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The Smithsonian Magazine describes the history of lunch boxes to have evolved from a working man’s utility product to a back-to-school fashion statement. In the 1880s, school children wanted to copy their working dads and fashioned lunch pails out of empty cookie or tobacco tins. The first commercial lunch boxes in 1902 resembled metal picnic baskets decorated with scenes of playing children. The advent of television in the 1950s created an era of the lunch box as personal statement. Companies realized they could sell more of their relatively indestructible lunch boxes if they decorated them with icons of popular culture. The 1980s brought molded plastic, less expensive to manufacture. The Lone Ranger, Mickey Mouse, Howdy Doody, The Beatles, Superman and Star Trek are the most sought after & valuable vintage lunch boxes.