50-year-old canned mushrooms? You might be inclined to pass if someone offered these to you—understandably. But despite the age of the contents, food (and other) packaging can provide a wealth of information about an era, from design standards to daily habits. We’ve just digitized about two dozen food boxes, cans, bottles, and jars dating from the 1920s to the 2000s. Check out exotic anchovies, oyster sauce, and truffles, or see hundreds of examples of all types of containers (food and otherwise), on our collections site.
(FYI, thanks to our Conservation Department, the contents of the food packages have now been disposed of, leaving clean artifacts for long-term preservation.)
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
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