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- Product Label for Mo-Jo Brand Lodestone in Van-Van Brand Oil, 1926-1946 - 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.
- 1926-1946
- Collections - Artifact
Product Label for Mo-Jo Brand Lodestone in Van-Van Brand Oil, 1926-1946
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.
- Lucky Brown Pressing Oil Packaging, 1938-1944 - 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.
- 1938-1944
- Collections - Artifact
Lucky Brown Pressing Oil Packaging, 1938-1944
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.
- Permanent Wave Machine, circa 1930 - During the 1920s and 1930s, permanent wave machines were a popular but sometimes hair-damaging method for producing long-lasting curls. Hairdressers applied a chemical solution on the hair and then used the machine's extremely hot rods and clamps to set the desired curl pattern. By the 1940s, "cold wave" perming, which did not require heat, rendered hot perms obsolete.
- circa 1930
- Collections - Artifact
Permanent Wave Machine, circa 1930
During the 1920s and 1930s, permanent wave machines were a popular but sometimes hair-damaging method for producing long-lasting curls. Hairdressers applied a chemical solution on the hair and then used the machine's extremely hot rods and clamps to set the desired curl pattern. By the 1940s, "cold wave" perming, which did not require heat, rendered hot perms obsolete.
- "Yucca the Great Mexican Preparation for the Hair," circa 1890 - People have sought a cure for hair loss for thousands of years. In the late nineteenth-century, the makers of "Yucca for the Hair" marketed their concoction as a cure for baldness, dandruff, and other diseases of the scalp. The proprietors of this patent medicine claimed the plant-based extract invigorated the scalp, promoted hair growth and rendered hair soft, glossy and luxuriant.
- circa 1890
- Collections - Artifact
"Yucca the Great Mexican Preparation for the Hair," circa 1890
People have sought a cure for hair loss for thousands of years. In the late nineteenth-century, the makers of "Yucca for the Hair" marketed their concoction as a cure for baldness, dandruff, and other diseases of the scalp. The proprietors of this patent medicine claimed the plant-based extract invigorated the scalp, promoted hair growth and rendered hair soft, glossy and luxuriant.
- Lucky Brown Pressing Oil Packaging, 1938-1944 - 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.
- 1938-1944
- Collections - Artifact
Lucky Brown Pressing Oil Packaging, 1938-1944
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.
- Sweet Georgia Brown Hair Dressing Pomade Packaging, 1926-1944 - 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.
- 1926-1944
- Collections - Artifact
Sweet Georgia Brown Hair Dressing Pomade Packaging, 1926-1944
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.