Deli and Restaurant Matchbook Covers

Deli and restaurant matchbook covers

1930s–60s

The Dorot Jewish Division is a place for many interesting finds, items that often fall outside the scope of most traditional research libraries. One of them is our unusual collection of several dozen matchboxes from Jewish delis from different American cities—including, of course, New York, but also Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Miami, Pittsburgh, Atlantic City, and others. While many libraries amass ephemera such as postcards, promotional leaflets, advertisements, posters, and playbills, matchbook covers constitute an unusual collection category.  

Matchboxes as advertising ephemera for Jewish delis and restaurants gain much value today because they often are the only vestiges of once-popular establishments that closed long ago. At the very least, they represent an extant part of the restaurants’ visual history. The colorful, eye-catching designs of the covers served as a great advertising tool. Matchbooks were free, small, easy to carry, and useful. Along with essential information about the restaurant, such as name, address, phone number, and specialties, was a catchy slogan: “an eating place par excellence,” and “good food served right,” and “aristocrat of kosher restaurants” being just a few. Matchboxes lost their allure when smoking in restaurants became unfashionable and later prohibited. But the collection testifies to the glory of the Jewish delicatessen during its 20th-century heyday in a lighthearted, amusing way.