Coffee Cup Lid, Sweetheart DTL516
notes: label: Description
content: This is a Sweetheart DTL516 peel and lock type coffee cup lid. Peel and lock type lids give the drinker a place to snap the peeled back lid part into itself, preventing the need to tear off or throw away a little triangle of plastic. The lid bears patent number 4,322,015 which was granted to John A. Bailey on March 30, 1982. This patent covered a lid whose peel tab was able to be closed after opening to prevent spilling during transport.
label: Description
content: Architects and collectors Louise Harpman and Scott Specht donated 56 plastic cup lids to the National Museum of American History in 2012. Their donation is a sample from their much larger collection of “independently patented drink-through plastic cup lids,” which they began in 1984 and discussed in a 2005 essay, “Inventory / Peel, Pucker, Pinch, Puncture,” in Cabinet Magazine: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/harpman.php. The collectors’ categorization scheme reflects the primary way the lid design functions, which helps differentiate between the varieties and styles of lids.
label: Description
content: Plastic, disposable coffee cup lids and other single-use food packages reinforce the social acceptability of eating and drinking on the go in the United States and reflect increasing expectation for convenience products. Cup lids are also examples of how humble, and even disposable, objects are sometimes the result of meticulous engineering. Patents for lid innovations describe peel-back tabs and the pucker-type shapes that make room for mouths and noses, and describe the nuances of “heat retention,” “mouth comfort,” “splash reduction,” “friction fit,” and “one-handed activation.”
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content: Work and Industry: Food Technology
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content: Food
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content: FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000
label: Exhibition
content: Food: Transforming the American Table
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Louise Harpman and Scott Specht
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2012.3047.38
label: catalog number
content: 2012.3047.38
label: nonaccession number
content: 2012.3047
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lid
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: beige (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1/4 in x 3 5/8 in; .635 cm x 9.2075 cm