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For me, it was a Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox with a red handle. I was 5, and my mom packed my lunch in it every day before watching me board the bus. For you, maybe it was The Lone Ranger from 1954 or H.R. Pufnstuf from 1970.

No matter what year, your childhood lunchbox probably holds a special place in your memory.

To celebrate these little boxes, the National Heritage Museum in Lexington presents "Lunch Box Memories," a traveling Smithsonian exhibition on display through July 18.

"We're always looking for exhibitions our visitors will connect with because they've lived through the history, and this fit into that category," said Hilary Anderson, director of collections and exhibitions at the museum.

Whether a tall, narrow stacking pail used by coal miners in the 1890s, a slim blue, miniature suitcase from the 1939 World's Fair or a 1985 box emblazoned with Mr. T and the "A-Team," lunchboxes represent a piece of the nation's cultural history.

"Lunchboxes are a part of childhood. Individually, many of us have been connected to them," Anderson said. "I think it's a great opportunity to take the visitor's individual experience and (apply) it to the larger forces that shaped our history."

The exhibit traces the roots of the metal lunchbox, beginning with the American Industrial Revolution. During this time, factory workers often toted lunch to work in empty biscuit containers or tobacco cans. Children in rural areas often used them in the same way for their long journeys to school.

Between 1860 and 1920, more than 300 patents were issued for improvement of the design, manufacture or operation of metal lunchboxes. Following World War I, assembly line mass production transformed the metalwares industry and reinforced America's position as an industrial powerhouse.

During the 1930s, two significant events happened to shape the box's future. In the mid-1930s, Walt Disney dreamed up the first character-theme lunchbox and convinced a manufacturer to feature Mickey Mouse. In 1939, "the little suitcase" lunchbox shape debuted at the World's Fair.

The familiar shape is still used today, and characters like SpongeBob SquarePants and The Powerpuff Girls abound, proving Disney's idea was a stroke of marketing genius.

By the 1950s, the lunchbox was a must-have item for all schoolchildren. The exhibit features a 1950 box with Hopalong Cassidy on the front. The box, by Aladdin Industries, was the first to feature a television hero. "The Hoppy box" sold 600,000 in its first year and spurred a slew of television tie-ins that continues today.

Throughout the late '50s and early '60s, when the Cold War and the space age were at the forefront of pop culture, lunchboxes were part of the fray. The exhibit features several boxes with space-age themes.

The Smithsonian's first exhibit of metal lunchboxes coincided with the 50th anniversary of television's debut at the 1939 World's Fair. In 1989, the museum displayed a collection of metal, television-themed boxes culled from yard sales and flea markets.

The exhibit was so popular the Smithsonian staff decided to continue collecting. They now work directly with manufacturers like Aladdin and King Seeley Thermos.

"I and many others are always reminded that food matters. It's really all around us, but we can't collect it because it goes bad. So we collect the packaging," said David Shayt, collections manager in the division of cultural history at the National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C. Shayt is curator of the traveling exhibition.

Some of those "packages" include boxes depicting The Beatles from 1965, "Laugh-In" from 1969, "Star Wars" from 1977 and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" in 1984.

"They resonate on a variety of levels. They are memories of our lost childhood," Shayt said.

His own beloved lunchbox from the late '50s, early '60s profiled four or five nuclear submarines. While the box is long gone, the memory endures.

"For me, it's a love lost. I don't know if I threw it away or if my parents did," Shayt said.

Everyone will take something different away from this exhibit.

"I think some people come to a show like this looking for their old box; for others, it's remembering their mothers and sisters who made their lunch. It's very personal," Shayt said. "For others, it was the thrill of being the first person in the school with a particular show on their box."

"Lunch Box Memories" is on display through July 18. The National Heritage Museum is located at 33 Marrett Road, Lexington, MA. Admission is free. Hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

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