Box of Straws
date: label: Date made
content: 1940s
notes: label: Description
content: This is a box of 12 flexible straws. The straws are clear in a blue paper envelope with a plastic window. The packaging reads "Thirst-Aid Bent Tubes...Manufactured by Stone Straw Corporation, Washington DC USA...Sanitized with Ultra Violent Rays, Originators of Artificial Drinking Straw in 1888.'
label: Description
content: The Stone Straw Company was founded by Marvin C. Stone (1842-1899), who invented the paper tube in Washington DC. Stone was a former Union soldier who settled in DC after the Civil War, worked as a journalist until he had the idea to create the paper straw.
label: Description
content: Stone’s idea was to wrap a spiral of paper around a pencil, hold it fast with paraffin wax and then remove the pencil. He took a supply of straws to his favorite tavern, a bar on Ninth Street NW called Aman’s, and asked the owner to keep them for his mint juleps. When others clamored for artificial straws, Stone knew he had a winner.
label: Description
content: In 1888, Stone was granted Patent No. 375,962 for the artificial drinking straw. In the 1890s, Stone Straw was said to be the largest private concern in the city, employing about 400 “girls” in a plant on Ninth Street NW, near Pennsylvania Avenue. The Evening Star wrote in 1891: “They receive good wages, are considered more than menials, and their personal comfort and moral welfare are looked after.”
label: Description
content: The company expanded beyond cigarette holders and drinking straws. It made lollipop sticks, paper containers for chemicals, paper caps for radio tubes and blasting caps.
label: Description
content: Stone Straw made a cardboard casing for glass iodine vials carried by soldiers in World War II. When a wounded GI broke the glass, iodine seeped through openings in the casing.
label: Description
content: It also continued to make straws. In 1956, the factory on Franklin Street was churning out 8 million straws a day.
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Manufacturing
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Robert A. Friedman, Pamela B. Leeds, Linda A. Reiss, and Judith B. Rosen
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2001.0247.07
label: accession number
content: 2001.0247
label: catalog number
content: 2001.0247.07
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Straws
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 22 cm x 7.5 cm x 1.4 cm; 8 11/16 in x 2 15/16 in x 9/16 in