08/22/2026
This is the DeVoe Decorative Colorguide, a mechanized apparatus with hand-operated dials that allows the user to mix and match colors of five different interior decorating elements (trim, walls, furniture, ceilings, floors) for four different rooms (kitchen, bathroom, dining room, living room), with the resulting combinations seen through a viewing window in the case top. It was manufactured by Pathe Engineering and Tool Manufacturing Corporation and introduced by F.W. Devoe & C.T. Raynolds Company to help customers in their decision-making process for interior painting.
Date: 1935 (circa) - 1940 (circa)
Medium: metal, paper, plastic, wood, ink
Extent: 21.75" L x 12.5" W x 4.0" D
ABOUT THE ONLINE EXHIBITION
“Color in a Can: Early Marketing of Paint in America” is an exhibition of advertising signs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries represents a small portion of the historical paint research collection at The Athenaeum of Philadelphia. In addition to signs, the collection also includes more than 450 items such as brochures, trade catalogs, color samples, and related materials that document the rapid growth and exuberant promotion of the paint industry. Some of the paint company names are familiar; many other companies, with names now obscure, eventually fell by the wayside or were bought out by larger corporations.
The invaluable collection from which this exhibition is drawn exists largely through the efforts of former Athenaeum Executive Director Dr. Roger W. Moss, whose extensive research and writing forms the foundation of historic paint study in America. The online exhibition and original exhibition (January 15-April 22, 2016) was curated by Denise R. Fox.
omeka.philaathenaeum.org/ColorInACan
