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Collection of matchbook covers from Pennsylvania establishments
Notifications
Held at: Historical Society of Pennsylvania [Contact Us]1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19107
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
This is a collection of approximately 241 matchbook covers dating from around the 1930s to the 1980s from various businesses from across Pennsylvania. Many originated from restaurants, clubs, hotels, and bars, but other types of establishments are represented as well, such as coal dealerships, insurance agencies, and dry cleaners. The majority of them contain business names and addresses, and some display colorful and ornate advertisements, cartoons, pinups, and logos.
The matchbooks had been roughly arranged in alphabetical order by city names, and that arrangement has been maintained, along with the their original housing in acid-free sleeves. They are also all flattened and the matches in each have been removed. Many of them retain their originals strikes (the strip that is used to light the matches), but on some the strikes have been cut off. The cities represented in the collection cover the whole state, from Pittsburg to Philadelphia. This collection also contains a single trade card from the late 1800s for F. B. Rossiter, a maker of window shades in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
Gift of Mrs. and Mrs. Michael Mazzatto, 2014. Gift of Michael Mazzatto, 2016.
Accession numbers 2014.065, 2016.111.
People
Subject
- Advertising--20th century
- Advertising--Brand name products--United States
- Advertising--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--20th Century
- Advertising--United States--History--20th century
- Matchbook labels--Collectors and collecting
- Matchbook labels--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--20th century
- Matchbook labels--United States--Collectors and collecting
- Matchbook labels
- Matchcovers--Collectors and collecting
- Matchcovers--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--20th century
- Matchcovers--United States--Collectors and collecting
- Matchcovers
Place
- Publisher
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Cary Hutto
- Finding Aid Date
- ; 2017.
- Sponsor
- Processing of this collection was made possible by a generous donation from the Young Friends of HSP.
- Access Restrictions
-
The collection is open for research.