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

associated date
1861 - 1865
ID Number
AF.12072
catalog number
12072
accession number
52412
Ira Wertman, a farmer in Andreas, Pennsylvania, raised fruits and vegetables and peddled them with this truck to retired coal miners near Allentown. He also used the truck to take produce to market and haul supplies from town to the farm.
Description
Ira Wertman, a farmer in Andreas, Pennsylvania, raised fruits and vegetables and peddled them with this truck to retired coal miners near Allentown. He also used the truck to take produce to market and haul supplies from town to the farm. Pickup trucks have been versatile aids to a wide range of agricultural, personal, and business activities. Early pickup trucks were modified automobiles, but postwar models were larger, more powerful, and able to carry heavier loads. Some postwar pickups were used in building suburban communities. Others were used for recreational purposes such as camping, hunting, and fishing. By the 1990s, many people purchased pickups for everyday driving.
date made
1949
maker
General Motors Corporation
ID Number
1999.0057.01
accession number
1999.0057
catalog number
1999.0057.01
Text and photograph from Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II. Negative by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, text and positive by Alexander Gardner.The commissary at General Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac was nothing less than an immense grocery establishment.
Description
Text and photograph from Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II. Negative by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, text and positive by Alexander Gardner.
The commissary at General Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac was nothing less than an immense grocery establishment. Coffee, tea, sugar, molasses, bacon, salt pork, fresh beef, potatoes, rice, flour, &c., were always kept on hand in large quantities, and of the best quality. This institution was under the charge of Brevet Major J. R. Coxe, whose portly form adorns the photograph of "What do I want, John Henry?" Occasionally some command out of provisions would suddenly call on Major Coxe for a hundred thousand rations or more, and never was the gallant Major found unable to respond. Rain, snow, darkness, fathomless roads, or unexplored forests, never hindered his wagon trains. Upon him depended the sustenance of Headquarters, and the Commissary General and Staff. It was never his fault if they went hungry.
It was interesting in the last year of the war to witness the Virginia families flock to Headquarters for the purpose of purchasing supplies of the Commissary. Decrepit [sic] men, ladies, children, and family servants crowded the Commissary at stated periods for rations, carrying off their purchased provisions in the oddest vehicles, on horseback, and on foot, some individuals every week walking twenty miles to get their supplies. The provisions sold by the Commissary were disposed of at prices far below market rates, the Government only charging the cost price at wholesale; and as great care was taken in the selection of supplies by the Government agents, it was highly desirable to citizens to purchase rations. This was especially the case with respect to tea, coffee, and sugar, which were bought by the Government in as unadulterated a form as could be found.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1864-02
maker
Gardner, Alexander
ID Number
1986.0711.0283.11
accession number
1986.0711
catalog number
1986.0711.0283.11
This shipping crate side contained Swift’s Premium Corned Beef that was packed and distributed by Swift & Company during the early 20th century. The crate contained two dozen tins of corned beef.
Description (Brief)
This shipping crate side contained Swift’s Premium Corned Beef that was packed and distributed by Swift & Company during the early 20th century. The crate contained two dozen tins of corned beef. Swift and Company was founded by Gustavus Franklin Swift, and was incorporated in 1885. Swift and Company was part of the large meatpacking industry in Chicago that used refrigerated cars to ship their meat all across the country.
Location
Currently not on view
referenced business
Swift and Company
ID Number
1979.0441.194
catalog number
1979.0441.194
accession number
1979.0441
Straight steel blade with rounded tip. Blade and rectangular bolster are one piece of steel with tang fitted into a tapered ivory handle with straight sides and rounded butt. Metal has minor discoloration, some residues on blade. Ivory is yellowed.
Description
Straight steel blade with rounded tip. Blade and rectangular bolster are one piece of steel with tang fitted into a tapered ivory handle with straight sides and rounded butt. Metal has minor discoloration, some residues on blade. Ivory is yellowed. Blade stamped: “PRATT ROPES WEBB&Co / AMERICAN CUTLERY”. With matching fork, 1986.0531.114.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1846 - 1855
ID Number
1986.0531.113
accession number
1986.0531
catalog number
1986.531.113
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1930s-1950s
maker
Keppler, Victor
ID Number
PG.006261.W
catalog number
6261W
accession number
238737
The Remmey and Crolius families dominated the New York stoneware industry from the early 1700s through the early 1800s. Both families emigrated from Germany, bringing with them the stoneware traditions of their homeland.
Description
The Remmey and Crolius families dominated the New York stoneware industry from the early 1700s through the early 1800s. Both families emigrated from Germany, bringing with them the stoneware traditions of their homeland. Sometimes business associates, the two families also inter-married. Remmey family members went on to establish stoneware factories in Philadelphia and Baltimore, as well.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1795-1830
maker
Remmey III, John
ID Number
1980.0614.363
accession number
1980.0614
catalog number
1980.0614.363
Margaret Knight (1838–1914) applied for a patent using this model to demonstrate her machine that folded and pasted flat-bottomed paper bags. She was granted patent number 220925 for the invention in 1879.
Description (Brief)
Margaret Knight (1838–1914) applied for a patent using this model to demonstrate her machine that folded and pasted flat-bottomed paper bags. She was granted patent number 220925 for the invention in 1879. As stated in her patent specification, this design is an improvement on her earlier patent, number 116,842, granted in 1871. Her concept continues to be used in the manufacture of today's paper grocery bag.
Margaret was born in Maine, later living in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Her first patented invention, inspired by her work at a Springfield, Massachusetts paper company, was her machine for improvement in paper-feeding; it was given patent number 109224 in 1870. She received patents for inventions having to do with the paper bag, shoe manufacturing, and rotary engine industries.
While many women had innovative ideas during the 19th century, it was sometimes difficult for them to secure patents under their own names. Knight's inventions are celebrated because they demonstrate women's participation in the American patent system.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1879
patent date
1879-10-28
maker
Knight, Margaret E.
ID Number
1980.0004.01
accession number
1980.0004
catalog number
1980.0004.01
patent number
220925
catalog number
GA*89797.220925
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.
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. There 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 five hundred 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 farther down the Pearl River.
A large bowl of this kind would have been used to serve punch. The word “punch” is thought to derive from the Hindu word “pànch,” meaning “five”—for the number of ingredients used to make the brew.The custom of drinking punch 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 18th 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 it was 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
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
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1855 - 1866
ID Number
DL.61.0394C
catalog number
61.0394C
accession number
232677
This Drambuie Liqueur crate side was used by the Drambuie Liqueur Company, Ltd. of Edinburgh, Scotland during the early 20th century.
Description (Brief)
This Drambuie Liqueur crate side was used by the Drambuie Liqueur Company, Ltd. of Edinburgh, Scotland during the early 20th century. The crate bears an image of the Drambuie bottle, which reads “The Isle of Skye Liqueur” and “A Link with the 45.” There is a crest on the right side of the label with a ribbon that reads “Remember the Gift of the Prince.” In 1745 Prince Charles Edward Stuart led an uprising to retake the British throne from the Hanoverian King George II. When the coup failed the Prince had to flee from the Isle of Skye, and legend holds that he gave the recipe of his personal golden elixir to his supporter Captain John MacKinnon, which later became Drambuie.
Location
Currently not on view
referenced business
Drambuie Liqueur Co., Ltd.
ID Number
1979.0441.144
accession number
1979.0441
catalog number
1979.0441.144
This object is a Ronald McDonald stuffed doll dressed as a clown figure. The doll is made of two pieces of fabric, sewn together in one long seam.
Description
This object is a Ronald McDonald stuffed doll dressed as a clown figure. The doll is made of two pieces of fabric, sewn together in one long seam. Various colors have been screened onto the fabric to look like a yellow jumpsuit with red zipper, red boots and a red and white striped shirt and socks. The doll has red hair, with a red nose and lips and white face. On the back side McDonald’s® is written in black letter with the golden arches logo. Ronald McDonald made his national debut for McDonald’s in 1966 during a nationwide television commercial. He was later provided several friends and nemeses who lived in McDonaldland, which was all part of an advertising campaign created to appeal to children.
The McDonald’s Corporation is one of the most recognizable hamburger restaurants in the United States. As of 2011, the McDonald’s Corporation and franchisees were operating in 119 countries with 1.9 million employees, making it the 4th largest employer in the world.
In 1940, Richard (Dick) and Maurice (Mac) McDonald opened the first McDonald’s Bar-B-Q drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California. In 1948, the brothers redesigned their menu, centering on the 15 cent hamburger. In 1954, Ray Kroc, a Multimixer (milkshake machine) salesman, became interested in the McDonalds brothers’ high volume restaurant. He worked out a deal with the brothers to be their franchising agent and opened the first franchise location in Illinois the following year. Under Kroc’s direction, the company grew to become the giant we know today.
Location
Currently not on view
trademark holder
McDonald's Corporation
ID Number
1983.0366.01
accession number
1983.0366
catalog number
1983.0366.01
This is a roll of first generation AFC stickers. It has the first generation AFC logo, which is a red outlined oval with the letters “AFC” and an image of two pieces of sushi inside. Underneath the logo reads “AFC Corp. 19205 S. Laurel Park Rd.
Description
This is a roll of first generation AFC stickers. It has the first generation AFC logo, which is a red outlined oval with the letters “AFC” and an image of two pieces of sushi inside. Underneath the logo reads “AFC Corp. 19205 S. Laurel Park Rd. Rancho Dominiguez, CA 90220” and “For most enjoyment eat on day of purchase” written in both English and French.
These stickers are used to seal the prepackaged sushi and mark them as AFC products. The suggestive phrase, “for most enjoyment eat on day of purchase” reminds the customer to consume the product on the day of purchase to ensure freshness, and avoid cases of food poisoning that develop from eating old raw products.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1980s
maker
unknown
ID Number
2012.3099.08
catalog number
2012.3099.08
nonaccession number
2012.3099
A poster giving examples of egg sizes and how to cook fried and poached eggs.
Description
A poster giving examples of egg sizes and how to cook fried and poached eggs.
date made
1967
copyright date
1967
associated institution
U.S. Department of Agriculture
maker
U.S. Department of Agriculture
ID Number
ZZ.RSN81724Y42
This shipping crate side contained “Orient” brand sweet mandarine oranges that was used by the National Federation of Citrus Grower’s Co-Operative Societies.
Description (Brief)
This shipping crate side contained “Orient” brand sweet mandarine oranges that was used by the National Federation of Citrus Grower’s Co-Operative Societies. There is a rising sun design on the left of the crate, linking the brand name Orient to Japan, the “Land of the Rising Sun.”
Location
Currently not on view
referenced business
National Federation of Citrus Grower's Co-operative Societies
ID Number
1979.0441.193
catalog number
1979.0441.193
accession number
1979.0441
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date designed
1954
date made
c.1954
date produced
ca. 1960
designer
Kogan, Belle
maker
Gailstyn Company
ID Number
1992.0257.11D
catalog number
1992.0257.11D
accession number
1992.0257
This Chere Best brand apple crate label was used by the Columbia Fruit Packers Inc. of Wenatchee, Washington during the early 20th century. The label was lithographed by Stecher-Traung of San Francisco, California.
Description (Brief)
This Chere Best brand apple crate label was used by the Columbia Fruit Packers Inc. of Wenatchee, Washington during the early 20th century. The label was lithographed by Stecher-Traung of San Francisco, California. These apples came from the Wenatchee Valley region of Washington, which is colloquially known as the “Apple Capital of the World.”
Location
Currently not on view
referenced business
Columbia Fruit Packers, Inc.
ID Number
1979.0441.112
accession number
1979.0441
catalog number
1979.0441.112
As the Bargetto family established a commercial winery in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains in 1933, they installed the kind of equipment in common use at the time: large wooden tanks and casks for fermenting, storing, and aging wine.
Description
As the Bargetto family established a commercial winery in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains in 1933, they installed the kind of equipment in common use at the time: large wooden tanks and casks for fermenting, storing, and aging wine. While most of the Bargettos’ tanks were built of California’s famous redwood, others were made of oak. This oak door and clamp mechanism covered the access opening in one of the Bargettos’ oak casks and was used in the family’s winery for about 70 years. Beginning in the 1960s, vintners started replacing their old wooden equipment with modern, stainless steel tanks, but few could manage replacing everything at once. For many years both technologies existed side by side in California’s historic wineries.
The Bargetto family’s story reflects in many ways the history of Italians in California, with several themes threaded throughout: multiple migrations between Italy and America, opportunity and work in the wine industry, and the importance of family and community. The first Bargettos to arrive in California were Giuseppe (Joseph) and his eldest son Filippo (Philip), who left their ancestral home in Italy’s Piedmont region, in 1890. They settled among other Italians in the winegrowing area around Mountain View, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where they found work at the Casa Delmas Winery. Although Joseph moved back to Italy two years later, Philip remained until 1902, when he returned to Italy to be married. Three years later Philip and his new family arrived back in California, settling first in San Francisco, then, with remarkable prescience, to Mountain View just before the devastating earthquake and fire in 1906.
In 1909, back in San Francisco, the Bargettos opened their first family winery on Montgomery Avenue. Philip’s uncle Giovanni (John) arrived from Italy and, with a third partner, Alberto Colombo, they formed the South Montebello Vineyard and Wine Co., where they fermented, aged, and delivered barrels of wine to local restaurants. The next member of the family to arrive from Italy was Philip’s younger brother, also named Giovanni (John P.), who went to work in a San Francisco restaurant. After two years and suffering from exhaustion, he moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains, where he was joined by his sisters Angelina and Maddalena, both of whom married Italian immigrants. The growing Bargetto family became part of an expanding community of Italian Americans in the town of Soquel.
As Prohibition loomed, the Bargettos closed the San Francisco winery and moved to Soquel in 1917, where they purchased the site of what became the family’s winery after Repeal. Here they began making wine for home use by family and friends. To keep themselves financially afloat during Prohibition’s dry years, the family peddled vegetables and also served meals out of their home on weekends. Customers who wanted a glass of wine with their meal, a longstanding Italian tradition, were served wine from barrels stored in the cellar.
After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the Bargettos applied for federal bonding, and officially became Bonded Winery 3859. The two brothers, Philip and John P., ran the winery together until Philip’s death in 1936; through the 1940s and 1950s, John P. held the company together with help from his sons Ralph and Lawrence, who took the lead in the 1970s and 1980s.
The winery was still family-owned in 2014, when artifacts associated with the early years of the Bargetto family’s winery were donated to the museum. The donor, John E. Bargetto, with his brother and sister, are the third generation of Bargettos to operate the family’s wine business in the Central Coast region of California.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2014.0321.01
accession number
2014.0321
catalog number
2014.0321.01
This shipping crate side contained Rose of Virginia brand apples that were grown and packed by E.W. Barr of Winchester, Virginia during the early 20th century. The crate side has an image of a rose stenciled in the center.
Description (Brief)
This shipping crate side contained Rose of Virginia brand apples that were grown and packed by E.W. Barr of Winchester, Virginia during the early 20th century. The crate side has an image of a rose stenciled in the center. Winchester, Virginia is well known for hosting the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival.
Location
Currently not on view
referenced business
E. W. Barr
ID Number
1979.0441.203
catalog number
1979.0441.203
accession number
1979.0441
This shipping crate side contained Atlas Flo-Dyn Number 6 explosives manufactured by the Atlas Powder Company during the early 20th century.
Description (Brief)
This shipping crate side contained Atlas Flo-Dyn Number 6 explosives manufactured by the Atlas Powder Company during the early 20th century. The shipping crate was in use during the first half of the 20th century, and contained 4 bags of explosives that weighed 50 pounds.
Location
Currently not on view
referenced business
Atlas Powder Co.
ID Number
1979.0441.211
catalog number
1979.0441.211
accession number
1979.0441
Bellied-bowl porringer with angled rim and bossed bottom; cast crown handle with triangular bracket is pierced with 11 voids and struck on top with the incuse serif letters "LB" at center of a circular shield on indistinct support flanked by bossed foliate volutes below a five-pe
Description
Bellied-bowl porringer with angled rim and bossed bottom; cast crown handle with triangular bracket is pierced with 11 voids and struck on top with the incuse serif letters "LB" at center of a circular shield on indistinct support flanked by bossed foliate volutes below a five-pearl (ducal) coronet with textured ground. "Mason" and "10" scratched on underside of boss. No touchmarks. Diamond or lozenge linen mark with sink hole from tinker's dam used to burn handle on to bowl. Turning marks across entire bottom underside.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
late 18th or early 19th century
1770 - 1780
ID Number
DL.388320
catalog number
388320
accession number
182022
Original cup from The Mandarin, in San Francisco, California, a restaurant owned by Cecilia Chiang. The cup is white with a handle and features the restaurant’s original logo of a Chinese woman in Qing dynasty regalia framed within a circular design.
Description
Original cup from The Mandarin, in San Francisco, California, a restaurant owned by Cecilia Chiang. The cup is white with a handle and features the restaurant’s original logo of a Chinese woman in Qing dynasty regalia framed within a circular design. The logo is blue in color.
Cups can tell you a lot about the Chinese restaurant. In our collection for Cecilia Chiang’s The Mandarin Restaurant, we have two kinds: one white teacup and one green tiki cup. The white teacup suggests that Mrs. Chiang served tea, a typical Chinese hot beverage, at her original restaurant on Polk Street, San Francisco. Although a Drinks section did not appear on her original menu in her Polk Street restaurant, tea is a traditional beverage that comes alongside any Chinese meal. A drinks section of coffee and tea did appear later in the Beverly Hills location.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2011.0115.01
catalog number
2011.0115.01
accession number
2011.0115
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1930s-1950s
maker
Keppler, Victor
ID Number
PG.006261.X
catalog number
6261X
accession number
238737

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