Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Search Results

Collections Search Center
9 documents - page 1 of 1

Ann and Thomas Damigella Collection

Creator:
Damigella, Ann.  Search this
Damigella, Thomas  Search this
Names:
Tupperware Home Parties  Search this
Tupperware International.  Search this
Extent:
17 Videocassettes (VHS)
38 Motion picture films
1.25 Cubic feet (4 boxes )
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Videocassettes (vhs)
Motion picture films
Motion pictures (visual works)
Sound recordings
Date:
1951-1997
Summary:
Film, sound recordings and documentary material relating to the history of Tupperware home parties and the Damigella Tupperware distributorship in Everett, Massachusetts.
Scope and Contents:
Because of their long affiliation with Tupperware, the Damigellas have amassed a significant collection of archival documentation and memorabilia relating to the history of Tupperware, and particularly to the sales practices and sales force training methods of this highly successful, widely emulated, international corporation.

The collection includes film, sound recordings and printed material relating to Tupperware sales practices and methods of sales force motivation and control.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in ten series. Within each series, materials are arranged chronologically.

Series 1: CATALOGS, 1957-1997

Series 2: GAMES AND DEMONSTRATION GUIDES, 1965-1990

Series 3: ADVERTISING, 1970-1980

Series 4: TUPPERWARE INTERNATIONAL, 1960-1990

Series 5: RECRUITMENT, DEALERSHIP AND MANAGERSHIP, 1960-1995. Proscriptive and motivational literature about working for Tupperware. Series 6: SOUND RECORDINGS, 1953; 1977-78

Series 7: OUR WORLD MAGAZINE, 1976-1991. Sales force magazine, containing demonstration, recruitment and sales advice; product information; and profiles of successful dealers, managers and distributors.

Series 8: JUBILEE PUBLICATIONS, 1967-1982. Publications reviewing and highlighting Jubilee, the annual sales force gathering in Orlando, Florida.

Series 9: DAMIGELLA DISTRIBUTORSHIP AND TUPPERWARE HISTORICAL MATERIALS, 1960-1991. News clippings, research reports, and other background information about Tupperware and the Damigella distributorship, including a chronology compiled by Tom Damigella, Jr.and material assembled by the son of Stanley Home Products and Tupperware salesman Norman Squires relating to his contributions to or innovation in the home party plan.

Series 10: MOVING IMAGES, 1951-1991. 54 16mm films and 2@ VHS videotapes. Film and video mastering and duplication were made possible by a gift from Tupperware International.

There are six subseries.

Subseries 1: Promotional/Motivational Films, 1960-1992. Contains promotional and motivational films featuring activities organized by the company to bring dealers and distributors together, usually with statements from Tupperware executives. Contains product promotion films introducing new Tupperware to the sales force. Contains Jubilee films showcasing the annual celebration, showing award ceremonies, games, music and entertainment (including appearances by Anita Bryant, Waylon Jennings and Pat Boone).

Subseries 2: Training Films, 1952-1997. Includes step-by-step guides to planning Home Parties, learning sales techniques, demonstrating products, and introducing new sales promotions. One film gives tips on safe driving to and from the Tupperware parties, for managers using cars leased by the distributorship for their use.

Subseries 3: Corporate Films, 1958-1992. Includes films showing product development from design to end result as well as discussions of business strategies.

Subseries 4: Commercials, 1983-1994. Presents new products; emphasizes effectiveness and efficiency of using Tupperware.

Subseries 5: Home Movies, 1951-1997. Includes home movies shot by Tupperware distributors Tom and Ann Damigella. This material includes tributes to the Damigellas.

Subseries 6: Acquired Films, 1961. Non-Tupperware films acquired by the Damigellas.
Biographical / Historical:
Ann and Tom Damigella already had experience selling Stanley Home Products when they encountered Tupperware in 1947. Mr. and Mrs. Damigella foresaw great possibilities with the new product, and immediately decided to add Tupperware to the line of products they offered door to door. In 1950, they attended the first "round table" meeting with Earl Tupper (inventor of Tupperware), Brownie Wise (who perfected Tupperware's home party sales system) and sixteen to twenty other Tupperware distributors from around the country. The Damigellas quickly became some of the top Tupperware sales people in the country; in 1952 they were awarded a Cadillac as one of the top six movers of Tupperware in North America. Self-proclaimed Tupperware people, their son, Tom Damigella, Jr., and son-in-law, Jon Nelson, followed them into the business, making the Damigella Distributorship the oldest and among the most successful distributorships in the country -- the distributorship has been in the top 25 in sales every year since the early 1960s. Tom. Jr. manages the distributorship since his father's retirement in 1994; Jon Nelson went on to become one of Tupperware's regional vice-presidents.
Related Materials:
Tupperware may also be found in the Museum's Division of Domestic Life (now Division of Cultural and Community Life). Researchers interested in the history of Tupperware should also consult the Earl Tupper (AC#470) and Brownie Wise (AC#509) Collections in the Archives Center.
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History by Ann and Thomas Damigella in July 1997.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the fils are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Most items have copyright and/or trademark restrictions. Tupperware films: Most duplication and use of films in commercial and non-commercial productions requires written permission from the Tupperware Corporation. See repository for details.
Topic:
Plastic container industry -- 1950-2000  Search this
Product demonstrations -- 1950-2000  Search this
Sales -- Plastic containers -- 1950-2000  Search this
Direct selling -- 1950-2000  Search this
Genre/Form:
Motion pictures (visual works)
Sound recordings
Citation:
Ann and Thomas Damigella Collection, 1951-1997, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0583
See more items in:
Ann and Thomas Damigella Collection
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8c3d57e27-6305-48fe-a45e-f55047dc2f00
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0583
Online Media:

Earl S. Tupper Papers

Creator:
Tupper, Earl Silas, 1907-  Search this
Tupper Corporation  Search this
Names:
Tupperware Home Parties  Search this
Tupper, Glenn O.  Search this
Tupper, Miles  Search this
Extent:
14 Cubic feet (29 boxes, 1 map-folder)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Letters (correspondence)
Advertising fliers
Business records
Personal papers
Photographs
Business letters
Notes
Clippings
Family papers
Interviews
Date:
2003
1908-1989
Summary:
Papers documenting inventor Earl S. Tupper, his inventions, Tupperware and the Tupper Company.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents the life of inventor Earl S. Tupper through correspondence, notes, photographs, drawings and sound recordings.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into five series.

Series 1: Personal Papers, 1910-1989

Series 2: Early Business Papers and Scientific Notes, 1930-1965

Series 3: Tupper Corporation/Tupperware Business, 1908-1983

Series 4: Neil Osterweill Oral Histories and Research Notes, 1926-1989

Subseries 4.1: Research Files, 1926-1989

Subseries 4.2: Original Masters, 1987-1989

Subseries 4.3:Research Copies, 1987-1989

Subseries 4.4:Research Copies, 1987-1989

Subseries 4.5: Preservation Copies, undated

Series 5: Center for Advertising History, Oral History Interviews, 1992

Subseries 5.1: Original Masters, 1992

Subseries 5.2: Research Copies, 1992

Subseries 5.3: Research Copies, 1992

Subseries 5.4: Preservation Copies, 1992

Subseries 5.5: Abstracts and Transcripts, 1992, 2003
Biographical / Historical:
Earl Silas Tupper was born in 1907, to a New Hampshire farming family of modest means. During his youth and boyhood in New England, his mother Lulu Clark Tupper, took in laundry and ran a boarding house, while his father, Earnest Leslie operated a small family farm. Earnest Tupper loved to tinker, developing labor-saving devices for the farm and family greenhouses; one of his devices, a frame to facilitate the cleaning of chickens, was granted a patent. It is from his father that Earl Tupper is said to have developed a love for invention. Even as a boy, Tupper showed an enterprising and entrepreneurial spirit. At the age of 10, Earl discovered he could move more of the family's produce by selling door-to-door, bringing the product directly to the customer.

After high school graduation in 1925, Tupper continued to work in the family greenhouses in Shirley Massachusetts for two years. Tupper was an ambitious young man, though, and he was determined to earn his first million by the time he was thirty. During the twenties, he set out on a number of different paths, including work as a mail clerk and on a railroad labor crew. In 1928, he took a course in tree surgery, with the idea of setting up his own tree surgery and landscaping business. He continued to help out with the family business, and got married in 1931. Through the early thirties, the landscaping and nursery business continued to grow and thrive, despite the Depression, enabling Tupper to pursue some of his ideas and inventions. His scientific notebooks for this period reflect the diversity of his interests. Even after Tupper Tree Doctors was forced into bankruptcy in 1936, Tupper remained optimistic about his ability to develop and manufacture some of his inventions.

In 1936, Tupper met Bernard Doyle, the inventor of Viscoloid, the plastics manufacturing division of DuPont, located in nearby Leominster, Mass. He went to work for DuPont in 1937, but stayed there only one year. Later, Tupper would say it was at Dupont "that my education really began." Tupper took the experience he had gained in plastics design and manufacturing at DuPont, and struck out on his own. In 1938, he formed the Earl S. Tupper Company, advertising the design and engineering of industrial plastics products in Leominster, Massachusetts. Much of the fledgling company's early work was performed under subcontract to DuPont. Business was good during the war, because despite the difficulty of acquiring the raw materials necessary for plastics production for the domestic market, Tupper Plastics was able to garner several defense contracts, molding parts for gas masks and Navy signal lamps.

After the war, Tupper turned his attention to developing plastics for the growing consumer market. Many of his earliest designs, which included plastic sandwich picks, cigarette cases, and an unbreakable tumbler for the bathroom, were offered as premiums with other products. For example, Tek toothbrushes offered the tumbler with purchase of a toothbrush, and cigarette companies and other businesses offered cigarette cases imprinted with their logo.

Plastics was still in its infancy in the forties, and the commercial market for plastics product was limited by plastic's reputation for being brittle, greasy, smelly and generally unreliable. Tupper's contributions were twofold. First, he developed a method for purifying black polyethylene slag, a waste product produced in oil refinement, into a substance that was flexible, tough, non-porous, non-greasy and translucent. Second, he developed the Tupper seal, an airtight, watertight lid modeled on the lid for paint containers. Together, these innovations laid the foundations for the future success of Tupperware. Nevertheless, marketing the new product presented a challenge. Tupper experimented with department store sales, but as Businessweek reported in 1954, "in retail stores it fell flat on its face." It seemed clear that the new lid required explanation or demonstration.

In the late 1940s, Thomas Damigella (in Massachusetts) and Brownie Wise (in Florida) were selling household products through Stanley Home Products. Purchasing through local plastics distributors, both began offering Tupperware as part of their product line, and were moving enough Tupperware to attract Earl Tupper's attention. In 1948, Tupper met with Damigella, Wise, and several other local distributors at a Sheraton in Worcester Massachusetts to discuss a new distribution plan. Modeled on the home party plan pioneered by Stanley Home Products and expanded and refined by Brownie Wise, the home party plan became and remains the exclusive outlet for Tupperware. Wise was named Vice President of the company (named Tupperware Home Parties) in 1951, a position she held until 1958, when Tupper sold the company to Rexall for $16 million.

Tupperware's success stems from the combined genius of Earl Tupper, the self-styled Yankee inventor and entrepreneur and Brownie Wise, the consummate saleswoman and motivator. If Tupper personified reverence for the product, Wise personified respect for the sales force. "If we build the people," she was fond of saying, "they'll build the business." Almost half a century later, their legacy remains an important part of Tupperware's continuing success.

Earl S. Tupper died on October 5, 1983.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center

Leo Baekeland Papers (AC0005)

DuPont Nylon Collection (AC0007)

J. Harry DuBois Collection on the History of Plastics (AC0008)

Celluloid Corporation Records (AC0009)

Albany Billiard Ball Company Records (AC#0011)

Brownie Wise Papers (AC0509)

Ann and Thomas Damigella Collection (AC0583)

Materials at the National Museum of American History

Tupperware related artifacts are located in the Division of Home and Community Life (now Division of Cultural and Community Life), the Division of Medicine and Science and the Division of Work and Industry. See accessions: 1983.0711; 1984.1098; 1985.3014; 1985.3015; 1987.0180; 1990.3055; 1992.0209; 1992.0605; 1993.0257; 1994.0118; 1994.0124; 1995.0109; 1998.0070; 1998.0220; 2012.0133; and 2014.3077.
Provenance:
The materials were donated to the Archives Center in 1992 by Glenn O. Tupper, Earl Tupper's son.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but master (preservation) tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Plastics  Search this
Plastic container industry  Search this
Plastic tableware  Search this
Product demonstrations  Search this
Business -- History  Search this
Marketing  Search this
advertising  Search this
Inventors  Search this
Genre/Form:
Letters (correspondence) -- 20th century.
Advertising fliers
Business records -- 20th century
Personal papers -- 20th century
Photographs -- 20th century
Business letters
Notes
Clippings
Family papers
Interviews
Citation:
Earl S. Tupper Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0470
See more items in:
Earl S. Tupper Papers
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8ad4a9c5b-f0e3-47e5-8cc3-97c5acb9a0a4
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0470
Online Media:

Helen Hoch Tupperware Films

Creator:
Hoch, Helen  Search this
Names:
Tupperware Home Parties  Search this
Extent:
4 Items (reels)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
8mm films
Motion pictures (visual works)
Home movies
Date:
1959-1965.
Scope and Contents note:
Home movies of Tupperware Jubilee events, 1959-1965, on 8mm film.
Arrangement:
1 series.
Biographical/Historical note:
Hoch was a Tupperware Lady from 1957 to 1967, and she filmed events at several of Tupperware Corporation's Jubilees. Married with three children, she found Tupperware sales the ideal way to earn extra money so that she could be home with her kids before and after school and host parties in the evenings when they were settled in for the night. She was successful enough to become a manager in 1960 and was given a new Ford automobile as a reward for her success.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Helen Hoch.
Restrictions:
Collection open for research on site by appointment. Special arrangements must be made with the Archives Center to view film.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Business -- History  Search this
Marketing  Search this
Plastic container industry  Search this
Genre/Form:
8mm films
Motion pictures (visual works)
Home movies
Citation:
Helen Hoch Tupperware Films, 1959-1965, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0865
See more items in:
Helen Hoch Tupperware Films
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep846ecc302-ba25-4bae-bff9-53ed2ec10d21
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0865

Jon and Sylvia Boyd Tupperware Films

Creator:
Boyd, Sylvia  Search this
Boyd, Jon  Search this
Names:
Tupperware Home Parties  Search this
Extent:
5 Items (16 mm films. )
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Motion pictures (visual works)
Date:
1957-1970.
Scope and Contents note:
Films taken of events at five Tupperware Jubilees: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1964, 1970.
Arrangement:
1 series.
Biographical/Historical note:
Jon Boyd was a fireman, Sylvia Boyd a housewife who became a Tupperware hostess for extra income. They were very successful and became distributors in the 1960s, first in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and then back in the L.A. area. Later Sylvia was one of the first women to get a position on staff in Florida.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Jon and Sylvia Boyd, 2004.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the films are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Unrestricted research access on site by appointment.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Plastic container industry  Search this
Marketing  Search this
Business -- History  Search this
Genre/Form:
Motion pictures (visual works)
Citation:
Jon and Sylvia Boyd Tupperware Films, 1957-1970, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0870
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8e5ef835d-9534-43b9-beca-38c364941f43
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0870

Tupperware, transparent / with an introduction of Lieven Daenens ; texts from Moniek E. Bucquoye ... [et al. ; translations, Ilze Raath-Bezuidenhout, Michael Robinson]

Title:
Transparent
Author:
Tupperware Home Parties  Search this
Daenens, Lieven  Search this
Bucquoye, Moniek E  Search this
Design Museum Gent  Search this
Physical description:
189 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 27 cm
Type:
Exhibitions
Place:
United States
Date:
2005
C2005
Topic:
Tupperware (Firm)  Search this
Plastic tableware  Search this
Plastic container industry  Search this
Call number:
HD9662.C664 T8633 2005
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_826216

Tupperware party : past, present, future / Natalie R. Marsh, curator

Author:
Marsh, Natalie R  Search this
Marsh, Natalie R  Search this
Columbus College of Art and Design  Search this
Subject:
Tupperware Home Parties  Search this
Physical description:
78 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 23 cm
Type:
Exhibitions
Place:
United States
Date:
2003
C2003
Topic:
Plastic tableware  Search this
Plastic container industry  Search this
Plastic container industry--History  Search this
Tableware industry--History  Search this
Plastic tableware--History  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_1011929

Tupperware, unsealed : Brownie Wise, Earl Tupper, and the home party pioneers / Bob Kealing

Author:
Kealing, Bob  Search this
Subject:
Wise, Brownie  Search this
Tupper, Earl Silas  Search this
Tupperware Corporation History  Search this
Tupperware Home Parties History  Search this
Physical description:
x, 250 p. : ill ; 24 cm
Type:
Books
Place:
United States
Date:
2008
C2008
Topic:
Home parties (Marketing)--History  Search this
Plastic container industry--History  Search this
Plastic tableware--History  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_925590

Tupperware : the promise of plastic in 1950s America / Alison J. Clarke

Author:
Clarke, Alison J  Search this
Subject:
Tupperware (Firm) History  Search this
Physical description:
x, 241 p. : ill. ; 24 cm
Type:
Books
Place:
United States
Date:
1999
C1999
Topic:
Plastic container industry--History  Search this
Tableware industry--History  Search this
Plastic tableware--History  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_568306

Brownie Wise, Tupperware queen : a biography / by Fergus Mason

Author:
Mason, Fergus  Search this
Subject:
Wise, Brownie  Search this
Tupper, Earl Silas  Search this
Tupperware Corporation History  Search this
Physical description:
98 pages ; 21 cm
Type:
Books
History
Place:
United States
Date:
2014
Topic:
Home parties (Marketing)--History  Search this
Plastic container industry--History  Search this
Plastic tableware--History  Search this
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_1082021

Modify Your Search







or


Narrow By