How to Find the Date of a Vintage Lunchbox
Did you carry a lunchbox to school as a kid? Chances are you did, if you grew up between the 1950s and 1980s. Those decades are now considered the "Golden Age" of lunchboxes. As America's baby boomers entered kindergarten, Aladdin Industries manufactured a lunchbox featuring Hopalong Cassidy, the first television cowboy. It became so popular that other companies followed suit, making their own lunch kits. A highly competitive industry soon emerged, with each company trying to capitalize on the popularity of movies, television and cartoon characters. Between 1950 and 1970, over 120 million lunchboxes were sold in the United States.
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Instructions
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Look carefully for any date printed or stamped anywhere on the lunchbox. It might appear next to a trademark symbol, either inside or outside the box. Inspect the Thermos bottle, if there is one, for any date.
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Examine the lunchbox for its material structure. Is it made of steel? Soft-sided vinyl? Plastic? Steel lunchboxes were the first type produced and are still made today. Vinyl lunchboxes were launched in 1959 and became especially popular with girls. Plastic lunchboxes appeared in the early 1970s.
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Look at the overall shape of the lunchbox. Most vintage lunchboxes are rectangular. The first dome-shaped boxes appeared in 1957 and were made to resemble treasure chests, school buses, cable cars, barns and covered wagons.
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Inspect how design images on the lunchbox are applied. Older lunchboxes will have a painted or lithographed design. After 1962, some lunch kits were made with a 3-D embossed (or stamped) impression. Sticker decals are found on plastic boxes from the 1980s and later.
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Identify what pictures, scenes or characters appear on the box. If the theme is a movie, then the lunchbox probably dates from its release year. For example, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom came out in 1984, as did the lunchbox. A television series would appear on a lunchbox at the height of its popularity. "Welcome Back, Kotter" lunchboxes are from the late 1970s; "Gargoyles" lunchboxes are from the mid-1990s.
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Locate online discussion forums or blogs. Collecting vintage lunchboxes is a popular hobby; other collectors might have the same box and can answer questions. Search for manufacturers' websites, or simply type the details of the lunchbox into a search engine and see what comes up.
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Check published books about collecting vintage lunchboxes.
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Tips & Warnings
Internet auction sites are great sources of information about collectibles, even if you are not interested in buying or selling items.
If you are concerned about accuracy, try to verify the date of your lunchbox by confirming it with multiple sources. The first date you find may or may not be correct. Do careful research.
