the Cavewoman's Guide to Plastics : publicity booklet : Plastics Division : Imperial Chemical Industries Limited : Welwyn Garden City : 1956 : Introduction

            A remarkable publicity booklet issued by the UK chemicals giant ICI - Imperial Chemical Industries - by their Plastics Division based in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire and published, by date code, in November 1956. There's no author and sadly, given the cartoon style illustrations, no artist or designer. In some moments there's a look of Ronald Searle but in many others the name of Susan Einzig, the artist, illustrator and teacher, springs to mind. That said there is also a stylistic difference - and that could be intentional - between the cave dwellers sketches and those of Prim Mrs 1950s.

ICI was formed in 1926 to help ensure that Britain's chemical industries were both more rationally organised at a time of great chemical advances and also more able to face overseas competition from both US and German concerns. By the 1950s ICI was, like the rest of the industry, actively involved in the develoment, manufacturing and marketing of plastic materials; although earlier 'plastics' had existed, such as Bakelite, the industry was now using materials based on oil feedstocks to produce many of the plastics we know today. Those mentioned in this booklet, as we move around the house looking at the many and multifarious uses of pastics, include P.V.C. (polyvinyl chloride), Alkathene (a form of polythene, a material ICI discovered and developed), nylon, Pespex and a range of other tradenamed materials including Diakon, Darvic, Crinothene and Mouldrite synthetic resins.

The story is told humourously as to uses and maintenance and illustrates two things; firstly the deliberate marketing of plastics to female consumers, the market of housewives and housemakers at a time of growing consumer confidence and for items that would be chosen and purchased by them. Secondly, as described on the back cover, "We Want Plastics". It is interesting that, a little like say asbestos, plastics were sold as a miracle material and there is no denying the 'good' they have done for modern civilisation - for example, food packaging and hygiene has undoubtedly saved countless lives over the decades. But perhaps we are now starting to re-examine the role plastics play in our wider world, both in terms of production, pollution and impact on human and natural health. Not in this booklet mind you - this was the New Elizabethan Age.

Taken on: November 18, 2025

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Mike Ashworth Collection

booklet

advertising

marketing

ephemera

chemical industry

chemicals

plastics

ICI

Imperial Chemical Industries

Plastics Division

Welwyn Garden City

1956

cartoons

illustrations

humour

The Cavewoman's Guide to Plastics

PVC

plastic products

household goods

Alkathene

polythene

nylon

Perspex

Diakon

Darvic

Crinothene

Mouldrite synthetic resins « less

Sets appears in: • The Cavewoman's Guide to Plastics : publicity booklet : ICI : 1956 • ICI - Imperial Chemical Industries and its subsidiaries

Groups appears in: • Industrial and Trade Catalogues • ICI, Imperial Chemical Industries

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