Model of 1916 bacon can

At first I thought it was a butter dish, a very sturdy butter dish, in the basement of the family house in Stamford. Turns out to be a tinned-iron ration can for bacon, or salt meat, used by U.S. soldiers in World War I; this is the improved "model of 1916," without hinges or seams that could split under heavy use. My dad, who enlisted a quarter-century later, during World War II, must have picked it up as a curiosity; according to a U.S. Army guide to field mess gear, "with the change in field rations during World War I," even this improved bacon can was withdrawn from service shortly thereafter.

Comments

[Lucy]

Neat!