Food

Photo of McCall's Cheese

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

Aluminum Pitcher

By the late 1950s, American manufacturers and retailers were promoting new tools, clothes, furniture, and serving ware to go along with grilled meals on the patio.
Description
By the late 1950s, American manufacturers and retailers were promoting new tools, clothes, furniture, and serving ware to go along with grilled meals on the patio. The set of serving ware, including an anodized aluminum tray, 9 tumblers, and pitcher, and 4 wicker holders, was a common fixture of the 1960s backyard or patio culture established in the U.S. in the 1950s. These “glasses” were among the most common and ubiquitous of the specialized tools for the new life in the outdoors. Many were giveaways given along with or filled with a desirable foodstuff or awarded for coupons in grocery store giveaways.
Anodized aluminum tumblers were commonly used for serving both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks at backyard cookouts. The anodizing process increased the thickness of the oxide layer on metallic parts, making the popular serving ware unbreakable, rust-resistant, and colorful—perfect for outdoor gatherings.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2012.0125.01
accession number
2012.0125
catalog number
2012.0125.01

mold, gelatin

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
20th century
maker
Jell-O Company
ID Number
1987.0160.02A
accession number
1987.0160
catalog number
1987.0160.02A

BBQ Chef's Hat

After World War II, many newly affluent Americans flocked to the tropics, visiting Pacific islands, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia, as well as warm places closer to home, including Mexico, California, Hawaii, and Florida.
Description
After World War II, many newly affluent Americans flocked to the tropics, visiting Pacific islands, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia, as well as warm places closer to home, including Mexico, California, Hawaii, and Florida. People developed a taste for casual living and the distinctive local foods and drink. Returning home, they re-created these experiences in their new suburban backyards, with patios, tropical drinks, and the grill, where they cooked meals craved by a postwar meat-mad America.
By the late 1950s, American manufacturers and retailers were promoting new tools, clothes, furniture, and serving ware to go along with grilled meals on the patio. Just as the lust for the tropical life inspired experimentation in food and drink (in what we ate and who cooked it), clothing took a tropical turn in the 1950’s and 1960’s, especially in menswear. The aloha shirt, with its tropical motifs from Hawaii and the cool cotton guayabera from the Caribbean, topped the more casual shorts (Bermuda) that men had traded in from their long pants. Summer grillers, through the ‘60’s at least, even had barbecue/grilling shirts, hats, and aprons developed for them, outfits that often poked gentle fun at the aspiring backyard chefs. Aprons, in particular, often carried titles that boasted of the culinary accomplishments of these Daddios of the Patio, these Grill Masters. Others joked about the wearer’s presumed interests in both alcohol and women.
Others, like the hat pictured here, around 1965, which went with a shirt of the same design, pictured the new tools and possessions, even food and drinks of the new life on the patios, decks, and lanais. This chef’s hat, a modified version of the classic French chef’s toque blanche (white hat) and its matching shirt pictured watermelon, pickles, skewers of meat (shish kebabs/Shish-ka-bobs), grill racks with steaks and hot dogs, spatulas, flippers, and even corn on the cob on its decorative design.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2011.0210.01
catalog number
2011.0210.01
accession number
2011.0210

Microwave Egg Cooker

This red, egg-shaped cooker is made of microwave-safe plastic for use in microwave ovens. It takes no time at all to cook an egg in this device: a mere 30 seconds will cook a soft-boiled egg and 50 seconds will deliver the egg in hard-boiled form.
Description
This red, egg-shaped cooker is made of microwave-safe plastic for use in microwave ovens. It takes no time at all to cook an egg in this device: a mere 30 seconds will cook a soft-boiled egg and 50 seconds will deliver the egg in hard-boiled form. This egg cooker was among the gadgets in Julia Child’s home kitchen, collected by the National Museum of American History in 2001.
Julia Child, the beloved American cooking teacher, cookbook author, and television personality, was a self-described “gadget freak.” She collected kitchen tools throughout her long career and received many gadgets as gifts from friends and colleagues. The origin and actual use of this egg cooker is unknown, but, since Julia’s kitchen did not include a microwave oven in 2001, it is safe to assume she kept the microwave egg cooker for some reason other than to use it for cooking one egg at a time.
date made
ca 1990
maker
Precis Plastic
ID Number
2001.0253.0364
catalog number
2001.0253.0364
accession number
2001.0253

Luncheon Knife

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1881 - 1898
patent date
1881-05-03
maker
Simpson, Hall, Miller, and Co.
ID Number
DL.68.0464B
catalog number
68.0464B
accession number
274913

Sushi Knife

This butcher knife belonged to Shigefumi Tachibe, a Japanese chef who helped set up a high end fusion restaurant, Chaya Brasserie, when he came to the US in 1983. The 20” long butcher knife comes with a steel blade and a wooden handle.
Description
This butcher knife belonged to Shigefumi Tachibe, a Japanese chef who helped set up a high end fusion restaurant, Chaya Brasserie, when he came to the US in 1983. The 20” long butcher knife comes with a steel blade and a wooden handle. Chef Shigefumi Tachibe purchased this knife in 1980 while visiting France, and used it over the years to cut and fillet whole tuna fish. Chaya’s menu, which chef Tachibe developed, reflects the Asian fusion food movement, a product of the large immigrant presence in California, as well as the clientele’s growing partiality toward healthy food options. Fusion sushi, which comprises of both traditional (raw fish) and nontraditional sushi ingredients (avocado, mayonnaise based sauce), is an example of an Asian fusion food that has been popularized over the past few decades, due to chefs like Shigefumi Tachibe who made it an integral part of their menu.
date made
unknown
maker
unknown
ID Number
2012.0137.01
catalog number
2012.0137.01
accession number
2012.0137

Tupperware® Quartet™ Seal

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1993
date purchased
1993-04-13
party sponsor
National Museum of American History
maker
Tupperware
ID Number
1993.0257.04B
catalog number
1993.0257.04B
accession number
1993.0257

Tortilladora, tortilla press

Concepción “Concha” Sanchez used this hand-cranked tortilladora to press masa into tortillas. Machines like this were invented in Mexico by 1911. This “La Rotative” press dates from about 1923 but was bought used by the Sanchez family in the 1940s.
Description
Concepción “Concha” Sanchez used this hand-cranked tortilladora to press masa into tortillas. Machines like this were invented in Mexico by 1911. This “La Rotative” press dates from about 1923 but was bought used by the Sanchez family in the 1940s. Her grandson, Adrian Sanchez, fondly recalls the machine and working with her to make tortillas and tamales:
I recall helping my Grandmother Concepcion Sanchez make corn tortillas for her to sell….[in] 1948 in Fillmore, California. …My uncle Arnulfo [bought] his mother a molino, a machine that grinds corn for masa to make tortillas…a comal, a griddle to cook the…tortillas, and a machine [tortilladora] that actually made the tortillas…the dry corn was cooked [and limed]…The cooked corn was then ready to be ground in the molino…The ground masa was then gathered into large balls to be placed on the machine…when the handle was turned, a tortilla would fall on an attached conveyor belt which…would drop the uncooked tortilla onto the comal…After the tortillas cooked, they were stacked and counted into dozens… The…neighborhood came to buy their warm tortillas…A…batch was sent…to…Tio Nuco’s market …During…Christmas…Grandma [made] masa for tamales…[she]…was into her 80’s when she quit. (Smithsonian interview, 2006)
Concha Sanchez and her family followed the path of many Mexican immigrants who turned their traditional foodways into a staple of community life. Concha and Abundio Sanchez migrated from Mexico in 1912 at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution. Through the 1920s, they worked in Kansas, in Texas, and in the produce fields of California, eventually opening a grocery store. When that failed in the Great Depression, Concha supported her family by creating a tortilleria, making and selling tortillas in her Ventura County neighborhood. Instead of making them by hand, as Mexican women had done for centuries, she used the new electric and gas-fired equipment bought by her son to produce tortillas and tamales for sale.
date made
ca. 1920
ID Number
2006.0236.03
catalog number
2006.0236.03
accession number
2006.0236

Fritos Pin

This small metal pin with a red enamel front was made by Doc Morgan, Inc., an emblem jewelry business based in Illinois. The company was established in 1929 by G.H. “Doc” Morgan, a relative of J.P.
Description
This small metal pin with a red enamel front was made by Doc Morgan, Inc., an emblem jewelry business based in Illinois. The company was established in 1929 by G.H. “Doc” Morgan, a relative of J.P. Morgan, who over the following 71 years acquired other manufacturing operations to expand production across the United States and abroad.
The pin is shaped like the original Fritos logo and features a small diamond inlaid at the bottom. The back of the pin is stamped with the label “CTO 10K,” which indicates the type of gold used on the pin (10 karat) and the trademark for the company that manufactured the base of the pin (O.C. Tanner Jewelry Company, based in Salt Lake City, Utah.) The pin is held on a small, velvet-topped pad of foam in a plastic box that bears the Doc Morgan, Inc. logo. This lapel pin, along with a matching watch, was regularly worn by C.E. Doolin, along with his suit and fedora, when he went to work at the Frito Company in Dallas, Texas. This pin is part of a collection of objects and archival materials on the Doolin family and the Frito Company donated by Kaleta Doolin, the daughter of C.E. Doolin. See Frito Company Records, 1924-1961, #1263, NMAH Archives Center.
C.E. Doolin launched “Fritos” in 1932, inspired by a recipe he had purchased from Gustavo Olguin, a Mexican-American restaurant owner in San Antonio, where Doolin had worked as a fry cook. Olguin’s “fritos” (the name came from the Spanish word frit, meaning fried) were small fried corn chips made from masa dough. Doolin bought the recipe, Olguin’s hand-operated potato ricer, and nineteen customer accounts for the snack, all for $100. He then patented his own device for extruding the masa dough through a cutter, which produced ribbon-like strips that were then fried in hot oil. Doolin marketed the chips as an ingredient in recipes, many of which were inspired by his mother Daisy Dean Stephenson Doolin’s dishes for entertaining. The chips were used in both sweet and savory preparations, including as crust for fruitcakes, breading for salmon croquettes, and garnish for tuna salad.
In 1945 Doolin connected with Herman Lay, famous for automating the manufacturing process of potato chips and the head of H.W. Lay & Co. Lay took on the nationwide distribution of Fritos at this time. Doolin passed away in 1959, and in 1961 The Frito Company officially merged with H.W. Lay & Co. to become Frito-Lay. Frito-Lay went on to develop more products (including the wildly popular snack foods Cheetos and Doritos) and become the largest snack conglomerate in the world. Initially promoted as an ingredient in foods for entertaining, Fritos were advertised mostly to children, both in print and television campaigns and via cartoon characters such as the cowboy-inspired “Frito Kid.”
Fritos were most successful as a standalone snack. Following the success of the commercial potato chip in the 1930s, there was a growing market for other salty snacks and pre-packaged foods to be eaten on the go and in-between meals. The creation of “snack time” as a new type of American meal helped bolster the popularity of Doolin’s invention. The packaging of these snacks would also prove revolutionary—before 1900, snack foods and sweets were sold in small paper bags and portioned out by the grocer or shop owner. As manufacturers experimented with cans and glassine bags and materials such as wax paper and cellophane, they found new ways to keep food fresh and vacuum-packed until the customer opened it. Over the second half of the twentieth century, snack foods would develop into a $22 billion dollar industry.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2012.0079.01
catalog number
2012.0079.01
accession number
2012.0079

Gay Rights March

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1993-04-26
photographer
Regan, Ken
ID Number
2014.0112.349
catalog number
2014.0112.349
accession number
2014.0112

The Mandarin letterhead

Off-white letterhead with black lettering. On the top, a line of flowers goes across the letterhead and in the middle of that line of flowers leads to a table of food with a circle.
Description
Off-white letterhead with black lettering. On the top, a line of flowers goes across the letterhead and in the middle of that line of flowers leads to a table of food with a circle. In that circle, another table appears with a vase with Chinese letters and to the right of it features “The Mandarin” in red lettering. Underneath the top line of flowers appears the address: “Ghirardelli Square, 900 North Point, San Francisco, California 94109, Telephone 673-8812.” At the bottom of the letterhead, another line of flowers goes across.
A letterhead is the heading at the top of a piece of stationary, usually signaling the name and contact information of the company. An envelope is the packaging stationery that encloses the letterhead. The letterhead was first known as “letter paper” in the late 19th century. In the beginning of the 20th century, letterheads were customized to fit typewriters. By the 1940s, many companies began to place their logos on letterhead.
The Smithsonian holds several letterheads and envelopes from different locations of Mrs. Cecilia Chiang’s restaurant, The Mandarin. The letters and envelope signal a formal business culture and the reliance of correspondence through the post office. These letterhead and envelopes certainly take us back to a time before computers and the internet.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2013.0127.05c
accession number
2013.0127
catalog number
2013.0127.05c

Model D-12 Electric Toaster

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1912- 1913
maker
General Electric Company
ID Number
1992.0338.31
accession number
1992.0338
catalog number
1992.0338.31

potsherds

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
DL.252318.0097
catalog number
252318.0097
accession number
252318

Lisa Law and baby Baba

With her camera, Lisa Law documented history in the heart of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s as she lived it, as a participant, an agent of change and a member of the broader culture.
Description
With her camera, Lisa Law documented history in the heart of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s as she lived it, as a participant, an agent of change and a member of the broader culture. She recorded this unconventional time of Anti-War demonstrations in California, communes, Love-Ins, peace marches and concerts, as well as her family life as she became a wife and mother. The photographs were collected by William Yeingst and Shannon Perich in a cross-unit collecting collaboration. Together they selected over two hundred photographs relevant to photographic history, cultural history, domestic life and social history.
Law’s portraiture and concert photographs include Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Lovin Spoonful and Peter, Paul and Mary. She also took several of Janis Joplin and her band Big Brother and the Holding Company, including the photograph used to create the poster included in the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum’s exhibition 1001 Days and Nights in American Art. Law and other members of the Hog Farm were involved in the logistics of setting up the well-known musical extravaganza, Woodstock. Her photographs include the teepee poles going into the hold of the plane, a few concert scenes and amenities like the kitchen and medical tent. Other photographs include peace rallies and concerts in Haight-Ashbury, Coretta Scott King speaking at an Anti-War protest and portraits of Allen Ginsburg and Timothy Leary. From her life in New Mexico the photographs include yoga sessions with Yogi Bhajan, bus races, parades and other public events. From life on the New Buffalo Commune, there are many pictures of her family and friends taken during meal preparation and eating, farming, building, playing, giving birth and caring for children.
Ms. Law did not realize how important her photographs were while she was taking them. It was not until after she divorced her husband, left the farm for Santa Fe and began a career as a photographer that she realized the depth of history she recorded. Today, she spends her time writing books, showing her photographs in museums all over the United States and making documentaries. In 1990, her video documentary, “Flashing on the Sixties,” won several awards.
A selection of photographs was featured in the exhibition A Visual Journey: Photographs by Lisa Law, 1964–1971, at the National Museum of American History October 1998-April 1999.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
date printed
1998
maker
Mauney, Michael
ID Number
1998.0139.175
accession number
1998.0139
catalog number
1998.0139.175

Nixon Eats Lettuce

referenced
Nixon, Richard M.
Associated Name
United Farm Workers
ID Number
1986.0666.127
accession number
1986.0666
catalog number
1986.0666.127

fragment, plate

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
19th century
ID Number
1990.0605.75
catalog number
1990.0605.75
accession number
1990.0605

mold, gelatin

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
mid 20th century
ID Number
1987.0160.03A
accession number
1987.0160
catalog number
1987.0160.03A

Marcato Pastamaker

Inspired by regional traditions of France and Italy, cooks, farmers, storekeepers, and adventurous eaters in the 1980s led the charge to revitalize and reinvent an artisanal world of food largely ignored in America.
Description
Inspired by regional traditions of France and Italy, cooks, farmers, storekeepers, and adventurous eaters in the 1980s led the charge to revitalize and reinvent an artisanal world of food largely ignored in America. They turned to the fresh, local, and regional in the United States, and, with the European influences, developed a new American cuisine.
In the 1980s, the old American standby “spaghetti,” was transformed into “pasta,” and both pasta making machines and highly refined (0 0) Italian flour for making fresh pasta came on the market. This pasta machine, a highly popular version made in Italy by Marcato and successfully marketed in the new American kitchenware stores such as Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table.
With its different attachments, the machine presses out the dough fed into it into various shapes, capelli d’angelo (angel’s hair), trenette, spaghetti, and curly lasagna, in addition to simple sheets of pasta from which one can make ravioli or lasagna.
The machine was purchased by the son of a retired Foreign Service officer as a gift for his mother to remind her of the family’s time living in Italy. However, this particular machine remained little used by his mother and she agreed to put it, through her daughter, a curator at the museum, into the Smithsonian food collections.
ID Number
2011.0238.02.a
accession number
2011.0238
catalog number
2011.0238.02.a

Mandarin Restaurant Matchbook

Original silky-textured, metallic-red matchbook from The Mandarin, in San Francisco, California, a restaurant owned by Cecilia Chiang.
Description
Original silky-textured, metallic-red matchbook from The Mandarin, in San Francisco, California, a restaurant owned by Cecilia Chiang. Features the restaurant’s original logo, in black, of a Chinese woman in Qing dynasty regalia, framed within a circular design.
In black lettering, the back of the matchbook says “SAN FRANCISCO AND BEVERLY HILLS.” In the bottom left-hand corner is a drawing of a telephone with, “673-8812—SAN FRANCISCO,” “272-0267—BEVERLY HILLS,” to the right of the drawing.
A matchbook is a small paper board folder to encompass a quantity of matches. The manufacturing of matchbooks peaked in the 1940s and 1950s, but declined with the arrival of the lighter. Matchbooks serve as a popular form of advertisement for an establishment. They have become a popular customer freebie at a dine-in restaurant. Cecilia Chiang offered matchbooks at her restaurant The Mandarin, with a customized logo and name. Although the ban on smoking in restaurants was placed into effect in 1998, making the ashtray more insignificant in the restaurant setting, matchbooks have not declined in restaurant culture but have gained popularity.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2011.0115.04
catalog number
2011.0115.04
accession number
2011.0115

Tupperware® Wonderlier® Bowl

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1993
date purchased
1993-04-13
party sponsor
National Museum of American History
maker
Tupperware
ID Number
1993.0257.13
catalog number
1993.0257.13
accession number
1993.0257

Fry Pan

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1970
maker
Wear-Ever Aluminum
ID Number
1981.0948.07
accession number
1981.0948
catalog number
1981.0948.07

Hot Dog Fans

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2005
date printed
2010
maker
Raab, Susana
ID Number
2018.0016.0007
accession number
2018.0016
catalog number
2018.0016.0007

Brose Spoon

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1840
ID Number
DL.076627
catalog number
076627
accession number
16559

HOSTESS Sandwich Toaster

Electric sandwich toaster or grill. Ceramic (heavy porcelain) body, rectangular-block form, faceted top, yellow and black. Two flat cast aluminum grill-tops connected at back with iron coil and side brackets, clamshell style. Bottom pan has small spout on left.
Description
Electric sandwich toaster or grill. Ceramic (heavy porcelain) body, rectangular-block form, faceted top, yellow and black. Two flat cast aluminum grill-tops connected at back with iron coil and side brackets, clamshell style. Bottom pan has small spout on left. Long wooden cylindrical handle at front, vertical, black, with hammer-like flat metal lever which allows the pans to be locked in three positions with the rear brackets. Flared legs with arched base. Metal underside. Two prongs to attach power cord at side, inside body, cord missing. Overall abrasions and residue, rust spots, discoloration. Underside is dented, sides have small cracks in porcelain. Yellow enamel on underside. Paint worn on wooden handle. Front has glazed cartouche, white with gold writing, old English, cursive, sans serif: “HOSTESS/Sandwich Toaster/VOLTS 110 WATTS 400/ALL RITE CO. – RUSHVILLE, IND.”
The smaller version of this toaster was one of the first sandwich toasters to appear on the market, circa 1920-1922 (see 1992.0338.33 and .35).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1925-1935
ID Number
1992.0338.33
catalog number
1992.0338.33
accession number
1992.0338

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