Tupperware Bowl and Cover
date: label: date made
content: ca 1949
name: label: manufacturer
content: Tupperware
notes: label: Description
content: Few products are more symbolic of household life in post-World War II America than Tupperware. Made of plastic, intended for service in the suburban kitchen, and with clean and modern design, Tupperware represented "tomorrow's designs with tomorrow's substances." The Museum's collections include over 100 pieces of Tupperware, dating from 1946 through 1999. This bowl and cover were made by Tupperware Corporation, Woonsocket, R.I. (bowl), and Farnumsville, Mass. (lid), 1946–1958 and donated by Glenn O. Tupper.
label: Description
content: Beginning in the 1930s, chemist Earl S. Tupper (1907–1983) experimented with polyethylene slag, a smelly, black waste product of oil refining processes, to develop uses for it. He devised translucent and opaque colored containers that he first marketed in 1942 as "Welcome Ware," then added lids with a patented seal later in the decade.
label: Description
content: Modeled after the lid of a paint can, the lid to a Tupperware container was to be closed with a "burp," to create a partial vacuum and make the seal tight. The product was designed to appeal to the growing number of housewives who worked in suburban kitchens with modern appliances, including large refrigerators that allowed once-a-week trips for grocery shopping at the supermarket. These women formed a market for new and effective methods of food storage. Tupperware's water-tight, airtight seal promised preservation of freshness and limited spills or spoilage.
label: Description
content: Yet the capabilities of the new product were not obvious to consumers at first, and Tupper's containers did not sell well in retail stores. A Michigan woman named Brownie Wise thought of marketing Tupperware through the home-sales method. Wise developed the system of Tupperware parties, at which a demonstrator could show the uses and advantages of Tupperware. As Tupperware became a staple of many American kitchens, some women found job opportunities in Tupperware sales.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Grafton, Farnumsville
label: place made
content: United States: Rhode Island, Woonsocket
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: Food
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Glenn O. Tupper
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1992.0605.022
label: catalog number
content: 1992.0605.022A,B
label: accession number
content: 1992.0605
objectType: label: Object Name
content: bowl
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 5.3 cm x 7 cm; 2 1/16 in x 2 3/4 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/4 in x 2 3/4 in; 5.715 cm x 6.985 cm