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Humble metal lunchboxes once made grand vehicles for graphic design. The simple form lent itself equally well to patterns, portraits and narrative scenes. Today kids can choose their screen savers, but not so long ago they made statements of taste and style by demanding a new lunchbox.

On April 13, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will put 120 lively examples from a collection of 250 on display. The exhibit, called "Taking America to Lunch," coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Thermos Co., a sponsor, which not so coincidentally is kicking off a new ad campaign.

The show starts with a woven basket used before the turn of the last century. The most graphic examples come from the golden lunchbox age of the 1950s and 1960s. That's when art and commerce combined forces to appeal to children with what we now call branding. Small armies of postwar consumers were marched off to school with favorite heroes, such as Hopalong Cassidy and the Lone Ranger, plastered on their lunchboxes. Product licensing was in its infancy, but television and the movie industry were happy to bolster relationships with young fans.

At this distance, it's hard to imagine kids coveting an insipid, watery Jonathan Livingston Seagull lunchbox. But the psychedelic colors on a box dedicated to the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" album remains a striking standard of its era. Look for it indefinitely at the entrance to the Main Street Cafes in the museum basement.

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