Food - Overview
Part of a nation's history lies in what people eat. Artifacts at the Museum document the history of food in the United States from farm machinery to diet fads.
More than 1,300 pieces of stoneware and earthenware show how Americans have stored, prepared, and served food for centuries. Ovens, cookie cutters, kettles, aprons, and ice-cream-making machines are part of the collections, along with home canning jars and winemaking equipment. More than 1,000 objects recently came to the Museum when author and cooking show host Julia Child donated her entire kitchen, from appliances to cookbooks.
Advertising and business records of several food companies—such as Hills Brothers Coffee, Pepsi Cola, and Campbell's Soup—represent the commercial side of the subject
"Food - Overview" showing 1216 items.
Page 1 of 122
CARE Package
- Description
- This cardboard CARE package, contains seven smaller boxes and bags of macaroni, cornmeal, Carnation instant chocolate flavored drink mix, and nonfat dried milk. It has a paper insert reading "August 6, 1962. Greetings from the men of the U.S.S. Lake Champlain." The macaroni boxes are marked "Packed for CARE USA by A.Zerega's Sons, Inc." CARE is the acronym for "Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe." CARE Package is the registered trademark of the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, Inc. It began its emergency food relief at the end of World War II.
- Originally, CARE packages contained surplus foodstuffs from the military, but after the Army rations ran out in early 1947, CARE assembled its own packages, typically containing several tinned meats, eight ounces of powdered eggs, a pound each of lard, apricot preserves, honey, and raisins, and two pounds each of margarine, sugar, powdered milk, and coffee. Food companies made donations of their products, but CARE bought most of these supplies and paid for their shipment. Individuals placed orders by mailing a $15 "remittance" (a check or money order) to CARE's headquarters in New York.
- Packages were assembled in Philadelphia, shipped overseas, and delivered locally by any means of conveyance. When a recipient received the gift, a signed receipt was returned to the sender within 120 days. As the famine threat subsided, CARE packages included books, blankets, tools, and knitting supplies. CARE even managed to send x-ray machines and iron lungs from its larger donors. The food package program ended in 1967, as CARE switched to other means of shipping commodities, though it renewed the classic CARE Package occasionally, most recently in the former Soviet republics and in Bosnia.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1962
- ID Number
- 1996.0067.01.1
- catalog number
- 1996.0067.01.1
- accession number
- 1996.0067
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Prototype "Servodyne" Klystron-powered Microwave Oven
- Description
- Roger F. French, Donald R. Lester, and John A. Gunnarson made this prototype microwave oven in 1961. Only two were produced. Instead of using a magnetron to generate the microwaves, this oven used a type of vacuum tube called a klystron. To see how the ovens would work in actual kitchens, Gunnarson used this one in his home and French used the other. Children of the inventors recall impressing their friends with the ease of cooking with microwaves, years before such ovens became commonplace.
- French had founded Servodyne Corporation in 1960 to produce and sell microwave ovens for the home. But they faced stiff competition. Other companies like Raytheon, which had produced a large "Radarange" for commercial use in 1954, were working on home ovens that used magnetrons. Servodyne failed to attract enough funding to bring the invention to market, and the company folded in 1968.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1961
- 1961
- user
- Gunnarson, John A.
- maker
- Gunnarson, John A.
- French, Roger F.
- Lester, Donald R.
- ID Number
- 2003.0107.01
- catalog number
- 2003.0107.01
- accession number
- 2003.0107
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Cunard [menu]
- Summary
- Menu for a meal on a cruise, July 17 1969. Illustration showing a large English woman with boat on her head being led by a much smaller marching black man
- Date
- 1969
- advertiser
- R.M.S. Mauretania
- Local number
- 040060173.tif (AC Scan No. front and back cover)
- 040060174.tif (AC Scan No. inside menu)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Reception at Liberian Embassy, Oct[ober] 1963 [cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Summary
- Posed group of men standing behind a table laid with food. One of the men wear traditional African dress. There is a cabinet and two windows with closed drapes behind them. No ink on negative. Ink on envelope: caption and "2 of ea glossy". "KODAK - SAFETY -- FILM" edge imprint. Retouching on faces with New Coccine
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1963
- October 1963
- 1960-1970
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- film manufacturer
- Eastman Kodak Co
- Subject
- Liberia Embassy (U.S.)
- Local number
- Box 618.04.109
- AC0618.004.0001644.tif (scan number)
- No Scurlock number
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Woman with baguettes (French bread), France : color slide (phototransparency).]
- Notes
- Series 5: box 171, sheet 25
- Date
- 1951
- 1981
- 20th century
- photographer
- Sultner-Welles, Donald H (Sultner, Donald Harvey) 1914-1981
- Local number
- AC0145-0000048.tif (AC scan no.)
- 53496 Videodisc frame
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Retirement luncheon for Dr. Freeman, Feb[ruary] 1964 [cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Summary
- Group of men seated and standing around a dining table. The table is laid with bowls of soup. No ink on negative. Ink on envelope: caption, "1 glossy of ea, 3 dw of big group, 1 dw of small group" and "2 glass [?] transfer [?] Dr. Thomas". "KODAK - SAFETY -- FILM" edge imprint. Retouching on faces with New Coccine
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- 1960
- February 1964
- 1960-1970
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- film manufacturer
- Eastman Kodak Co
- Subject
- Freeman Dr
- Local number
- Box 618.04.110
- AC0618.004.0001675.tif (scan number)
- No Scurlock number
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Here is the only complete line of Chinese Foods ... [black & white advertisement; tear sheet]
- Summary
- ... packed by American men and methods. Illustrated with a line of La Choy cans
- Cite as
- N. W. Ayer Advertising Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
- Date
- 1932
- 1960-1970
- advertiser
- La Choy Food Products, Inc
- Local number
- AC0059-0000079 (AC Scan)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Around the World with Doughnuts [magazine page]
- Summary
- Page 8 from The Doughnut Magazine, containing reproductions of photographs and drawings depicting the production, sale, and consumption of doughnnuts in England, South Africa, the Arctic, Genoa, and China
- Cite as
- Sally L. Steinberg Collection of Doughnut Ephemera, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1940
- 1950
- Undated
- 20th century
- 1940-1950
- collector
- Steinberg, Sally L
- Creator
- The Doughnut Magazine
- Local number
- AC0439-0000049.tif (AC Scan)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
H[oward] U[niversity] Girls Dorm[itory] Scenes [cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Summary
- Man standing at a kitchen sink washing greens. No ink on negative. "EASTMAN - SAFETY - ? 222" edge imprint
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- 1960
- [n.d.]
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- film manufacturer
- Eastman Kodak Co
- Subject
- Howard University
- Local number
- Box 618.04.91
- AC0618.004.00008689.tif (scan number)
- No Scurlock number
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
H[oward] U[niversity] Girls Dorm[itory] Scenes [cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Summary
- Man and woman preparing food in a kitchen. No ink on negative. "4 AGFA SAFETY FILM" edge imprint
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- 1960
- [n.d.]
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- film manufacturer
- Agfa
- Subject
- Howard University
- Local number
- Box 618.04.91
- AC0618.004.0000870.tif (scan number)
- No Scurlock number
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
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