Images(2)

Product, Oral Care

Object number2012.122.87 a,b

Manufacturer Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company

Retailer Ilkuvitz Clothing Store

Date1938-1990

OriginJersey City, NJ

MediumMetal, paint

Credit LineGift of Joan and Steve Isack

DescriptionRed and white, thin, oval, metal tooth powder container. Small metal neck with oval opening at the top. Container is full of white powder. Small, gold-colored cap.Dimensions3.375 x 0.875 x 1.75 in. (8.6 x 2.2 x 4.4 cm)
Marks(a)
On the front reads: "COLGATE / TOOTH POWDER".

Bottom front reads: "NET WEIGHT 1 OZ. / COLGATE-PALMOLIVE PEET CO. / JERSEY CITY, N.J. MADE IN U.S.A."

On back reads: "IMPORTANT / For cleaner, brighter teeth, brush / two full minutes twice every day. / Use moistened brush well covered / with powder. Brush two ways. First / --straight up and down and then / with circular motion. / Colgate "All Purpose" Tooth Pow- / der produces a double-rich foam / that works in all three important / ways! / 1. Loosens dingy film stains with / amazing speed to leave your / teeth sparkling naturally. / 2. Sweetens your breath and re- / freshes your mouth. / 3. Does not contain any harsh / abrasive. / COLGATE REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. / U.S. PATENT REISSUE 20,636".

On the bottom of a reads: "CONTAINER / MADE IN U.S.A."
Historical NotesPart of a collection from the Ilkuvitz Clothing Store in Clairton, Pennsylvania. The store was founded by Edward J. Ilkuvitz, an Orthodox Jew who immigrated to the United States from Hungary in the early 1900s. He started out peddling to the mill community of Clairton, Pennsylvania, before finally opening a store in the 1920s. The store was located on Miller Avenue and Edward Ilkuvitz built the store and the apartment above it, which still bears the name on the building. Edward's son Norman took over the store and operated it into the 1990s. The last 10 to 20 years that the store operated, Norman did not order much inventory, and it was mainly a social spot for some of the older residents in Clairton. Norman kept merchandise from the 1940s on the shelves and it remained a time capsule of a typical 1940s/1950s general store in a mill community. The collection includes a sampling of records and inventory to represent the kinds of things people were purchasing and much of the records show who Edward and Norman were ordering from, stretching back to the early 1900s when Jewish wholesalers on Fifth Avenue were providing much of the merchandise to outlying general stores. The collection also includes a small sampling of items from the family's apartments above the store that represent their Jewish heritage.

Related person Edward J. Ilkuvitz

Related person Norman Ilkuvitz

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