Food

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

Migrant farm workers had to use the short-handled hoe or el cortito for thinning and weeding. Because it required them to stoop during long hours in the fields, the hoe became a symbol of the exploitive working conditions.
Description
Migrant farm workers had to use the short-handled hoe or el cortito for thinning and weeding. Because it required them to stoop during long hours in the fields, the hoe became a symbol of the exploitive working conditions. Campaigns by the United Farm Workers and others helped outlaw use of the hoe in 1975.
American agriculture’s dependence on Mexican labor has always been a source of great conflict and great opportunity for field workers and the agriculture industry. In the U.S., agricultural labor was overwhelmingly Mexican and Mexican American. Issues of legal status, workers rights, and use of domestic workers are issues the unions, agricultural producers, and the federal government have been struggling with since the 1920’s.
ID Number
2009.0134.01
catalog number
2009.0134.01
accession number
2009.0134
This cart was used by shoppers at the Costco Wholesale warehouse store in Arlington, Virginia.
Description
This cart was used by shoppers at the Costco Wholesale warehouse store in Arlington, Virginia. Although its shape is typical of carts used since the end of the 1940s, it is designed with a deep and wide basket with a sturdy lower rack for carrying oversized-sized and bulk packaged goods.
The convenience and carrying capacity of shopping carts play an important role in the sales of a self-service supermarket. Inventor of the earliest model of the shopping cart, Sylvan Goldman of Oklahoma City, described his idea in 1939 as a "combination of basket and carriage." The frame he devised held two baskets and was like a folding chair with wheels. In 1946, Orla E. Watson of Kansas City, developed these telescoping shopping carts that were "always ready" and required no assembly or disassembly of components before or after use.
Since their inception in the 1950s, warehouse stores represented a new, highly efficient model for distributing food and other goods to consumers at reduced prices. For shoppers, warehouse stores offered a radical alternative to the meticulously arranged supermarkets that had become so popular with the rise of suburbs in the postwar period.
date made
ca 2011
ID Number
2011.0233.01
accession number
2011.0233
catalog number
2011.0233.01
When Joel Peterson of Ravenswood Winery, in Sonoma, California, made his first Zinfandel wine in 1976, he used dry-farmed (non-irrigated) grapes from old vines and fermented them in open-top casks.
Description
When Joel Peterson of Ravenswood Winery, in Sonoma, California, made his first Zinfandel wine in 1976, he used dry-farmed (non-irrigated) grapes from old vines and fermented them in open-top casks. He also used this 5-foot-long aluminum tool made by a local metalworker to “punch down the cap.”
During fermentation, a solid mass of grape skins, stems, and seeds (the “must”) rises to the top of the fermentation vessel, typically a wooden cask or metal tank. The cap must be broken up and stay moist to benefit the wine’s color and flavor, which results from the mixing of yeasts into the must and the dissipation of bacteria-friendly heat that occurs during the course of normal fermentations. The winemaker has to punch down the cap several times a day while fermentation is underway.
To carry out a punch-down, the winemaker stands above the tank and, with a great deal of strength, shoves the punch into the cap, breaking it apart and keeping the must moving. Many modern winemakers prefer using electric pumps to do “pump-overs” in closed tanks or rotary tanks to swirl the wine, both the mechanical equivalent of the old-style punch-down by hand. The open tank punch-down remains the artisanal practice to date, and it is still used by winemakers from Oregon to France.
ID Number
2011.0150.01
accession number
2011.0150
catalog number
2011.0150.01
This is a WinCup DT10 peel and lock type coffee cup lid. Peel and lock type lids give the drinker a place to snap the peeled back lid part into itself, preventing the need to tear off or throw away a little triangle of plastic.
Description
This is a WinCup DT10 peel and lock type coffee cup lid. Peel and lock type lids give the drinker a place to snap the peeled back lid part into itself, preventing the need to tear off or throw away a little triangle of plastic. This cup is covered by patent number 4,629,088 that was assigned to the Handi-Kup Company on December 16, 1986.
Architects and collectors Louise Harpman and Scott Specht donated 56 plastic cup lids to the National Museum of American History in 2012. Their donation is a sample from their much larger collection of “independently patented drink-through plastic cup lids,” which they began in 1984 and discussed in a 2005 essay, “Inventory / Peel, Pucker, Pinch, Puncture,” in Cabinet Magazine: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/harpman.php. The collectors’ categorization scheme reflects the primary way the lid design functions, which helps differentiate between the varieties and styles of lids.
Plastic, disposable coffee cup lids and other single-use food packages reinforce the social acceptability of eating and drinking on the go in the United States and reflect increasing expectation for convenience products. Cup lids are also examples of how humble, and even disposable, objects are sometimes the result of meticulous engineering. Patents for lid innovations describe peel-back tabs and the pucker-type shapes that make room for mouths and noses, and describe the nuances of “heat retention,” “mouth comfort,” “splash reduction,” “friction fit,” and “one-handed activation.”
ID Number
2012.3047.17
catalog number
2012.3047.17
nonaccession number
2012.3047
Julia Child whisked eggs for an omelet in this French copper bowl on the first test episode of The French Chef in 1963. Julia acquired it, as she did much of her copperware, from Dehillerin, a French kitchenware store in the old market at Les Halles.
Description
Julia Child whisked eggs for an omelet in this French copper bowl on the first test episode of The French Chef in 1963. Julia acquired it, as she did much of her copperware, from Dehillerin, a French kitchenware store in the old market at Les Halles. Julia, as The French Chef, created a run on copper bowls, omelet pans, and whisks that had not been commonly available in stores in the United States. That demand has never ceased, and has been extended to the many tools, utensils, and appliances that Julia introduced and championed, as well as to many others that have filled out the American batterie de cuisine.
Copper bowls, unlike their stove-bound relatives, are unlined, and it is the somewhat scientifically demonstrated belief of chefs who use them that the interaction of air with agitation on copper produces fluffier and airier eggs than any other cooking material. With their legendary ability to conduct heat evenly, the copper pots, most tin-lined (and re-lined over and again), reflect cooking methods typical for the French food Julia taught America to appreciate. Modern copper pots are typically lined with stainless steel, and many may have a copper-over-aluminum bottom to further create an even heat.
date made
ca 1940 - 1990
owner
Child, Julia
maker
E. Dehillerin
ID Number
2009.0091.21
accession number
2009.0091
catalog number
2009.0091.21
This is a peel and lock type coffee cup lid bearing item number TK10TL.
Description
This is a peel and lock type coffee cup lid bearing item number TK10TL. Peel and lock type lids give the drinker a place to snap the peeled back lid part into itself, preventing the need to tear off or throw away a little triangle of plastic.
Architects and collectors Louise Harpman and Scott Specht donated 56 plastic cup lids to the National Museum of American History in 2012. Their donation is a sample from their much larger collection of “independently patented drink-through plastic cup lids,” which they began in 1984 and discussed in a 2005 essay, “Inventory / Peel, Pucker, Pinch, Puncture,” in Cabinet Magazine: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/harpman.php. The collectors’ categorization scheme reflects the primary way the lid design functions, which helps differentiate between the varieties and styles of lids.
Plastic, disposable coffee cup lids and other single-use food packages reinforce the social acceptability of eating and drinking on the go in the United States and reflect increasing expectation for convenience products. Cup lids are also examples of how humble, and even disposable, objects are sometimes the result of meticulous engineering. Patents for lid innovations describe peel-back tabs and the pucker-type shapes that make room for mouths and noses, and describe the nuances of “heat retention,” “mouth comfort,” “splash reduction,” “friction fit,” and “one-handed activation.”
ID Number
2012.3047.09
catalog number
2012.3047.09
nonaccession number
2012.3047
Often used during presentations, planning meetings, and other activities involving group brainstorming, flip charts—large pads of paper typically supported on an easel—are like portable blackboards.
Description
Often used during presentations, planning meetings, and other activities involving group brainstorming, flip charts—large pads of paper typically supported on an easel—are like portable blackboards. This flip chart records the substance of a conversation between Jennifer McCloud, the owner of Chrysalis Vineyards in Middleburg, Virginia, and winemaker Alan Kinne, as they were discussing the future of the vineyard in the late 1990s. Committed to working with the particular soil, climate, and topography of her Virginia vineyard (the terroir), McCloud was interested in experimenting with lesser-known grapes at Chrysalis and this flip chart helped track those discussions.
This page reveals part of McCloud and Kinne’s conversation about Viognier, a white varietal from the French region of Condrieu in the northern Rhône Valley. At the time, Viognier had gained attention as a promising varietal for Virginia’s challenging environment, where summer’s heat and humidity can lead to mildew and rot. Dennis Horton, of Horton Vineyards in Orange, Virginia, had been producing Viognier for several years and other winemakers in the state were taking notice. Kinne and McCloud discussed Viognier’s texture, flavor, and bouquet, recording their observations on this page of the flip chart:
Texture: oily, unctuous, viscous, Sake, slight bitterness, nuts (old), mineral (old). Flavor: Peaches, ripe cantaloupe, honeydew, white peaches, mango, coconut;
Bouquet: White blossoms, tropical, under-ripe pear, lychee nuts, orange blossom, tangerine, mandarin [orange], honeysuckle, fennel.
They recorded viticulture issues on another page, including vine age, low vigor, spacing, hardening of shoots, pruning, training, trellising, harvest parameters, and yields. McCloud began producing a small amount of Viognier with grapes sourced from other growers and planted 7.5 acres of her own, which came into production in the early 2000s.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2013.3002.01
catalog number
2013.3002.01
nonaccession number
2013.3002
This is a Fonda brand peel and lock coffee cup lid.
Description
This is a Fonda brand peel and lock coffee cup lid. The lid bears patent number 5,197,624 assigned March 30, 1993 to M&N Plastics, Incorporated to "improve access closure hold-open operation and structure in a cup lid." Peel and lock type lids give the drinker a place to snap the peel back lid part into itself, preventing the need to tear off or throw away a little triangle of plastic.
Architects and collectors Louise Harpman and Scott Specht donated 56 plastic cup lids to the National Museum of American History in 2012. Their donation is a sample from their much larger collection of “independently patented drink-through plastic cup lids,” which they began in 1984 and discussed in a 2005 essay, “Inventory / Peel, Pucker, Pinch, Puncture,” in Cabinet Magazine: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/harpman.php. The collectors’ categorization scheme reflects the primary way the lid design functions, which helps differentiate between the varieties and styles of lids.
Plastic, disposable coffee cup lids and other single-use food packages reinforce the social acceptability of eating and drinking on the go in the United States and reflect increasing expectation for convenience products. Cup lids are also examples of how humble, and even disposable, objects are sometimes the result of meticulous engineering. Patents for lid innovations describe peel-back tabs and the pucker-type shapes that make room for mouths and noses, and describe the nuances of “heat retention,” “mouth comfort,” “splash reduction,” “friction fit,” and “one-handed activation.”
ID Number
2012.3047.06
catalog number
2012.3047.06
nonaccession number
2012.3047
This is a Lily 350HFL peel and lock type coffee cup lid.
Description
This is a Lily 350HFL peel and lock type coffee cup lid. Peel and lock type lids give the drinker a place to snap the peeled back lid part into itself, preventing the need to tear off or throw away a little triangle of plastic.
Architects and collectors Louise Harpman and Scott Specht donated 56 plastic cup lids to the National Museum of American History in 2012. Their donation is a sample from their much larger collection of “independently patented drink-through plastic cup lids,” which they began in 1984 and discussed in a 2005 essay, “Inventory / Peel, Pucker, Pinch, Puncture,” in Cabinet Magazine: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/harpman.php. The collectors’ categorization scheme reflects the primary way the lid design functions, which helps differentiate between the varieties and styles of lids.
Plastic, disposable coffee cup lids and other single-use food packages reinforce the social acceptability of eating and drinking on the go in the United States and reflect increasing expectation for convenience products. Cup lids are also examples of how humble, and even disposable, objects are sometimes the result of meticulous engineering. Patents for lid innovations describe peel-back tabs and the pucker-type shapes that make room for mouths and noses, and describe the nuances of “heat retention,” “mouth comfort,” “splash reduction,” “friction fit,” and “one-handed activation.”
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2012.3047.47
catalog number
2012.3047.47
nonaccession number
2012.3047
These gloves, made of nylon and polyester, were marketed as “Pick-Up Country Gloves” by the manufacturer, Napa Glove Company, Inc., in Napa, California. Grape pickers use gloves like this during harvest to help protect their hands.
Description
These gloves, made of nylon and polyester, were marketed as “Pick-Up Country Gloves” by the manufacturer, Napa Glove Company, Inc., in Napa, California. Grape pickers use gloves like this during harvest to help protect their hands. The “supergrip” feature—a web-like pattern of plastic on the surface—helps workers keep hold of the grapes as they quickly cut the clusters from the vines.
This pair of gloves was purchased for $2.99 at the Napa County Farm Supply store during harvest 1997.
ID Number
1997.3128.03
catalog number
1997.3128.03
nonaccession number
1997.3128
By the 1880s, fruit growers and shippers were marking the ends of their wooden shipping crates with colorful paper labels made possible by advances in lithographic printing.
Description
By the 1880s, fruit growers and shippers were marking the ends of their wooden shipping crates with colorful paper labels made possible by advances in lithographic printing. The labels identified the source of the fruit, while the designs, images, and names helped encourage brand recognition among buyers. California growers used such labels on grape crates until the 1950s, when printed labels on corrugated cardboard boxes replaced the old wooden crates.
This label for Zinfandel grapes, branded “Mont’Elisa Beauty” along with an image of a pretty young girl, was used by the Riolo Brothers, Italian Americans who packed and shipped grapes out of Roseville, California, near Sacramento. The label boasts that the grapes were not irrigated, indicating a traditional approach to vineyard management called “dry farming,” a practice that concentrates the flavors in fruit.
date made
before 1950
ID Number
2010.3091.02
nonaccession number
2010.3091
catalog number
2010.3091.02
From the moment when, in 1963, Julia Child whisked up an omelet on the pilot for her new cooking show, The French Chef, Americans wanted that whisk for their kitchens, just as they came to want any tool or utensil that Julia used.
Description
From the moment when, in 1963, Julia Child whisked up an omelet on the pilot for her new cooking show, The French Chef, Americans wanted that whisk for their kitchens, just as they came to want any tool or utensil that Julia used. Certainly, egg beaters of all sorts were common in American kitchens, and they whipped up the heavy cream and egg whites (for meringues) as well as eggs. But they didn’t have the leverage offered by the European-style whisks that Julia introduced, and they were especially successful in getting air into those soufflés and omelets they were just learning how to cook.
Although whisks varied in sizes, from tiny to giant, people loved the gigantic balloon whisks Julia had used on television, almost like props, to dramatic and comic effect. Julia loved giant tools, the more outrageous the better. Audience remembered the lessons when Julia deployed her giant whisks, blowtorches, salad spinners, and they learned that some of these tools were actually useful. Still, they especially remembered Julia AND her whisk when next they went to the kitchen store, creating a whole new market for these useful tools. This whisk, a part of Julia’s batterie de cuisine, had served her well in her home kitchen and television kitchen, in some cases the very same space.
ID Number
2001.0253.0638
catalog number
2001.0253.0638
accession number
2001.0253
This is a Benders pucker type coffee cup lid. Pucker type lids require the drinker to place his or her mouth over a protrusion with a hole in it. With these lids, the drinker does not drink directly from the cup—mouths do not make contact with the rim of the cup.
Description
This is a Benders pucker type coffee cup lid. Pucker type lids require the drinker to place his or her mouth over a protrusion with a hole in it. With these lids, the drinker does not drink directly from the cup—mouths do not make contact with the rim of the cup. Instead, one drinks from only the lid.
Architects and collectors Louise Harpman and Scott Specht donated 56 plastic cup lids to the National Museum of American History in 2012. Their donation is a sample from their much larger collection of “independently patented drink-through plastic cup lids,” which they began in 1984 and discussed in a 2005 essay, “Inventory / Peel, Pucker, Pinch, Puncture,” in Cabinet Magazine: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/harpman.php. The collectors’ categorization scheme reflects the primary way the lid design functions, which helps differentiate between the varieties and styles of lids.
Plastic, disposable coffee cup lids and other single-use food packages reinforce the social acceptability of eating and drinking on the go in the United States and reflect increasing expectation for convenience products. Cup lids are also examples of how humble, and even disposable, objects are sometimes the result of meticulous engineering. Patents for lid innovations describe peel-back tabs and the pucker-type shapes that make room for mouths and noses, and describe the nuances of “heat retention,” “mouth comfort,” “splash reduction,” “friction fit,” and “one-handed activation.”
ID Number
2012.3047.31
catalog number
2012.3047.31
nonaccession number
2012.3047
This is a Sweetheart LT-510 pinch type coffee lid. Pinch type lids are a variation of the peel type, but the motion for removing a piece is the result of a specifically placed pinch to tear away a perforated piece of plastic.
Description
This is a Sweetheart LT-510 pinch type coffee lid. Pinch type lids are a variation of the peel type, but the motion for removing a piece is the result of a specifically placed pinch to tear away a perforated piece of plastic. The lid is covered by patent number 4,518,096 assigned to Maryland Cup Corporation on May 12, 1983. The patent covered a lid with “a tear-away section removable by initially squeezing the lid and subsequently lifting and pulling at the point of squeeze to permit beverages to be consumed from the container. . .without removing the lid therefrom.”
Architects and collectors Louise Harpman and Scott Specht donated 56 plastic cup lids to the National Museum of American History in 2012. Their donation is a sample from their much larger collection of “independently patented drink-through plastic cup lids,” which they began in 1984 and discussed in a 2005 essay, “Inventory / Peel, Pucker, Pinch, Puncture,” in Cabinet Magazine: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/harpman.php. The collectors’ categorization scheme reflects the primary way the lid design functions, which helps differentiate between the varieties and styles of lids.
Plastic, disposable coffee cup lids and other single-use food packages reinforce the social acceptability of eating and drinking on the go in the United States and reflect increasing expectation for convenience products. Cup lids are also examples of how humble, and even disposable, objects are sometimes the result of meticulous engineering. Patents for lid innovations describe peel-back tabs and the pucker-type shapes that make room for mouths and noses, and describe the nuances of “heat retention,” “mouth comfort,” “splash reduction,” “friction fit,” and “one-handed activation.”
ID Number
2012.3047.07
catalog number
2012.3047.07
nonaccession number
2012.3047
This is a Dart 8UL Sip Thru strainer type coffee cup lid. Strainer type lids try to have maximum splash protection with minimal lid manipulation from the drinker. There is nothing to peel or pull back.
Description
This is a Dart 8UL Sip Thru strainer type coffee cup lid. Strainer type lids try to have maximum splash protection with minimal lid manipulation from the drinker. There is nothing to peel or pull back. The opening is kept small so liquid will only pass through when a cup is tipped toward a mouth and not when merely jostled while in one’s hands. This lid's design is covered by patent number 4,412,629 that was assigned to Dart Container Corporation on November 1, 1983. The patent covers a lid that is opened with the pressure from the drinker's upper lip, sealing itself again when the pressure is removed.
Architects and collectors Louise Harpman and Scott Specht donated 56 plastic cup lids to the National Museum of American History in 2012. Their donation is a sample from their much larger collection of “independently patented drink-through plastic cup lids,” which they began in 1984 and discussed in a 2005 essay, “Inventory / Peel, Pucker, Pinch, Puncture,” in Cabinet Magazine: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/harpman.php. The collectors’ categorization scheme reflects the primary way the lid design functions, which helps differentiate between the varieties and styles of lids.
Plastic, disposable coffee cup lids and other single-use food packages reinforce the social acceptability of eating and drinking on the go in the United States and reflect increasing expectation for convenience products. Cup lids are also examples of how humble, and even disposable, objects are sometimes the result of meticulous engineering. Patents for lid innovations describe peel-back tabs and the pucker-type shapes that make room for mouths and noses, and describe the nuances of “heat retention,” “mouth comfort,” “splash reduction,” “friction fit,” and “one-handed activation.”
ID Number
2012.3047.55
catalog number
2012.3047.55
nonaccession number
2012.3047
By the 1880s, fruit growers and shippers were marking the ends of their wooden shipping crates with colorful paper labels made possible by advances in lithographic printing.
Description
By the 1880s, fruit growers and shippers were marking the ends of their wooden shipping crates with colorful paper labels made possible by advances in lithographic printing. The labels identified the source of the fruit, while the designs, images, and names helped encourage brand recognition among buyers. California growers used such labels on grape crates until the 1950s, when printed labels on corrugated cardboard boxes replaced the old wooden crates.
This label, depicting a woman with beauty-queen looks and a basket full of gorgeous grapes, begs the question: who is the “Fresno Bella,” the lady, the grapes, or both? Distributed by the Heggblade-Marguleas-Tenneco Corporation, Fresno Bella brand grapes were shipped using labels like this out of Del Rey, California, a crossroads town located in the Central Valley’s Fresno County.
date made
before 1950
ID Number
2010.3091.03
nonaccession number
2010.3091
catalog number
2010.3091.03
This Lumetron Colorimeter Model 400-A was introduced in the 1940s by the Photovolt Corporation in New York, NY. It was used for many years by the Russian-born enologist André Tchelistcheff, at his various winery laboratories in California’s Napa Valley.
Description
This Lumetron Colorimeter Model 400-A was introduced in the 1940s by the Photovolt Corporation in New York, NY. It was used for many years by the Russian-born enologist André Tchelistcheff, at his various winery laboratories in California’s Napa Valley. Tchelistcheff had a tremendous impact on the development of the modern American wine industry.
Housed in a wooden box, the electrically-powered instrument includes two filter holders, a test tube carrier, a meter, and detailed instructions inside the lid. The instrument’s six glass filters cover the color spectrum—red, yellow-green, blue, orange, blue-green, and violet. The test tube carrier and the filter holders have metal knobs for ease of removal and the carrier has two holes for tubes with metal plaques noting “BLANK” and “SAMPLE” affixed above and below the holes respectively.
An ad for this instrument, published in the May 23, 1947 issue of Science Magazine, touted its use as a highly accurate device for determining the acidity (or pH) of a sample. It could also be used for the chemical analysis of color and turbidity in a liquid. All of these applications—measuring the pH and analyzing color and turbidity—are important aspects of work in a winery laboratory. Acid levels influence the flavor and texture of wine, and changes in a sample’s color and clarity indicate changes in its sensory characteristics as well.
André Tchelistcheff was born in Moscow in 1901; he and his family fled the country at the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917. After receiving his degree in agricultural science at the University of Brno in Czechoslovakia, he moved to Paris, where he was employed at the Institute of National Agronomy outside the city. While there he was contacted in 1937 by Georges de Latour, of Napa Valley’s Beaulieu Vineyards (BV). Latour was searching for a highly qualified wine chemist to help improve the stability and quality of BV’s premium wines, which had recently suffered the disastrous effects of microbiological spoilage and volatile acidity.
When he arrived in Napa in 1938, just five years after the repeal of Prohibition, Tchelistcheff was struck by the primitive conditions of winegrowing and winemaking. It took him several years to improve the winemaking at BV by upgrading equipment and controlling fermentation processes. He also worked in the vineyards, with, in his words, “the voice of nature.” Tchelistcheff was committed to the idea of community and promoted the sharing of both technical data and philosophical musings among the people trying to rebuild the California wine industry. He also maintained close relationships with the scientists and scholars of viticulture and enology at the University of California at Davis.
After he left BV in 1973, Tchelistcheff became a consultant, serving dozens of California wineries old and new. He also played a key role in developing the modern wine industry in Washington State. In 1991 Tchelistcheff rejoined Beaulieu as consulting enologist. He died in the Napa Valley in 1994.
maker
Photovolt Corp.
ID Number
2011.0131.01
catalog number
2011.0131.01
accession number
2011.0131
model number
400-A
serial number
16356
In 1971 the Rival Company introduced the Crock-Pot, an electric cooker containing a removable glass or ceramic crock. By maintaining low temperatures, the Crock-pot cooked food slowly and could be left safely unattended for hours.
Description
In 1971 the Rival Company introduced the Crock-Pot, an electric cooker containing a removable glass or ceramic crock. By maintaining low temperatures, the Crock-pot cooked food slowly and could be left safely unattended for hours. The appliance quickly gained popularity in the 1970s, as more and more women were working outside the home. Before leaving for work, busy home cooks could start a meal in the crockpot, knowing they would return home to fully cooked food.
Pennsylvania residents Robert and Shirley Hunter received this Rival Crockpot as a Christmas gift from Shirley's mother Martha around 1974. Martha, a high school principal's secretary, found the appliance handy for starting dinner before she left for work in the morning. In the Hunter household Robert actually became the primary cook. His crockpot specialties included stews, sauerkraut with kielbasa, chicken and dumplings, pot roast with vegetables, and the family reunion hot dish, halushki, a traditional Polish dish of cabbage, onion, garlic, and noodles.
ID Number
2011.0213.01.b
catalog number
2011.0213.01.b
accession number
2011.0213
This is a Dixie pucker style coffee cup lid. Pucker type lids require the drinker to place his or her mouth over a protrusion with a hole in it. With these lids, the drinker does not drink directly from the cup—mouths do not make contact with the rim of the cup.
Description
This is a Dixie pucker style coffee cup lid. Pucker type lids require the drinker to place his or her mouth over a protrusion with a hole in it. With these lids, the drinker does not drink directly from the cup—mouths do not make contact with the rim of the cup. Instead, one drinks from only the lid. The design of this lid is very similar to object number 2012.3047.18, DL9540 that is covered by patent number D379928, assigned to the James River Corporation on June 17, 1997.
Architects and collectors Louise Harpman and Scott Specht donated 56 plastic cup lids to the National Museum of American History in 2012. Their donation is a sample from their much larger collection of “independently patented drink-through plastic cup lids,” which they began in 1984 and discussed in a 2005 essay, “Inventory / Peel, Pucker, Pinch, Puncture,” in Cabinet Magazine: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/harpman.php. The collectors’ categorization scheme reflects the primary way the lid design functions, which helps differentiate between the varieties and styles of lids.
Plastic, disposable coffee cup lids and other single-use food packages reinforce the social acceptability of eating and drinking on the go in the United States and reflect increasing expectation for convenience products. Cup lids are also examples of how humble, and even disposable, objects are sometimes the result of meticulous engineering. Patents for lid innovations describe peel-back tabs and the pucker-type shapes that make room for mouths and noses, and describe the nuances of “heat retention,” “mouth comfort,” “splash reduction,” “friction fit,” and “one-handed activation.”
ID Number
2012.3047.20
catalog number
2012.3047.20
nonaccession number
2012.3047
The brainchild of cab driver Henry C. James, Jr., the James Remind-O-Clock was a useful innovation for people in various industries, from hotels to taxi services to laboratories.
Description
The brainchild of cab driver Henry C. James, Jr., the James Remind-O-Clock was a useful innovation for people in various industries, from hotels to taxi services to laboratories. The electric clock’s unique feature is its mechanism for allowing multiple alarms for a single event, such as a laboratory experiment that requires the timing of various steps. The 48 small keys located around the face of the clock could be set to ring a maximum of 48 alarms or ‘reminders’ at one setting. James established the James Clock Manufacturing Co. in Oakland in 1933, and produced and patented this model in 1937 (Patent number 2,098,965).
Enologist Andre Tchelistcheff used this Bakelite-housed “Remind-O-Clock,” to time various experiments and processes in his winery laboratories in California’s Napa Valley. Tchelistcheff made significant contributions to the wine industry, helping to improve techniques and raise standards for winemaking in the postwar period. He helped many winemakers improve their operations by adopting the practices of sterile filtration, cold fermentation, and attention to yeasts.
Andre Tchelistcheff was born in Moscow in 1901; he and his family fled the country at the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917. After receiving his degree in agricultural science at the University of Brno in Czechoslovakia, he moved to Paris, where he was employed at the Institute of National Agronomy outside the city. While there he was contacted in 1937 by Georges de Latour, of Napa Valley’s Beaulieu Vineyards (BV). Latour was searching for a highly qualified wine chemist to help improve the stability and quality of BV’s premium wines, which had recently suffered the disastrous effects of microbiological spoilage and volatile acidity.
When he arrived in Napa in 1938, just five years after the repeal of Prohibition, Tchelistcheff was struck by the primitive conditions of winegrowing and winemaking. It took him several years to improve the winemaking at BV by upgrading equipment and controlling fermentation processes. He also worked in the vineyards, with, in his words, “the voice of nature.” Tchelistcheff was committed to the idea of community and promoted the sharing of both technical data and philosophical musings among the people trying to rebuild the wine industry. He also maintained close relationships with the scientists and scholars of viticulture and enology at the University of California at Davis.
After he left BV in 1973, Tchelistcheff became a consultant, serving dozens of California wineries old and new. He also played a key role in developing the modern wine industry in Washington State. In 1991 Tchelistcheff rejoined Beaulieu as consulting enologist. He died in the Napa Valley in 1994.
maker
James Clock Mfg. Co.
ID Number
2011.0131.02
catalog number
2011.0131.02
accession number
2011.0131
patent number
2098965
Roger Hecht created this poster in 1986 to announce a party celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Maryland Food Co-op. Printed on yellow/gold typing paper, it features the Co-op’s slogan, “Food for People Not for Profit,” and the image of a fist punching through a sandwich.
Description
Roger Hecht created this poster in 1986 to announce a party celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Maryland Food Co-op. Printed on yellow/gold typing paper, it features the Co-op’s slogan, “Food for People Not for Profit,” and the image of a fist punching through a sandwich. Portraits of the leftist revolutionaries Che Guevara and Augusto Sandino appear in the top left and right corners, respectively. Che is pictured wearing a black beret in the style of the iconic photograph, “Guerillero Heroico,” taken in 1960 by Ablerto Korda. Sandino is shown wearing his characteristic wide-brimmed hat. The evocation of these two figures emphasizes the connection between food movements like the Maryland Food Co-op and broader political activism of the era. Hecht, the artist who created the design, worked at the Co-op from 1981 to 1985 and donated the poster.
The Maryland Food Co-op was founded in 1975 in the midst of unrest. Students at the University of Maryland, College Park, had been advocating for changes to the university’s food system for several years, citing poor food quality, customer service, and questionable sanitation. Their agitation increased when they learned in 1974 that food facilities in the Stamp Student Union might close for failing to meet county food sanitation standards. In August 1975 student Matt Mayer submitted a proposal to the Student Government Association to organize the Maryland Food Collective, which became known as the Co-op. Before Mayer’s proposal for the Co-op was approved, some students are believed to have taken action by making sandwiches at home and selling them on the campus as part of a “Guerilla sandwich line.” This detail in the Co-op’s origin narrative is echoed in the fist and sandwich graphic on the anniversary poster.
The Co-op continues to operate on the university campus, selling sandwiches, produce, and healthy food items. Staffed by both paid workers and volunteers (who exchange their labor for credit at the store), the Co-op is a worker’s collective, where everyone has an equal voice.
date made
1986
ID Number
2012.3009.01
nonaccession number
2012.3009
catalog number
2012.3009.01
This is a peel and lock type coffee cup lid. Peel and lock type lids give the drinker a place to snap the peeled back lid part into itself, preventing the need to tear off or throw away a little triangle of plastic. The lid bears the number JHL12TL.
Description
This is a peel and lock type coffee cup lid. Peel and lock type lids give the drinker a place to snap the peeled back lid part into itself, preventing the need to tear off or throw away a little triangle of plastic. The lid bears the number JHL12TL. The lid is embossed with CS, B, S, and C, denoting Cream and Sugar, Black, Sugar, or Cream.
Architects and collectors Louise Harpman and Scott Specht donated 56 plastic cup lids to the National Museum of American History in 2012. Their donation is a sample from their much larger collection of “independently patented drink-through plastic cup lids,” which they began in 1984 and discussed in a 2005 essay, “Inventory / Peel, Pucker, Pinch, Puncture,” in Cabinet Magazine: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/harpman.php. The collectors’ categorization scheme reflects the primary way the lid design functions, which helps differentiate between the varieties and styles of lids.
Plastic, disposable coffee cup lids and other single-use food packages reinforce the social acceptability of eating and drinking on the go in the United States and reflect increasing expectation for convenience products. Cup lids are also examples of how humble, and even disposable, objects are sometimes the result of meticulous engineering. Patents for lid innovations describe peel-back tabs and the pucker-type shapes that make room for mouths and noses, and describe the nuances of “heat retention,” “mouth comfort,” “splash reduction,” “friction fit,” and “one-handed activation.”
ID Number
2012.3047.13
catalog number
2012.3047.13
nonaccession number
2012.3047
This is one of a set of four metal “TV” tray tables and stands from the mid-1960s. The black trays are decorated with a party-theme design showing bright green, red, blue, and yellow ribbon stripes dancing over a confetti pattern background in the same colors.
Description
This is one of a set of four metal “TV” tray tables and stands from the mid-1960s. The black trays are decorated with a party-theme design showing bright green, red, blue, and yellow ribbon stripes dancing over a confetti pattern background in the same colors. Each tray table is 23 inches high, 17.5 inches wide, and 13 inches deep. The TV tray tables fold flat for easy storage, and have rubber grips to hold the tray in place on the stand.
In 1954, C.A. Swanson & Sons in Omaha, Nebraska, introduced the frozen TV dinner, marketing it as an easy-to-prepare, fun-to-eat meal, with a disposable tray that reduced clean-up time. The portable TV dinner tapped into Americans’ excitement over television, allowing families to eat in front of their new sets. By 1960, nearly 90 percent of American homes had a television.
Inexpensive folding-tray tables were made for eating in front of the TV and became an alternative to the family dinner table. Trays were made of metal, fiberglass, wood, and heavy duty plastics so they could withstand the heat from the food, and be durable enough to withstand constant use and cleaning. Tray patterns included nature scenes, food illustrations, and later included television characters. The look of the trays adapted to aesthetic trends as the TV tray became an essential furniture item in many American homes.
These tray tables are still made today, some in retro styles mimicking the old sets, and others in sleek metal and wood modernist constructions. The trays are marketed not only as platforms for food, but also as side tables, desks, and beverage trays. The recent fascination with repurposing and reusing retro items has caught hold of the TV tray, and they are popular design features, particularly in small apartment spaces that require multi-use spaces.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1950-2000
ID Number
2011.0152.05
catalog number
2011.0152.05
accession number
2011.0152
This is an Insulair PDL 12.16 pucker type cup lid. Pucker type lids require the drinker to place his or her mouth over a protrusion with a hole in it. With these lids, the drinker does not drink directly from the cup—mouths do not make contact with the rim of the cup.
Description
This is an Insulair PDL 12.16 pucker type cup lid. Pucker type lids require the drinker to place his or her mouth over a protrusion with a hole in it. With these lids, the drinker does not drink directly from the cup—mouths do not make contact with the rim of the cup. Instead, one drinks from only the lid.
Architects and collectors Louise Harpman and Scott Specht donated 56 plastic cup lids to the National Museum of American History in 2012. Their donation is a sample from their much larger collection of “independently patented drink-through plastic cup lids,” which they began in 1984 and discussed in a 2005 essay, “Inventory / Peel, Pucker, Pinch, Puncture,” in Cabinet Magazine: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/19/harpman.php. The collectors’ categorization scheme reflects the primary way the lid design functions, which helps differentiate between the varieties and styles of lids.
Plastic, disposable coffee cup lids and other single-use food packages reinforce the social acceptability of eating and drinking on the go in the United States and reflect increasing expectation for convenience products. Cup lids are also examples of how humble, and even disposable, objects are sometimes the result of meticulous engineering. Patents for lid innovations describe peel-back tabs and the pucker-type shapes that make room for mouths and noses, and describe the nuances of “heat retention,” “mouth comfort,” “splash reduction,” “friction fit,” and “one-handed activation.”
ID Number
2012.3047.26
catalog number
2012.3047.26
nonaccession number
2012.3047

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