By: U-C Lite MFG Co., 1050 W. Hubbard St., Chicago, IL
First of all, don’t call it a flashlight. This particular style of life-saving, portable illumination was known as a “hand lamp” (or “hand lantern”), and similar models are still being manufactured today—some of them by the very same company that produced the two mid-century artifacts in our museum collection.
