Matchbook
Object number2012.122.12
Manufacturer
Universal Match Corporation
Date1901-1986
OriginPittsburgh, PA
MediumPaper, matches
Credit LineGift of Joan and Steve Isack
DescriptionRed, black, and gray matchbook with rounded sides containing twenty matches. Company logo inscribed in a black circle with a white border is on the front. On the back is a blue and red logo. Inside the matchbook is an image of a skyscraper with company name and location printed below.Dimensions0.375 x 2.875 x 2.25 in. (1 x 7.3 x 5.7 cm)Inscriptions"USS" inscribed in a black circle with a white border is on the front.
On the back is a blue and red logo that reads: "MANUFACTURED FROM / UNITED STATES STEEL"; around the outside and "USS / TRADE MARK / STEEL" in the center.
Below the logo reads: "... and this label is / your guide to Quality Steel". Inside the matchbook is an image of a skyscraper with "UNITED STATES STEEL / PITTSBURGH" printed below.
On cover: "Close Cover Before Striking"
MarksUnder striker is text "Universal Match Corp., Pittsburgh".
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 institution
United States Steel Corporation
Related institution
Ilkuvitz Clothing Store
Related person
Edward J. Ilkuvitz
Related person
Norman Ilkuvitz
On View
Not on view
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