Food - Overview
Part of a nation's history lies in what people eat. Artifacts at the Museum document the history of food in the United States from farm machinery to diet fads.
More than 1,300 pieces of stoneware and earthenware show how Americans have stored, prepared, and served food for centuries. Ovens, cookie cutters, kettles, aprons, and ice-cream-making machines are part of the collections, along with home canning jars and winemaking equipment. More than 1,000 objects recently came to the Museum when author and cooking show host Julia Child donated her entire kitchen, from appliances to cookbooks.
Advertising and business records of several food companies—such as Hills Brothers Coffee, Pepsi Cola, and Campbell's Soup—represent the commercial side of the subject
"Food - Overview" showing 2024 items.
Page 62 of 203
Stoneware jar
- Description
- Floral, bird, and animal motifs were commonly used to decorate 19th century stoneware in the United States. This jar, made by John Remmey III, features an incised and cobalt decorated fish.
- Remmey pottery is often marked “Manhattan-Wells” referring to the firm’s location near the municipal water supply.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1791-ca 1831
- maker
- Remmey III, John
- ID Number
- CE*300894.007
- accession number
- 300894
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stoneware inkwell
- Description
- Stoneware maker Nathan Clark partnered with Ethan S. Fox, a relative by marriage, in 1829. In response to increasing competition they began selling more elaborately decorated “Fancy Ware made to order.” The names on this inkwell, LYON & ASHLEY, may refer to the people or firm that placed the order.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1829-1838
- maker
- Clark, Nathan
- Fox, Ethan
- ID Number
- CE*300894.029
- accession number
- 300894
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stoneware jug
- Description
- Israel Seymour operated a pottery in Troy, New York from about 1809 to 1865. This beautifully formed jug is a fine example of much of the stoneware made by New York potters--simple utilitarian pieces, without adornment, that met the needs of the people who used them.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1824-1850
- maker
- Seymour, Israel
- ID Number
- CE*319884.79
- catalog number
- 319884.79
- accession number
- 319884
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Hong Bowl
- Description
- This large Chinese Export bowl features a panoramic view of the “hongs”—the office, warehouse, and living spaces for foreign merchants in Canton, China in the late 18th-century. Here European and American merchants traded with their Chinese counterparts for highly desirable teas, silks, and porcelains. The presence of the Stars and Stripes outside the American factory suggests that the bowl was made in or after 1785, following America’s entry into direct trade with China in 1784 (note that the Chinese artist painted the stars in blue on the white porcelain background, probably for technical reasons rather than in error). The flags of France, Britain, Spain, Denmark, and Sweden also can be seen outside their respective factories. Punch bowls depicting the hongs were exotic souvenir items, brought back to America by the East Coast entrepreneurs who sailed to China as independent merchants, thereby breaking dependence on the British East India Company to provide the former colonies with tea and other luxury goods.
- The Chinese produced bowls like this in the town of Jingdezhen in southern China specifically for the western market. Undecorated, they were carried 500 miles overland to Canton, where enamel decoration was applied in workshops close to the hongs. On completion a large bowl like this was packed in a crate with several others and dispatched through the hongs. All goods for export were ferried in the small boats seen painted on this bowl, to the deep-water port of Whampoa further down the Pearl River.
- A large bowl of this kind would have ben used to serve punch. The custom of drinking punch, a word thought to derive from the Hindu word pànch--meaning five for the number of ingredients used to make the brew—reached the West through the East India trade. Punch bowls became indispensable at convivial male gatherings in the clubs, societies, and private homes of the port cities on the American East Coast in the late eighteenth century.
- The Smithsonian Institution acquired this bowl in 1961 from dealer Herbert Schiffer. Before coming to the Smithsonian, the bowl had been broken and repaired and then heavily damaged in a 1958 fire. After the fire Helen Kean, a specialist in the restoration of ceramics, reconstructed the bowl from shattered fragments. Once it came to the Smithsonian, conservators performed a radical restoration, referring to very similar hong bowls held in collections at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware, and the Reeves Collection at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
- Date made
- 18th century
- date made
- 1785 - 1795
- ID Number
- CE*61.8
- catalog number
- 61.8
- accession number
- 234613
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Champagne Glass, SS United States
- Description
- This champagne glass was among the 57,000 pieces of glassware furnished to the SS United States before its maiden voyage in 1952. Launched in 1952, the “Big U,” as the ship was affectionately called, was 990 feet long, about the length of five city blocks. On its maiden voyage, the ship broke the speed records for crossings in both directions and captured the Blue Riband trophy, an award for the ship making the fastest round trip passage on the North Atlantic. The time set by the United States on the westbound leg from New York to England was 3 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes, with an average speed of 34.51 knots, a record that remains unbroken.
- The SS United States was built in Newport News, Virginia, and was the largest and fastest transatlantic passenger liner ever built in the country. The ship had 695 staterooms located on eight of the liner’s 12 decks. It could accommodate 1,972 passengers in first, cabin, or tourist class. Some 1,011 crew were required to run the ship and serve the passengers.
- date made
- 1952
- ID Number
- TR*335564.02A
- catalog number
- 335564.2
- accession number
- 1978.2219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Champagne Glass, SS United States
- Description
- This champagne glass was among the 57,000 pieces of glassware furnished to the SS United States before its maiden voyage in 1952. Launched in 1952, the “Big U,” as the ship was affectionately called, was 990 feet long, about the length of five city blocks. On its maiden voyage, the ship broke the speed records for crossings in both directions and captured the Blue Riband trophy, an award for the ship making the fastest round trip passage on the North Atlantic. The time set by the United States on the westbound leg from New York to England was 3 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes, with an average speed of 34.51 knots, a record that remains unbroken.
- The SS United States was built in Newport News Virginia, and was the largest and fastest transatlantic passenger liner ever built in the country. The ship had 695 staterooms located on eight of the liner’s 12 decks. It could accommodate 1,972 passengers in first, cabin, or tourist class. Some 1,011 crew were required to run the ship and serve the passengers.
- date made
- 1952
- ID Number
- TR*335564.02B
- accession number
- 1978.2219
- catalog number
- 335564.2b
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Dessert Plate, SS United States
- Description
- This dessert plate was used aboard the SS United States, the largest and fastest passenger liner ever built in the United States. Launched in 1952, it was billed as the most modern and luxurious ship in service on the North Atlantic. This plate was one of the 125,000 pieces of chinaware supplied to the ship by the United States Lines. The china—a pattern featuring a ring of gray stars—was produced by Lamberton Sterling, an American manufacturer.
- A survey of SS United States menus from the 1950s reveals a delectable array of choices for dessert. For luncheon on July 5, 1953, passengers might have enjoyed Lemon Chiffon or Rhubarb Pie, Chocolate Cream Puffs, Biscuit Glace, Coconut Custard Pudding, Assorted Pastries, Cream Cornets, Mixed Cookies, Strawberry Sherbet, French Crullers, and Coffee or Vanilla Ice Cream. That evening for dinner the choices were even more tantalizing: Special Parfait au Nougat, Marrons Glace, Frozen Ice Cream with Fudge Sauce, Diplomat Pudding with Melba Sauce, Champagne Sherbet, Coupe Glace St. Jacques, Biscuit Tortoni, Savarin au Rhum, Nougat Parfait, Petit Fours, Vanilla or Pistachio Ice Cream with Nabisco Wafers, Fruit Bowls, and Grapes on Ice.
- date made
- 1950s
- maker
- Lamberton Sterling
- ID Number
- TR*335565.06A
- accession number
- 1978.2219
- catalog number
- 335565.06A
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Dessert Plate, SS United States
- Description
- This dessert plate was used aboard the SS United States, the largest and fastest passenger liner ever built in the United States. Launched in 1952, it was billed as the most modern and luxurious ship in service on the North Atlantic. This plate was one of the 125,000 pieces of chinaware supplied to the ship by the United States Lines. The china—a pattern featuring a ring of gray stars—was produced by Lamberton Sterling, an American manufacturer.
- There were plenty of choices for dessert aboard the SS United States. Menus from a December 1954 voyage—the first taken by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor on an American vessel—reveal a combination of American favorites and fancy confections inspired by the French. For dinner on December 10, passengers enjoyed Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake, and Peach Melba, as well as Meringue Glace au Chocolat, Frangipan, and Petits Fours. For luncheon the next day, the choices ranged from Green Apple or Blueberry Pie to Biscuit Glace and Chocolate Éclairs.
- date made
- 1950s
- maker
- Lamberton Sterling
- ID Number
- TR*335565.06B
- accession number
- 1978.2219
- catalog number
- 335565.6b
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Salad Fork, SS United States
- Description
- Used by passengers traveling aboard the ocean liner SS United States, this silverplate salad fork was manufactured for the United States Lines by the International Silver Co., a Connecticut company formed in 1898. The Manhattan pattern features a detailed fan design on the handle, a popular pattern in the early 1950s, which is also when the United States began its transatlantic service. The phrase “U.S. Lines 52” is engraved on the back of the handle.
- A survey of SS United States menus from the 1950s reveals a limited range of salads, many of them familiar standards such as heart of lettuce, sliced tomato, cole slaw, beet salad, and chef’s salad. A few offerings—chicory, watercress, or Belgian endive—may have seemed exotic to American travelers of the 1950s. The dressings available for most salads included the familiar French, Thousand Island, Lemon, and Garlic, with an occasional “California,” Roquefort, or simply “Special,” on the side.
- The SS United States was the largest and fastest passenger liner ever built in the United States. Launched in 1952, it was billed as the most modern and luxurious ship in service on the North Atlantic. The ship had 695 staterooms located on eight of the liner’s 12 decks. It could accommodate 1,972 passengers in first, cabin, or tourist class. Three separate dining rooms served passengers traveling in each class. Some 1,011 crew were required to run the ship and serve the passengers.
- Date made
- 1950s
- maker
- International Silver Company
- ID Number
- TR*336767.119
- catalog number
- 336767.119
- accession number
- 1978.2219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Salad Fork, SS United States
- Description
- Used by passengers traveling aboard the ocean liner SS United States, this silverplate salad fork was manufactured for the United States Lines by the International Silver Co., a Connecticut company formed in 1898. The Manhattan pattern features a detailed fan design on the handle, a popular pattern in the early 1950s, which is also when the United States began its transatlantic service. The phrase “U.S. Lines 52” is engraved on the back of the handle.
- A survey of SS United States menus from the 1950s reveals a limited range of salads, many of them familiar standards such as heart of lettuce, sliced tomato, cole slaw, beet salad, and chef’s salad. A few offerings—chicory, watercress, or Belgian endive—may have seemed exotic to American travelers of the 1950s. The dressings available for most salads included the familiar French, Thousand Island, Lemon, and Garlic, with an occasional “California,” Roquefort, or simply “Special,” on the side.
- The SS United States was the largest and fastest passenger liner ever built in the United States. Launched in 1952, it was billed as the most modern and luxurious ship in service on the North Atlantic. The ship had 695 staterooms located on eight of the liner’s 12 decks. It could accommodate 1,972 passengers in first, cabin, or tourist class. Three separate dining rooms served passengers traveling in each class. Some 1,011 crew were required to run the ship and serve the passengers.
- date made
- 1950s
- maker
- International Silver Company
- ID Number
- TR*336767.120
- catalog number
- 336767.120
- accession number
- 1978.2219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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