Electric Toaster
date: label: date made
content: ca 1936
name: label: maker
content: Knapp-Monarch Co.
notes: label: Description
content: Two-slice electric toaster, side-opening. Square-shaped body, curved corners, stamped sheet iron painted black with chrome-plated doors on either side, hinged at bottom. Each door has streamlines molded down center, rectangular, black, wooden handles on either side. Interior heating elements and wire visible when doors are opened, mica wrapped in steel tape. Base is hollow, bent sheet metal, black. Power cord attaches on side of base. Cord missing. Underside of base is stamped: “115V. CAT. NO. K-50-R 400W/PAT. NOS. -1,756,784/2,005,364-2,029,575/PATS. PEND. KWIK WAY/MF’D BY KWIKWAY CO./ST. LOUIS, U.S.A.”; written in black marker on underside of base: “VO-10”.
label: Description
content: Patents:
label: Description
content: 1,756,784: April 29, 1930, Earnest S. Johnson, assignor to Knapp-Monarch Company, Belleville, Illinois, for “Electric toaster”
label: Description
content: 2,005,364: June 18, 1935, Percy O. Derringer, assignor to Knapp-Monarch Company, Belleville, Illinois, for “Toaster construction”
label: Description
content: 2,029,575: February 4, 1936, William B. Kochner, assignor to Knapp-Monarch Company, Belleville, Illinois, for “Toaster base assembly”
label: Description
content: This toaster is from the Hoover Company Sample collection, North Canton, Ohio, including samples by Knapp-Monarch Company, St. Louis (Missouri), which was bought by Hoover in 1969. It is noted: “Knapp-Monarch tag: “Model No. K50-R/Year Made 1936”; this tag is not attached to the object. Another note states: “Interchangeable power cord sold separately according to Kwikway tag of guarantee attached to toaster 1991.835.17”
label: Description
content: Maker is the Knapp-Monarch Company for Kwikway Company, St. Louis, Missouri. The Knapp-Monarch Company, St. Louis, Missouri, was founded in 1925 as A.S. Knapp and Company, not as a manufacturer, but to sell products. The company merged with manufacturer Monarch Company of Webster City, Iowa, in 1928. A large portion of Knapp-Monarch’s business was the manufacturing of products for private brands. In 1969 the company was acquired by the Hoover Company.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Missouri, Saint Louis
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of The Hoover Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1991.0835.16
label: catalog number
content: 1991.0835.16
label: accession number
content: 1991.0835
label: catalog number
content: 1991.835.16
objectType: label: Object Name
content: toaster
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: mica (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 1/8 in x 8 1/16 in x 5 in; 18.0975 cm x 20.47875 cm x 12.7 cm