Collecting eggs was a job often delegated to children on small family farms. The eggs would then be sold to contribute to the family's finances.
Commercial chicken farms would ship their eggs in crates, like the one shown here, by rail to city markets farther away. World War I put a great strain on the U.S. railroad network, which allowed trucks to capture much of the farmers' business. Improvements to public highways through the 1920s accelerated the trend, and by the 1930s egg crates moved by road rather than rail.
The Okeys of West St. Paul donated this egg crate to the Minnesota Historical Society. Mr. Okey was a clerk with the Northern Pacific Railway.
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society
Dates: 1910–1910
Identifer: accession 70.65.2
