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 1 items.
Health Food: Macrobiotic Brown Rice
- Description
- Brown rice became popular in the United States as part of the whole and organic foods movement that began in the 1960s and 1970s. Health food stores sprang up to meet the new consumer demands for such things as whole wheat products, tofu, miso, and brown rice (to produce the familiar white rice, rice is "polished" by removing its nutritious outer coat of bran). Today, organic and whole foods are found in every neighborhood grocery store, and many restaurants serve brown rice and vegi-burgers as a matter of course.
- This bag of rice was donated by Michio and Aveline Kushi, two of the foremost teachers of macrobiotics. Macrobiotics, meaning literally "big life," is a spiritual, nutritional, and therapeutic system that focuses on the interrelationship of mind, body, spirit, and society. Whole foods, such as brown rice, are central to a macrobiotic diet, and many of the first customers and owners of the alternative food stores were students of macrobiotics. Macrobiotic principles are Pan-Asian in origin, dating back several centuries. In the 20th century, a few creative and brilliant teachers, such as the Kushis (who immigrated to the United States from Japan after World War II), emerged who distilled the wide-ranging ideas and interpreted them for modern, urban, and industrialized life.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- distributor
- Great Eastern Sun
- maker
- Great Eastern Sun
- ID Number
- 1997.0240.05
- catalog number
- 1997.0240.05
- accession number
- 1997.0240
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center