Before lunch boxes were first introduced, children and workers, for generations, carried their noon meal in all manner of contraptions from animal skins to gourds, from wicker to oilcloth. 

The first lunch boxes, however, weren’t for kids at all. In the late 1800s, blue-collar workers carried their lunches to work in metal pails, which protected their food from the rigors of the workplace. This didn’t stop children from wanting to emulate their working parents, however. Soon enough, kids fashioned their own lunch pails from tin boxes that were originally used to hold cookies or tobacco. Early mass-produced lunch pails for children resembled picnic baskets and featured illustrations of kids playing. This is according to How Stuff Works.

According to Gizmodo, a design, technology, science and science fiction website, it wasn’t until the 1950s that lunch boxes became adorned with popular TV characters and cartoon heroes became popular for both children and manufacturers alike.

The first character-licensed lunch box came out in 1935, and it featured Mickey Mouse. But the lunch box market didn’t really explode until the 1950s. Up until that point, Aladdin Industries sold plain, steel "lunch kits”. Looking for new ways to grow its market, in the early 1950s, it released a lunch box emblazoned with a decal of Hopalong Cassidy. Sales boomed, and American Thermos soon followed suit. It released a Roy Rogers lunch box with full colour lithography on all sides of the box. Character-based lunch boxes meant that kids would want a new one every year, depending on what TV show or movie was hot at the time. An industry was born, as 120 million lunch boxes were sold between 1950 and 1970. Most boxes came with a matching thermos. These thermoses originally were made of steel and insulated with glass. But over time, the thermos evolved to a plastic version.

In the 1960s, the vinyl lunch box was introduced. It was made of plastic, heat-sealed over cardboard. These pink boxes were targeted towards girls. Vinyl boxes never really caught on, however, since they were rather flimsy.

Today, most metal lunch boxes are in the hands of collectors. But don’t expect to rake in a ton of cash for your old lunch box if it’s scuffed, rusted or missing its original thermos. 

For the most part, today’s lunch boxes are soft, made with insulated vinyl and foam — a style that fits better into a child’s backpack. Character-licensed lunch boxes never went out of style, however. Instead of G.I. Joe or The Beatles, today you’ll see characters like Hannah Montana or The Wiggles. You’ll also find lunch boxes made out of recycled materials.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com