Lucky Brown Pressing Oil Packaging, 1938-1944
Add to SetSummary
Valmor Product Company, founded in the mid-1920s, sold beauty products to Black Americans. The company's product packaging was designed by Charles Dawson, a successful Black commercial artist whose illustrations of attractive modern Black Americans contributed to a burgeoning culture of positive Black identity. But the company's legacy is complicated--many of its products pushed a white assimilatory ideal, promising effects like skin lightening.
Valmor Product Company, founded in the mid-1920s, sold beauty products to Black Americans. The company's product packaging was designed by Charles Dawson, a successful Black commercial artist whose illustrations of attractive modern Black Americans contributed to a burgeoning culture of positive Black identity. But the company's legacy is complicated--many of its products pushed a white assimilatory ideal, promising effects like skin lightening.
Artifact
Packaging
Date Made
1938-1944
Creators
Place of Creation
United States, Illinois, Chicago
Creator Notes
Cover art by Charles C. Dawson, product distributed by Valmor Products Co. of Chicago, Illinois [Famous Products was another name the company used].
Location
Not on exhibit to the public.
Object ID
2022.57.2
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Katherine White.
Material
Metal
Color
Multicolored
Dimensions
Height: 1 in
Diameter: 2.75 in
Inscriptions
on top of lid: Lucky Brown / REG. U.S. / PAT. OFF. / PRESSING / OIL / CONTENTS:--1.6 Oz. / Distributed by / FAMOUS PRODUCTS CO., / Chicago, U.S.A. on front of lid: PRESSES YOUR HAIR IN PLACE on back of lid: KEEPS YOUR HAIR PRETTY on bottom: DIRECTIONS / FOR USE WITH HOT COMB / Heat comb (not too hot)--Test on paper. It / should not burn paper. Rub PRESSING OIL / into hair with finger tips. Use enough. Hold / strand of hair in hand, and draw comb through / it several times. Then take another strand and / repeat treatment until all hair is pressed. / WITHOUT HOT COMB / LADIES: Rub PRESSING OIL into Hair and / comb in place. MEN: Wet hair first. Then / rub in PRESSING OIL. Brush and comb / hair in any style desired. / CONTENTS:--1.6 Oz. / DISTRIBUTED AND COPYRIGHT 1938 BY / FAMOUS PRODUCTS CO. / Chicago, Ill., U.S.A.