The Pee-Chee All Season Portfolio is an American stationery item that achieved popularity in the second half of the 20th century. It is commonly used by students for storing school papers. The folder, which was originally produced solely in a peach-yellow tone, was first manufactured in 1943 by the Western Tablet and Stationery Company of
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropoli ...
. Pee-Chees were later produced by the
MeadWestvaco Corporation.
History
These inexpensive folders are made of
card stock
Card stock, also called cover stock and pasteboard, is paper that is thicker and more durable than normal writing and printing paper, but thinner and more flexible than other forms of paperboard.
Card stock is often used for business cards, ...
with two internal pockets for the storage of
loose leaf paper. The pockets are printed with a variety of reference information including factors for converting between English and
metric measurement units, and a
multiplication table.
The folders had fallen out of general use by the 2000s,
but are available from Mead .
The illustrations usually depict high school-age students engaged in sports or other activities.
Artist Francis Golden, best known for watercolors of fishing and hunting, drew the illustrations starting in 1964.
It became popular for students to deface these figures, often with scurrilous doodles and thought balloons.
The major difference between Pee-Chees and other paper folders is the inside pockets. Pee-Chees have pockets located at the sides, not the bottom, which prevents the contents from falling out if the folder is inadvertently stored upside down.
Pee-Chees are named after the original
peach
The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, n ...
color upon release; the folders now are made in five colors as "Color Talk Pee-Chee Folders" with an updated design, and a blue highlight replacing the original brown. The original color remains the most popular by far.
The folders were used as props in episodes of ''
That '70s Show
''That '70s Show'' is an American television period teen sitcom that aired on Fox from August 23, 1998, to May 18, 2006. The series focuses on the lives of a group of six teenage friends living in the fictional town of Point Place, Wisconsin, ...
'' and ''
The Wonder Years''.
Pee-Chee today
The retro Pee-Chee illustrations are now used to add a nostalgic flair to new products, such as T-shirts and
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, ...
cases. The indie duo
She & Him (which consists of
Zooey Deschanel and
M. Ward) produced official merchandise using classic Pee Chee designs.
Artist Patrick Martinez has created a number of paintings in the Pee-Chee folder style, but with scenes of police brutality and familiar events such as the
2015 Texas pool party incident, the
death of Sandra Bland, the
death of Eric Garner and others. He says he was initially inspired in 2005 by the realization that many American middle and high schools now have police patrolling hallways and classrooms.
In ''
Stranger Things
''Stranger Things'' is an American science fiction horror drama television series created by the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as showrunners and are executive producers along with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen. Produced by Monkey Massacre Pr ...
'', Nancy Wheeler carries her Pee Chee folder around in the first season and multiple Hawkins Middle School students are shown carrying the Pee Chee folders in the second season. It can also be seen in ''
Mixed-ish
''Mixed-ish'' (stylized as ''ish'') was an American single-camera sitcom created by Kenya Barris, Peter Saji and Tracee Ellis Ross that premiered on ABC on September 24, 2019. The series is a prequel to ''Black-ish'', and the second series to be ...
''.
See also
*
Trapper Keeper
References
{{Reflist
Paper products
Stationery
Products introduced in 1943