I created new scene and added box to default mesh object. Then I created new mesh object and added another box. Now I assigned materials with textures (two different) to first and second box. The first created box shows texture assigned to material. Second box doesn't. Regardless of which material I try to assign. However…
You might need to make sure your background objects are set to display the same as active objects. Hit "o" and it should bring up the menu you are looking for.