Collections record Beta

Laundry Case

2017-19-67 a,b

Rectangular laundry case or mailer produced by Fiberco under the "Laundripak" name. Heavy fiberboard case (a) with lid (b), with metal corner plates and metal fasteners along the edges. Brown fiberboard with numerous postage and address remnants on the lid. Empty plastic document windows at top-right of lid; at top-left, multiple layers of shipping labels in various states of completeness, one of them for the Railway Express Agency; at bottom-left, a mostly-complete label for the Railway Express Agency marking the container as prepaid and providing a receipt number, but no address; at bottom-right, three stamps (two 25-cent stamps with likeness of President McKinley, one 13-cent stamp with likeness of President Fillmore) and a manufacturers label, "FIBERCO/[ ]IPACK" with an image of the laundry box. On the back edge of the lid, white label with red text, "LYON/VAN & STORAGE CO./LOS ANGELES - CALIFORNIA" with image of red lion and handrwitten address, "MRS. O. W. MARRIN/TALLMADGE LANE/LITCHFIELD CONN." Leather straps on the left and right side of the case are incomplete; leather handle on rear of case intact.

The laundry case was dated using the three presidential stamps visible on the lid. Oswald W. Marrin Jr. (1919-2007) was attending Brown University between 1938 and 1942, before joining the Marines and serving in the Pacific during World War II. One of the labels on the case is addressed to his mother. It is likely that the laundry case was used both before and after 1938, but no other dates are visible.

Laundry cases, boxes, or mailers were used from the early 1900s until the 1960s, usually as a method of sending laundry home to be cleaned. They were reusable and popular with college students, campers, military personnel, and others lacking the time, means, or resources to wash the items.

• Fiberco

c.1938

Overall height 7.875", width 13", length 22.5"

• Fiberboard
• plastic
• metal
• leather