Guest Blogger Candice Conner: School Box

By Candice Lee Conner
Graphic Designer, Photographer and Urban Archaeologist 

 When I was a kid, I loved going back to school for one reason - new school supplies. Notebooks, pencils, pens, HIGHLIGHTERS, crayons and markers. And to be perfectly honest, I still buy new supplies during the back to school sale, even though the last time I visited a classroom was in 2008. 

All of my goodies would be thrown into my school box. I eventually went for the "cooler" neon plastic style. But until fourth grade, I had a cardboard crayon box. There's just something about an actual paper box that makes you want to hold all of your school essentials and tiny treasures. 

The school box's ancestor is the noble cigar box. Kids would run to cigar establishments every summer to get a nice box for their treasures. Back then cigar boxes were free. Now...not so much. As cigar box school boxes became popular, two companies latched onto the idea and made their own kind of school box - one that literally said "School Box" so that you couldn't mistake it for anything else. The companies, General Box and the Jacksonville Ginger Box Company produced their school boxes from the 1960s to the early 1990s. 

Today, the original boxes can be found at all places vintage - including Wolff's Flea Market of course. They have also made a resurgence in the DIY community. Just type in "school box" on Pinterest, and commence  the nostalgia!

 
PHOTO: Candice Lee Conner

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