| National Museum of American History

Southland Corporation’s chain of 7-Eleven convenience stores is known for proprietary products like the Big Gulp® fountain soft drinks, Big Bite® hot dogs, and Slurpee® beverages, a sweet, semi-frozen, flavored drink.

Description: Southland Corporation’s chain of 7-Eleven convenience stores is known for proprietary products like the Big Gulp® fountain soft drinks, Big Bite® hot dogs, and Slurpee® beverages, a sweet, semi-frozen, flavored drink. 7-Eleven promoted Slurpees with limited-edition cup designs to appeal to kids and teens and to encourage repeat business. These collectible plastic cups from 1975 feature Marvel comic book characters. The 10 designs in the museum’s collection are from a total of 60 in the series and include Captain America, Red Sonja, Dr. Doom, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Falcon, The Vision, Silver Surfer, Black Panther, and Cyclops. The 12-oz. size predates the popularity of supersized (1.2 liter) drinks.; Omar Knedlik invented a machine to make frozen beverages with a slushy consistency in the late 1950s. In 1965, 7-Eleven began a licensing deal with his brand, the ICEE Company, to sell the same product under a different name. 7-Eleven has been selling Slurpees since 1967.; This plastic Slurpee cup from the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores was produced in 1975 as one of a series featuring Marvel Comics superheroes. It shows the Daredevil character and this quote: THE BOYS IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD USED TO MAKE FUN OF ME, CALLING ME A NAME . . . BUT WHEN I WAS BLINDED BY RADIATION AND GAINED MY SUPER-SENSES, I TOOK THAT NAME FOR MY OWN . . . FOR THUS WAS BORN DAREDEVIL!
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1975

maker: Southland Corporation

ID Number: 2012.0040.04
catalog number: 2012.0040.04
accession number: 2012.0040

The Emergency Farm Labor Program, or the Bracero Program, brought laborers from Mexico to the United States on short-term contracts between 1942 and 1964.

Description: The Emergency Farm Labor Program, or the Bracero Program, brought laborers from Mexico to the United States on short-term contracts between 1942 and 1964. In the lettuce fields of Stanislaus and Imperial Counties in California, field laborers used small, square wheel barrows, called humps to pack and move boxes of lettuce. Each box held about twenty-four or thirty heads. This hump was used in the California fields of the Jerry Pepelis Packing Company from 1960 until 1964, when the Bracero Program ended. By then, humps were abandoned for more efficient, automated methods of harvesting.

ID Number: 2012.0054.01
accession number: 2012.0054
catalog number: 2012.0054.01

One of the most common variants of espresso, all named in Italian usage, is a cappuccino, a single shot with a “coat” or hood” like those of Capuchin monks or with a color like the robes of those monks (depending on which version of the story you prefer), with a steamed milk cove

Description: One of the most common variants of espresso, all named in Italian usage, is a cappuccino, a single shot with a “coat” or hood” like those of Capuchin monks or with a color like the robes of those monks (depending on which version of the story you prefer), with a steamed milk cover. No foam. Customarily, the cup is more like an American coffee cup, though smaller, and the blue rim on this one serves as the target level for the addition of the steamed milk. Other variants now common, even in the American espresso service, are lattes (café au lait in French, café con leche in Spanish) where a single shot is covered in 6-8 ounces of steamed milk, then with foam. There are, however, as many variations as possible, made with differing amounts and varieties of coffee, and the additions of milk, foam, flavored syrups, liqueurs.

ID Number: 2012.0124.02
catalog number: 2012.0124.02
accession number: 2012.0124

This plastic, football-shaped snack bowl features a brown football design with the words “Touch Down!” shown in red type. The white rim inside the bowl is similarly decorated with “Touch Down!” appearing in four places.

Description: This plastic, football-shaped snack bowl features a brown football design with the words “Touch Down!” shown in red type. The white rim inside the bowl is similarly decorated with “Touch Down!” appearing in four places. Maryland residents Flo and Skip Ford, who donated the bowl to the museum, began hosting Super Bowl parties for their friends and neighbors in 1997, and this snack bowl was part of the festivities. Like many fans, their game day spread included chips, chili, taco dip, and crab dip.; The first Super Bowl, in 1967, took place as a part of a merger agreement between the National Football League and the then competitor league, the American Football League. With the majority of fans watching the game on television, the Super Bowl has become a popular occasion for gatherings and parties. The centerpiece of most Super Bowl parties is the food, and themed dishes, bowls, tableware, and decorations have become increasingly popular. Many viewers serve regional specialties of the competing teams as their party fare, but others stick to classic finger foods like chicken wings, pizza, and chips. The Super Bowl has become one of the top three food consumption days for Americans (behind Thanksgiving and Christmas), with the average viewer consuming roughly 1,200 calories worth of snack food during the game.

date made: ca 1997

ID Number: 2012.0152.01
accession number: 2012.0152
catalog number: 2012.0152.01

Since the 1970s, special dinners and social events have become an increasingly important way for winemakers to introduce their products to consumers.

Description: Since the 1970s, special dinners and social events have become an increasingly important way for winemakers to introduce their products to consumers. While the setting and tone of some wine events is formal and “high brow,” the new generation of Zinfandel producers that emerged in California created a different approach. Targeting new wine drinkers seeking new experiences, they combined unique, festive wine events and an edgy sense of humor to take the “stuffiness” out of wine.; This poster advertises the “7th Annual Zinfandel Festival,” held in San Francisco, California, on January 22-24, 1998. Sponsored by the association known as ZAP, Zinfandel Advocates and Producers, the event promised a light-hearted time with “good eats and zinfandel pairings;” “a blue jeans and black tie auction;” and the “world’s largest zinfandel tasting.” The poster’s imagery by artist Peter Nevins—a farm truck full of oversized grapes—suggests the informal, fun-loving perspective of ZAP and its members. ZAP continues to sponsor annual zinfandel festivals and seminars, featuring hundreds of wines and attracting thousands of participants.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1998

ID Number: 2012.0017.02
catalog number: 2012.0017.02
accession number: 2012.0017

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.; In the 1950’s, the new fashion for life in the backyard, on the patio, and at the grill, produced new tools, clothes, furniture, and serving ware to go along with grilled meals on the patio. The shirt pictured here, around 1965, which went with a hat 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 shirt, with its matching hat, offered watermelon, pickles, skewers of meat (shish kebabs), grill racks with steaks and hot dogs, spatulas, flippers, even corn on the cob in its decorative design.; Related to the tropical aloha shirt, with its tropical motifs from Hawaii and the cool cotton guayabera from the Caribbean, the BBQ-wear topped the more casual shorts (Bermuda) that men had traded in from their long pants. Summer grillers appeared to relish the 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 or bragged about the wearer’s presumed interests in both alcohol and women.
Location: Currently not on view

ID Number: 2011.0210.02
catalog number: 2011.0210.02
accession number: 2011.0210

Espresso machines, are mechanical, then electric devices which brew a concentrated, “strong” coffee by forcing steam and/or hot water. . .driven by pistons, pumps, heat pressure. . . through specially ground coffee bean varieties and “expressed” into a cup.

Description: Espresso machines, are mechanical, then electric devices which brew a concentrated, “strong” coffee by forcing steam and/or hot water. . .driven by pistons, pumps, heat pressure. . . through specially ground coffee bean varieties and “expressed” into a cup. The first machines made to provide Italians (and later, other Europeans) with their favorite stimulant beverages appeared in the latter part of the 19th century. These were, and still are, large, embellished metal and wood machines used in the very popular coffee houses and coffee bars, first in Italy, and later in the rest of the Continent.; The general passion for coffee, begun in 13th century Europe, spread there from its origins in East Africa (probably Ethiopia) with a spread to the Middle East, and in the 17th century, from the Dutch East Indies to the rest of Europe, and from there to America. A major part of the trade between Africa and Europe, Dutch traders carried the beans to fuel production in farther reaches of the globe, then to the Caribbean. Like sugar, coffee fueled the slave trade. The beverage then moved to England and to America, where the expensive drink for the elites eventually yielded to one affordable by the masses, where it mostly replaced the highly taxed English tea as the American Revolution succeeded. But American coffee, usually brewed by the drip or percolated method up through the 1960’s, was a far cry from the strong, almost thickly brewed pressed or steam expressed coffee found in the Middle East or in European coffeehouse.; America’s longstanding passion for coffee was reawakened in the 1960s by new coffee roasters and retailers. The “Good Food Revolution” of the 60’s, expressed a passion for European foods and drinks, especially for those experienced by Americans who traveled to France and Italy. In the 1980s, coffeehouse chains offering bold brews from around the world began dotting urban streetcorners and suburban shopping malls. There are even drive-thru espresso kiosks in coffee-mad states like California, Oregon, and Washington State. For home use, manufacturers began to offer both small espresso machines and bigger, more expensive models for the high-end market. This little Krups espresso maker, c. 1990, was one of the many models of coffee makers that began to service the home market in America’s revivified food movements. It was used for several years, then supplanted by visits to chain cult coffee shops, by a Smithsonian curator. The latest models (as of 2013) of home espresso makers involve no grinding of beans, but rather steam or hot water forced through little packets of coffee (some flavored) which may be bought by the carton.

ID Number: 2012.0124.01
catalog number: 2012.0124.01
accession number: 2012.0124

On their farm commune in upstate New York in the early 1970s, Ruth, her husband Steve and their fellow communards had to learn to use many new tools as they applied methods of food production, preparation, and preservation learned from alternative sources such as Mother Earth New

Description: On their farm commune in upstate New York in the early 1970s, Ruth, her husband Steve and their fellow communards had to learn to use many new tools as they applied methods of food production, preparation, and preservation learned from alternative sources such as Mother Earth News, their food co-op’s cookbook, and their farming neighbors in the area. They would often buy their tools at second hand shops, farm sales, and yard sales in the area. The Mason jars, canning funnels (used to fill the Mason jars with food to be preserved (by canning), apple slicers, bread baking pans, and books, such as Stalking the Wild Asparagus, were all tools new, but necessary to the new farmers and foragers of the 1970s and thereafter. Steve learned to make bread with whole grains they got from the farm co-op, and he baked it in this simple common aluminum loaf pan/bread pan.; “Coming out of the 1960s, we were concerned about the war, where the country was going. . . [By] going to the farm, we would be accountable and have responsibility for our lives, for the way that we lived. .. . We had the Whole Earth Catalog, Mother Earth News. Reduce, reuse, recycle. We learned from the farm community. . . Be self-sufficient, live off the land. . . My whole life [on the commune] revolved around food. . . . We had a three-acre garden. . . canning and freezing. . .600 quarts of tomatoes , three 20 ft. freezers full [of] corn, broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, carrots “. . . . . . “The Co-op opened a whole new world for us, things we’d never seen before. . . sprouts, mung beans. We used their cookbook. . . "—Ruth, a 1970s farm commune member, interview, 2011.; During the 1960s and 1970s, as waves of cultural and political change swept through American society, food became a tool of resistance, consciousness-raising, and self-expression. Embracing the motto “You are what you eat,” hippies, feminists, religious seekers, ethnic nationalists, and antiwar and civil rights activists rejected mass-marketed, mass-produced food, which they termed “slave” food, “corporate” food, and “white-bread,” as symbols of the establishment they rallied against. They questioned how the food Americans ate was produced, prepared, and consumed and advocated new models of food production and new diets. A major part of these movements were served, in the 1970s and forward, by the “back-to-the-landers,” those who left their mostly middle class or privileged lives to live “off the grid,” to feed themselves, to farm, to cook, to forage, to raise animals, to live self-sufficiently.

ID Number: 2012.0059.04
catalog number: 2012.0059.04
accession number: 2012.0059

A carboy, also called a demijohn, is a stout glass container with a narrow neck. Available in various sizes, they are essential to winemaking operations.

Description: A carboy, also called a demijohn, is a stout glass container with a narrow neck. Available in various sizes, they are essential to winemaking operations. This carboy was used by researchers in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of California at Davis for fermenting small batches of wine for research and experimental purposes.

ID Number: 2012.0131.02
catalog number: 2012.0131.02
accession number: 2012.0131

Southland Corporation’s chain of 7-Eleven convenience stores is known for proprietary products like the Big Gulp® fountain soft drinks, Big Bite® hot dogs, and Slurpee® beverages, a sweet, semi-frozen, flavored drink.

Description: Southland Corporation’s chain of 7-Eleven convenience stores is known for proprietary products like the Big Gulp® fountain soft drinks, Big Bite® hot dogs, and Slurpee® beverages, a sweet, semi-frozen, flavored drink. 7-Eleven promoted Slurpees with limited-edition cup designs to appeal to kids and teens and to encourage repeat business. These collectible plastic cups from 1975 feature Marvel comic book characters. The 10 designs in the museum’s collection are from a total of 60 in the series and include Captain America, Red Sonja, Dr. Doom, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Falcon, The Vision, Silver Surfer, Black Panther, and Cyclops. The 12-oz. size predates the popularity of supersized (1.2 liter) drinks.; Omar Knedlik invented a machine to make frozen beverages with a slushy consistency in the late 1950s. In 1965, 7-Eleven began a licensing deal with his brand, the ICEE Company, to sell the same product under a different name. 7-Eleven has been selling Slurpees since 1967.; This plastic Slurpee cup from the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores was produced in 1975 as one of a series featuring Marvel Comics superheroes. It shows the character Red Sonja and this quote: NO MAN KNOWS THE PLACE OF MY BIRTH, NOR WHERE I LEARNED TO WIELD A SWORD TO SHAME MANY A MALE. THEY KNOW ONLY THAT I AM CALLED THE SHE-DEVIL OF THE HYRKANIAN STEPPES. THAT . . . AND RED SONJA!

date made: 1975

maker: Southland Corporation

ID Number: 2012.0040.08
catalog number: 2012.0040.08
accession number: 2012.0040

The simplicity of this paper menu—a single, printed page with the word “ZINFANDEL” decorating its edges—belies the layers of history behind the particular pairings of food and wine listed.

Description: The simplicity of this paper menu—a single, printed page with the word “ZINFANDEL” decorating its edges—belies the layers of history behind the particular pairings of food and wine listed. The menu is for the week of November 16-20, 1976, at Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California. Founded in 1971 by Alice Waters, Chez Panisse was the cornerstone of the Berkeley “gourmet ghetto” and the center of a movement that expanded across the country, inspiring a renewed commitment to sourcing and presenting food that was fresh, local, organic, seasonal, and delicious. Reflecting Waters’ interest in French culinary traditions, the menu lists meals for each day in both French and English. It features dishes such as Moussaka with watercress, Snail cassolette, Sorrel consommé, and Salmis of squab—offerings that would have seemed unusual and perhaps exotic to many Americans, who were just beginning to explore new culinary experiences at the time.; The week’s menu is also a celebration of a new, local wine produced by winemaker Walter Schug for Joseph Phelps Vineyards, which had been established in Napa in 1973. The featured wine was the 1976 Gold Rush Zinfandel, produced from grapes grown in Amador County, an area east of Sacramento in the Sierra foothills. Although Zinfandel had been grown in that area since the Gold Rush, the wine was made primarily for local consumption. Winemakers rediscovered the old Zinfandel vineyards in the Shenandoah Valley of Amador County in the 1960s, and, in 1968, Sutter Home vintners produced wine from the old vines for Sacramento wine and food expert Darrell Corti. Corti’s embrace of the varietal helped propel Zinfandel wine into wider acceptance. The Zinfandel Dinner became an annual event at Chez Panisse, an acknowledgement of the new excellence of American wine that emerged in the 1970s. Darrell Corti donated this menu to the National Museum of American History in 2011.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1976

ID Number: 2012.0014.01
catalog number: 2012.0014.01
accession number: 2012.0014

Southland Corporation’s chain of 7-Eleven convenience stores is known for proprietary products like the Big Gulp® fountain soft drinks, Big Bite® hot dogs, and Slurpee® beverages, a sweet, semi-frozen, flavored drink.

Description: Southland Corporation’s chain of 7-Eleven convenience stores is known for proprietary products like the Big Gulp® fountain soft drinks, Big Bite® hot dogs, and Slurpee® beverages, a sweet, semi-frozen, flavored drink. 7-Eleven promoted Slurpees with limited-edition cup designs to appeal to kids and teens and to encourage repeat business. These collectible plastic cups from 1975 feature Marvel comic book characters. The 10 designs in the museum’s collection are from a total of 60 in the series and include Captain America, Red Sonja, Dr. Doom, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Falcon, The Vision, Silver Surfer, Black Panther, and Cyclops. The 12-oz. size predates the popularity of supersized (1.2 liter) drinks.; Omar Knedlik invented a machine to make frozen beverages with a slushy consistency in the late 1950s. In 1965, 7-Eleven began a licensing deal with his brand, the ICEE Company, to sell the same product under a different name. 7-Eleven has been selling Slurpees since 1967.

date made: 1975

maker: Marvel Comics Group; Southland Corporation

ID Number: 2012.0040.01
accession number: 2012.0040
catalog number: 2012.0040.01

This three-tiered bamboo steamer is a type used throughout Asia to steam vegetables, breads, fish, dim sum, fruits, in fact, different things that might make up an entire meal, all at the same time.

Description: This three-tiered bamboo steamer is a type used throughout Asia to steam vegetables, breads, fish, dim sum, fruits, in fact, different things that might make up an entire meal, all at the same time. The things to be cooked are placed in the tiers and the whole steamer is placed over a pot of water heated by the electric, gas, or charcoal of the stove below. The lid, placed on the top tier, then covers the foods until they have finished steaming, and the foods can then be served directly from the steamer. The steamers were particularly favored by “health food” advocates, along with new fans of Asian cuisines, because the cooking method used involved no added fats.; There are metal steamers available, though bent bamboo is still the traditional material used throughout Asia and now, wherever people have adopted and adapted Asian foods for use elsewhere. Such a steamer was probably not the first Asian cooking tool imported for use in the United States for cooking all sorts of foods, including the increasingly popular Asian-style foods that came into use after World War II. The Hibachi for grilling, the wok for stir frying, rice cooker/steamers for rice cookery, and the tiered steamers have been popular here since the 1950s.
Location: Currently not on view

ID Number: 2011.0238.01.b
accession number: 2011.0238
catalog number: 2011.0238.01.b

Tropical hardwoods such as koa, monkeypod, and teak became popular in the 1950s and ’60s as a material for serving bowls, platters, and utensils, as well as for outdoor furniture.

Description: Tropical hardwoods such as koa, monkeypod, and teak became popular in the 1950s and ’60s as a material for serving bowls, platters, and utensils, as well as for outdoor furniture. This teakwood tray has “Polynesian” decorations, similar to those found on glassware and other serving dishes in tiki and beach bars. This serving ware was designed to hold the Hawaiian, Asian, and Caribbean snacks of a pupu platter (snacks, canapés, appetizers, hors d’oeuvres) served with the mai tais, daiquiris, Singapore Slings, and hurricanes also popular with tiki followers.; Wearing the aloha shirts and muumuus acquired on trips to Hawaii, men and women of the 195’s and later would serve these new foods added to their home repertoires from the tiki bar food (vaguely Asian and Caribbean) made popular by Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic’s restaurants. The popularity of many of these dishes and drinks, still served in revival tiki bars and in hundreds of Chinese Cantonese restaurants, is indisputable. Baby barbecued pork ribs, shrimp toast, chicken “drumettes,” chicken livers and water chestnuts (rumaki), all sorts of things skewered such as terayaki meat grilled on bamboo sticks, all dunked in “duck” sauce or soy sauce, dumplings (dim sum), vegetable and seafood tempuras, fried shrimp, anything with pineapple, chicken wings, eggrolls, and others came to be in the basic repertoire of American bar food.
Location: Currently not on view

ID Number: 2011.0210.03
catalog number: 2011.0210.03
accession number: 2011.0210

To mark the annual harvest season, or “crush,” the Ravenswood Winery in Sonoma, California, produces a staff T-shirt.

Description: To mark the annual harvest season, or “crush,” the Ravenswood Winery in Sonoma, California, produces a staff T-shirt. The work of the entire year culminates in the harvest, and weeks and weeks of intense, nearly non-stop work results in hundreds of gallons of wine fermenting in huge tanks.; Different each year, the special T-shirts solidify unity and celebrate shared identity among staff for the hard work of harvest and crush. The shirts identify the people who are helping create what will become a new vintage. The slogan typically plays off some bit of shared humor or insider’s knowledge, perhaps something the crew studied during the year. Wearing the shirts, the crew shares a private joke, while anyone who sees the shirt may wish to be in on the secret, to belong to the group.; This burgundy T-shirt, from the 2002 season, poses the question, Who is Crljenak Kastelanski? The question is not really who, but what, for Crjenak Kastelanski is the name of the Croatian grape that is the parent stock of modern Zinfandel. It was identified through DNA analysis by Dr. Carole Meredith of the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis, who worked in collaboration with Ivan Pejic and Edi Maletic, scientists at the University of Zagreb. Their discovery was announced in December 2001, providing the esoteric, insider’s knowledge for the 2002 harvest T-shirt at Ravenswood.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 2002

maker: Hanes Corporation

ID Number: 2011.0150.07
catalog number: 2011.0150.07
accession number: 2011.0150

Worn by workers harvesting fruit by hand, this polymer bucket with a fabric, draw-stringed bottom, was used during the 2011 harvest of Norton grapes at Chrysalis Vineyards near Middleburg, Virginia.

Description: Worn by workers harvesting fruit by hand, this polymer bucket with a fabric, draw-stringed bottom, was used during the 2011 harvest of Norton grapes at Chrysalis Vineyards near Middleburg, Virginia. Manufactured by Wells & Wade, makers of harvest equipment in Wenatchee, Washington, this type of bucket is a more common sight in Virginia’s apple orchards than its vineyards. But the owner of Chrysalis, Jennifer McCloud, decided that the crew harvesting her Nortons would benefit from the equipment used by the region’s apple pickers.; The Norton, a hybrid developed from native American grapes, thrived in Virginia in the 19th century, despite the region’s challenging, humid climate. The old vineyards were obliterated during Prohibition in the 1920s, but the varietal was still thriving in Missouri when Virginia vintner Dennis Horton brought back cuttings to plant in his vineyard near Gordonsville. His first vintage of Norton in 1992 inspired other Virginians to plant the hardy grape, including McCloud, who, by 2011, had 40 acres of Norton vines to tend.; McCloud trellises her Nortons so that the fruit lies on top of the leaves, rathering than hanging low where the grapes would be subject to mildew and rot during the humid growing season. Nestled above the leaves, the clusters not only receive the sunlight, but also the benefit of occasional breezes that waft through the Piedmont terrain. At harvest time, which is typically in October and November, workers strap on the baskets, with the bucket at chest height. As they walk through the vineyard rows, they cut the clusters into the bucket, without having to bend or stoop down. Once the bucket is filed, the picker walks to a waiting tub or gondola, unties the drawstring, and lets the grapes fall into the container. During the 2011 harvest, pickers Efrain Rivera, Luis Fernando Nolazco Hedes, Fernando Nolazco Ortega, and Fredy Villalobos were among the workers picking grapes in this manner at Chrysalis.
Location: Currently not on view

ID Number: 2012.0011.01
accession number: 2012.0011
catalog number: 2012.0011.01

Oscar Robledo used this leather strap for sharpening his budding knife as he grafted grapevines in the field. Budding, a highly valued skill in wine country, requires precision as well as stamina.

Description: Oscar Robledo used this leather strap for sharpening his budding knife as he grafted grapevines in the field. Budding, a highly valued skill in wine country, requires precision as well as stamina. Robeldo carried this leather strap and his knife, along with a roll of tape and sticks of budwood in a handmade box as he budded vines in his family’s vineyards in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. There he grafted new buds onto healthy rootstock, a practice that allows growers to plant different varietals (e.g., Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon) onto mature roots.; Oscar is a member of the Sonoma-based Robledo winegrowing family. His brother Reynaldo migrated north from Michoacán in 1968. Following their father, who worked in the bracero program (a contract labor program that brought Mexican men to work in the United States between 1942 and 1964), Reynaldo found work in the rapidly expanding vineyards of Napa and Sonoma. He rose quickly from vineyard laborer to budder, and eventually to vineyard manager. By the 1990s he had purchased significant acreage and established the Robledo Family Winery. Reynaldo Robledo’s wife, children, and several members of the extended family are active in the wine business, producing wines that complement the family’s Mexican roots.

ID Number: 2011.0237.02
catalog number: 2011.0237.02
accession number: 2011.0237

The small white porcelain cup, traditional for espresso in Italy and France, with 2 oz. double shot serving size as opposed to the 1 oz. single shot, the “short” shot (or ristretto), is perfect for the very beverage that emerges from the huge brass machines in coffee bars.

Description: The small white porcelain cup, traditional for espresso in Italy and France, with 2 oz. double shot serving size as opposed to the 1 oz. single shot, the “short” shot (or ristretto), is perfect for the very beverage that emerges from the huge brass machines in coffee bars. It is now common for coffee bar chains (such as Peets or Starbucks or Caribou Coffee) to issue collectible cups for in-house service with their logos and shapes distinctive to them. Nowadays, even espresso might be served in a paper cup. But the little unembellished white porcelain cups are the classic, this one acquired around 1990 to serve coffee from a home espresso machine

ID Number: 2012.0124.03
catalog number: 2012.0124.03
accession number: 2012.0124

Americans of the post-World War II era were not wine drinkers.

Description: Americans of the post-World War II era were not wine drinkers. In the 1950’s, wine consumption was generally confined either to a few well-traveled people near each coast who associated wine with fine dining, both customarily French, or to members of ethnic communities who had long drunk both homemade and imported wines with foods common to their community. Infrequent wine consumers often drank “Chianti” at inexpensive Italian-American restaurants where they consumed their spaghetti and lasagna with wine from familiar straw covered green bottles (fiaschi) placed on the red checked tablecloths. The same bottles, once emptied, served as candleholders and decorative touches in these neighborhood gathering places, and these same straw-covered bottles of Italian wine were often among the few wines available at liquor stores throughout the country.; Students, communards, beatniks, and Italian-American restaurant goers alike used the emptied Chianti bottles, with their peasant straw fiaschi, from the 1950’s through the 1980’s, both as cheap drink, lighting, and decoration until the availability of better quality American and European wines changed their drinking habits.. In 2012, the little straw covered Chianti bottles, with their residue from the many hours of candlewax dripped down their sides, are available in second hand stores and online purchasing centers for those who keep a sentimental attachment to the decorative markers of their youth.; This particular bottle, date 1950, was purchased on e-Bay by just such a sentimentalist, a museum curator who remembered long hours spent in the 1960’s reading poetry with friends, discussing politics, and drinking cheap wine from bottles such as this one.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1950-1970

ID Number: 2011.3054.01
nonaccession number: 2011.3054
catalog number: 2011.3054.01

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.

date made: ca 1950-2000

ID Number: 2011.0152.04
catalog number: 2011.0152.04
accession number: 2011.0152

Many different dietary practices, combined with a philosophy of “do-it-yourself’ and “grow-your-own, ”appeared and stayed as major alternatives to mass-marketed, mass-produced food, which political and cultural activists of the 1960’s and 1970’s, termed “slave” food, “corporate”

Description: Many different dietary practices, combined with a philosophy of “do-it-yourself’ and “grow-your-own, ”appeared and stayed as major alternatives to mass-marketed, mass-produced food, which political and cultural activists of the 1960’s and 1970’s, termed “slave” food, “corporate” food, and “white-bread.” Questioning how the food Americans ate was produced, prepared, and consumed, many advocated new models of food production and new diets. The 1960’s saw the introduction of many foods, once common only in Asia, adopted and adapted by those who had rejected mainstream food and foodways, and among these were foods that were thought to be “healthier” than those rejected. Before many of the ingredients common to the new and “healthier” foods became mass produced and common in grocery stores, as many did in the 1980’s, aficionados would make their own yogurt and bean sprouts.; Adventurous cooks, like the one who adapted this standard timeless Mason canning jar with a piece of screening, c. 1970, could grow their own sprouts, adding water to mung beans (a common Asian bean used for sprouting and for making bean pastes) in the jar and rinsing the beans every day until they sprouted. They ate the sprouts cooked and raw. Many commercial versions of bean sprouters (like yogurt makers) are available in 2012, though many different varieties of commercially produced fresh bean sprouts are now commonly available in produce sections of grocery stores.

ID Number: 2012.0036.01
accession number: 2012.0036
catalog number: 2012.0036.01

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.b
accession number: 2011.0238
catalog number: 2011.0238.02.b

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: 2012.0125.02
accession number: 2012.0125
catalog number: 2012.0125.02

This razor knife was used during the 2011 harvest of Norton grapes at Chrysalis Vineyards in Middleburg, Virginia. The orange plastic head holds opposing razor edges, which can quickly sever even tough stems.

Description: This razor knife was used during the 2011 harvest of Norton grapes at Chrysalis Vineyards in Middleburg, Virginia. The orange plastic head holds opposing razor edges, which can quickly sever even tough stems. The black handle can be bent to an angle preferred by a particular picker.; The Norton, a hybrid developed from native American grapes, thrived in Virginia in the 19th century, despite the region’s challenging, humid climate. The old vineyards were obliterated during Prohibition in the 1920s, but the varietal was still thriving in Missouri when Virginia vintner Dennis Horton brought back cuttings to plant in his vineyard near Gordonsville. His first vintage of Norton in 1992 inspired other Virginians to plant the hardy grape, including McCloud, who, by 2011, had 40 acres of Norton vines to tend.; McCloud trellises her Nortons so that the fruit lies on top of the leaves, rathering than hanging low where the grapes would be subject to mildew and rot during the humid growing season. Nestled above the leaves, the clusters not only receive the sunlight, but also the benefit of occasional breezes that waft through the Piedmont terrain. At harvest time, which is typically in October and November, workers strap on picking baskets, with the bucket at chest height. As they walk through the vineyard rows, they use razor knives to cut the clusters into the bucket, without having to bend or stoop down. Once the bucket is filed, the picker walks to a waiting tub or gondola, unties the drawstring, and lets the grapes fall into the container. During the 2011 harvest, pickers Efrain Rivera, Luis Fernando Nolazco Hedes, Fernando Nolazco Ortega, and Fredy Villalobos were among the workers picking grapes in this manner at Chrysalis.
Location: Currently not on view

ID Number: 2012.0011.02
catalog number: 2012.0011.02
accession number: 2012.0011

Food

Daredevil Slurpee Cup

Lettuce Carrier

Cappuccino Cup

Football Snack Bowl

Poster, 7th Annual Zinfandel Festival

BBQ Shirt

KRUPS Espresso Machine

Bread Pan

Carboy

Red Sonja Slurpee Cup

Menu, 1976 Gold Rush Zinfandel at Chez Panisse

The Black Panther Slurpee Cup

Bamboo Steamer Strainer

Teak Tray, about 1965

T-shirt, "Who is Crljenak Kasteljanski?"

Picking Basket

Leather Strap for Sharpening Knife

Espresso Cup

Bertolli Chianti Bottle

T.V. Tray Table and Stand

"Golden Harvest" Mason Jar

Pasta Maker Handle

Aluminum Tumblers (9)

Grape Picking Knife