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Scrapbooks

 Subject
Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Schlumbohm/Chemex Scrapbooks, 1928-1979, bulk: 1939-1956

 Series
Accession: 2193Identifier: 2193-III.
Scope and Content:

This series consists of papers created by Dr. Schlumbohm that were preserved by industrial designer Marc Harrison and included among his own papers. Harrison augmented the papers with additional clippings related to Schlumbohm and his own photographs of Schlumbohm's products during the 1970s. Most of the material remains in scrapbooks, although some has been removed and rehoused.

The scrapbooks contain correspondence, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, brochures, advertisements and photographs dealing with Schlumbohm's activities and products. The great majority of the pieces deal with the Chemex coffee maker, including rejection letters from companies that Schlumbohm tried to interest in manufacturing it, letters of endorsement from cartoonist Charles Addams, Lyndon Johnson, and Bess Truman, gift catalogs that included the Chemex, and photographs of the Chemex in the famous 1959 American kitchen exhibit in Moscow, scene of the "kitchen debate" between Nixon and Khrushchev.

Other products include the Chemobile, a radically simplified boxy compact car that was the antithesis of the low-slung, voluptuous American cars of the period, the "Mixarium" cocktail shaker, the "Fahrenheitor" wine or beer-bottle cooler, the "Pre-vue" color-correcting mirror, a German water pump, and mobile refrigeration units. There is also material dealing with Schlumbohm's work with dry ice, correspondence relating to Schlumbohm's patents, and candid photos of Schlumbohm and his friends.

Dates: 1928-1979; Majority of material found within 1939-1956