Irving Naxon Papers

Scope and Contents

This collection documents a portion of the long and productive career of inventor Irving Naxon (1902-1989). Best known for inventing the slow-cooker that became the ubiquitous Crock-Pot, he was awarded many patents for various kitchen and household devices including an electric frying pan, a lidded turkey roaster, and a tabletop tub with an agitator for washing cloth diapers a Naxon also invented an electronic billboard system (the "telesign"), first used in Times Square. The archival materials offer insights into Naxon's business and advertising acumen, while also providing rich contextual material for understanding the revolution in countertop appliances for the home kitchen at a time when many more American women were employed outside of the home.

Arrangement

Collection is arranged into four series.

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1925-2019

Series 2: Naxon Utilities Corporation, 1920s-1970s

Series 3: Naxon Telesign, Inc., 1938-1973

Series 4: Patent and Trademark Materials, 1932-1968

Biographical

Irving Naxon was born Irving Nachumsohn (1902-1989) in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Julius Nachumsohn (1870-1905) and Tamora "Mary" Kassloski Nachumsohn (1874-1966), Jewish immigrants with roots in Germany and Lithuania. His father died when Irving was two years old, and the family moved to North Dakota and Canada, finally settling in Chicago. Naxon had two siblings, Meyer Nachumsohn (1898-1980) and Sadie Nachumsohn (1899-1963).

An electrical engineer by training, Naxon worked for Western Electric and was the company's first Jewish engineer. He was an inveterate tinkerer and inventor, and passed the patent bar exam himself, thereby eliminating the need to hire a patent lawyer. Naxon filed US Patent 2,187,888 on May 21, 1936, for a "Cooking Apparatus," or slow cooker. The patent was awarded on January 23, 1940, but the device wasn't put into commercial production until the 1950s. The idea for an electric slow cooker relates to stories about the inventor's great grandmother, who observed the labor restrictions of Shabbat by taking her cholent, a traditional stew of meat, potatoes, and beans, to the local bakery before sundown on Friday so it would cook slowly overnight in the residual heat of the bakery's oven.

By the time the slow cooker was brought to market, it was called the "The Boston Beanery," or "Naxon Beanery" and consisted of a ceramic crock fitted with a heating element that wrapped around an inner chamber, promoting even heat for cooking. Naxon advertised his slow cooker as "the All-Purpose Cooker," and even made a model that sported names of international dishes that could be made in the device. Naxon founded two companies, Naxon Utilities Corporation to manufacture his precision electrical devices, and Naxon Telesign, Inc., to focus on the telesign, an electronic sign that showed moving text resembling a news ticker and which Naxon leased to other companies.

Naxon retired in 1970 and sold his business to the Rival Manufacturing Company in Kansas City. Rival rebranded the Beanery as the "Crock Pot" and provided updated recipes developed by the company's home economists. Rival introduced the Crock Pot at the 1971 National Housewares Show in Chicago and sales took off. The Crock Pot appealed to consumers who wanted to come home at the end of a long day to a home-cooked meal without having to do much actual cooking. Crock Pot sales remain strong, despite a plethora of other kitchen appliances like the Insta-Pot which also minimize the amount of time and cooking technique required to turn out a home-cooked meal.

Naxon married Fern Dubin (1915-2008) in 1940 and, in 1945, changed the family name from Nachumsohn to Naxon due to anti-German sentiment in the United States. The Naxons had three daughters, Lenore Naxon, Jewel N. Klein, and Eileen Eisenberg.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/brief-history-crock-pot-180973643/

https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/from-humble-to-high-tech-a-slow-cookerhistory/

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/food/articles/jewish-inventor-of-slow-cooker-irving-naxon

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The Division of Work & Industry holds artifacts related to this collection. See accession 2023.0089 which includes the Naxon Boston Beanery, Naxon Flavor Crock, Turkey Roaster, and Automatic Chicken Fryer.