Toastmaker Electric Toaster
date: label: date made
content: 1930-1932
notes: label: Description
content: Side-loading electric single-slice toaster, partially chrome-plated sheet metal. Rectangular-shaped body, curved corners. Toast rack of wire and sheet metal swings down 90 degrees from one end, to load bread, black wooden knob handle. Open top. Indented satin panels on either side, with low-relief Art nouveau style geometric linear design. One end is vented, opposite end has similar design. Heavy rectangular base with canted sides and rounded corners. Each side of base has a handle mounted on top, metal arms with turned wooden grip, black. Temperature gauge on one side, black wooden knobs, with attached plate, printed: “AUTO-TOASTMAKER/MODEL No. 75/PATS. PEND. BERSTED MFG. CO. CHICAGO ILL.” Opposite end has attached fabric power cord, black and gold woven, with molded plastic two-pronged plug, black. Four wooden ball-shaped feet, black. Mica heating elements, wrapped in metal tape. Overall abrasion, scratches, handles are worn, underside is discolored, yellow enamel on underside.
label: Description
content: Maker is the Bersted Manufacturing Company, founded in Chicago by Alfred Bersted in 1913. The company began as a small machine shop, eventually producing small appliances after World War I. In 1926 McGraw Electric purchased the growing company and made it into a division of McGraw. Alfred Bersted would later purchase the company back from McGraw in 1930, only to have it bought back from him by McGraw in 1948. McGraw Electric (and later as McGraw-Edison) produced appliances under several brands, including “Fostoria,” “Lady Winsted,” “Capitol,” and “General Mills,” to name a few.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
topic: label: Subject
content: appliances
label: Subject
content: Food Culture
label: Subject
content: Household Tools and Equipment
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: Food
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Joyce Barth & Florence E. Scuderi
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1992.0338.13
label: catalog number
content: 1992.0338.13
label: accession number
content: 1992.0338
objectType: label: Object Name
content: toaster
label: Other Terms
content: Toaster; Electric
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: mica (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cloth (cord material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (cord material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/2 in x 7 7/8 in x 6 in; 21.59 cm x 20.0025 cm x 15.24 cm