I feel like you all have been peeking in my garage !
In my layers of scrap cables, I knew I had something like what the OP showed.  But mine is white, and a little older, as it's NM and not NM-B.  But still (relatively) huge, compared to modern stuff.  Lots of paper wrapped in it.
And, yup, the rolls came in those cardboard boxes, this is a 250' roll of General Cable 12-3 NM...
 
And just for fun, I included the phone (Western Electric 302) it was probably ordered with 
 
I'm guessing this cable dates to the 1970s, as it has a "modern" PVC jacket.  I looked up NM-B and it seems to have been introduced in '84.
I have been meaning to scrap this for years, just never got around to it.