The Lunchbox Museum

By Sam Sachs

Columbus is one of those places where you’re likely to find something quirky or special without even trying. Whether it’s a family owned bookshop on Broadway or a coffee shop built in an old bank, you’ll find unique spots to explore. Perhaps one of the most unique spots in Columbus is the Lunchbox Museum at 3218 Hamilton Road.

photo by Sam Sachs

The entrance is nestled inside a small juncture between three buildings, with the front of the shop proudly declared with a scrap iron statue of a Tyrannosaurus Rex gracing the roof and the words “The River Market Antiques” just below. Statues of a bygone time in the United States grace the front windows, standing resolute, as if guarding the historic delights inside.

The first step in is an experience, taking you forward in distance and backwards in time, with porcelain figures, an old school rotary phone, collections of metal and jeweled pins in wood and glass cases, and all sorts of art and collectibles from decades past scattered throughout a large and welcoming space.

A kindly gentleman in buttoned shirt and dark slacks sits at a table near the entryway, Allen Woodall, the owner of the Lunchbox Museum. The magic of the shop is the same magic that helped Woodall to build the museum in the first place, after beginning his collection in 1984. According to Woodall, he’d first been interested in collecting metal lunchboxes when he had been “at a flea market. A vendor had lunchboxes of the Green Hornet and Dick Tracy,” and seeing the items had “struck a chord.”

Allen Woodall

photo by Sam Sachs

Feeling the nostalgia, Woodall bought both boxes, then found himself interested in getting more, then started looking for where he could find them. Woodall had “read about a man in Woodbridge with over 300 boxes in the Atlanta Journal,” went for a visit and ended up buying all of them. This is what started his official collection, following the initial two he found at the market.

Photo by Sam Sachs

In 1989, a “big collector” named Bob Car, a doctor, in St. Louis passed away, leaving over 600 lunchboxes up for sale. Seeing an opportunity, Woodall called his wife to ask about buying them. Diane Car, his widow, agreed to meet and so Woodall “flew to St. Louis on a cold December day.” Woodall also knew he wasn’t the only one looking to purchase her husband’s collection, with other buyers from “New York and California” in talks with Car as well.

photo by Sam Sachs

Woodall promised something more than simple money for the boxes. Meeting Car, Woodall had an idea. Earlier, Woodall had met a man named Sean Brickell, another avid collector of rare lunchboxes at a swap meet in Oldbridge, Tenn. The two men were of a like mind thinking that “this should be in a book to show the history and preserve the culture” of the old metal lunchboxes.

photo by Sam Sachs

Keeping that in mind, Woodall promised Car that “If you sell them to me, I will write a book and dedicate it to Bob and the family.” True to his word, Woodall was able to convince Car to sell him her husband’s collection and in 1992, “The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Metal Lunch Boxes” published. Soon after, the Lunchbox Museum opened, displaying Woodall’s large collection of rare boxes, production plates and other rarities from the 1930s onward.

More than just a museum, Woodall also sells duplicates of the lunchboxes, allowing visitors to pick up lunchboxes they may have had as children and giving

photo by Sam Sachs

them their own little piece of history to take home. Now, Woodall even has people approaching him to donate or sell their own rare finds, which he attributes to “the museum’s popularity.”

Working at the museum still with his family and friends, Woodall remains an enthusiastic and generous man, excited to share his collections with others and work with them on getting the items they fall in love with, just like he did with his own finds.