The first saucepan-style pressure cooker was launched at the 1939 World's Fair in New York, and rapidly gained popularity throughout the United States and Europe. Apart from enabling reduced cooking times, the product's main selling point was the way it maintained food's vitamin and mineral content. Landers, Frary & Clark had used the trade name "Universal" since the 1890s and manufactured an increasingly diverse range of metal products for the modern kitchen under the moniker, from mousetraps and percolators to can openers, electric ranges, and aluminum cookware.
Credit: Gift of the manufacturer
1945
Aluminum, steel, and plastic
19.0cm
76.1946.a-b
Image and text © MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2019
Where you'll find this
The Museum of Modern Art
Permanent collection