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 sheets. 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 Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 73,598. It is the principal city of the Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan are ...
. 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
A loose leaf (also loose leaf paper, filler paper or refill paper) is a piece of paper of any kind that is not bound in place, or available on a continuous roll, and may be punched and organized as ring-bound (in a ring binder) or disc-bound. Lo ...
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
In mathematics, a multiplication table (sometimes, less formally, a times table) is a mathematical table used to define a multiplication binary operation, operation for an algebraic system.
The decimal multiplication table was traditionally tau ...
.
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 Agriculture, cultivated in China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties called necta ...
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.
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 tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...
cases. The indie duo
She & Him
She & Him is an American musical duo consisting of Zooey Deschanel (vocals, piano, ukulele) and M. Ward (guitar, production). It was formed in 2006 in Portland, Oregon.Scaggs, Austin"Smoking Section: Modest Mouse, Zooey Deschanel, Kings of Leo ...
(which consists of
Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel ( ; born January 17, 1980) is an American actress and musician. She made her film debut in ''Mumford (film), Mumford'' (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film ''Almost Famous'' (2000). Deschanel is known f ...
and
M. Ward
Matthew Stephen "M." Ward (born October 4, 1973) is an American singer-songwriter, Grammy nominated producer and guitarist from Glendale, California. Ward's solo work is a mixture of folk and blues-inspired Americana analog recordings. He has r ...
) 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
Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or Public order policing, a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, b ...
and familiar events such as the
2015 Texas pool party incident, the
death of Sandra Bland, the
death of Eric Garner
On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner, an African American man, was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island by Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, after the latter put him in a prohibited chokehold while arr ...
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 television series created by the Duffer brothers, Duffer Brothers for Netflix. Produced by Monkey Massacre Productions and 21 Laps Entertainment, the Stranger Things season 1, first season was released on N ...
'', 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'') is an American single-camera sitcom created by Kenya Barris, Peter Saji and Tracee Ellis Ross that aired on ABC from September 24, 2019, to May 18, 2021. The series is a prequel to '' Black-ish'', and the s ...
''.
See also
*
Trapper Keeper
References
{{Reflist
Paper products
Stationery
Products introduced in 1943