This cookie jar shaped like John Glenn's Friendship 7 Mercury capsule was produced by McCoy Pottery between 1962 and 1968. McCoy cookie jars in various novelty shapes were available for sale in "five and dime" stores and department stores such as JCPenney's. The popularity of this Mercury capsule cookie jar was a part of the space craze of the early 1960s, an outpouring of public enthusiasm generated by NASA's first human spaceflight successes.

David McMahon, whose family owned this particular cookie jar, recalled being caught up in that enthusiam, "Our family had "space fever." … Our family was thrilled with John Glenn's first U.S. orbital mission, and a few days later in the local Woolworth Department store a display appeared of these cookie jars, celebrating the event. My mother, who was a consummate Toll-House cookie baker, bought the jar for my father to celebrate (full of her chocolate-chip cookies) and we all stuffed ourselves, taking turns removing the top of the Mercury capsule and pulling out cookies." The cookie jar remained in use by his family "well into the Shuttle era."

David and Martha McMahon donated the cookie jar to the Museum in 2009.