-Our 10-Cents-a-Day Plan- still bank c. 1900

Curator: Well, here's something quirky! This is an object titled "-Our 10-Cents-a-Day Plan- still bank," dating from around 1900. It's currently part of the Minneapolis Institute of Art collection. Editor: Gosh, what a cheerful shade of blue! It feels strangely optimistic, like a promise wrapped in metal. Makes you almost want to save up…for what, though? Curator: Precisely! It was manufactured to promote the Revised Encyclopedia Britannica by The R.S. Peale Company of Chicago. It's basically a tin bank meant to encourage folks to save a dime a day to eventually purchase the encyclopedia. The graphics identify each saved increment toward the cost of a set of books. Editor: Clever marketing! And wonderfully ironic. Imagine, accumulating all this knowledge contained in the encyclopedia but through such a mundane, repetitive action of dropping in coins. Curator: It speaks to the rise of consumer culture and the industrialization of knowledge itself. The object becomes a site where personal savings meets mass production and distribution. Editor: Yes! Almost like taming enlightenment into digestible, dime-sized portions. I can also imagine the kind of household that owned this; there’s an aspirational middle class vibe, maybe even a touch of kitsch. "Better yourself ten cents at a time!" Curator: And it also blurs boundaries between education and advertising. What does it mean to invest, literally and figuratively, in such an undertaking? Editor: The piece’s very practicality hints at the dreams tied to literacy. Did owning that encyclopedia really transform lives, I wonder? Or was it more of a symbolic performance? Still, though, the fact that someone cherished learning so much that they'd devise this system is touching. Curator: Absolutely, seeing how accessible, affordable knowledge intersects personal ambition and a bit of good old consumer persuasion provides insight into social priorities. Editor: What a thought-provoking relic this little blue bank is. Curator: I agree; let’s go see if we can rustle up a dime from our listeners for the next gallery!