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 2024 items.
Page 67 of 203
Oyster Shucking Knife
- Description
- This tool was made and used in Crisfield, Maryland, a watermen’s community on the lower Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It was used to shuck (open) oysters, probably in one of Crisfield’s many oyster-packing houses in the early part of the 20th century.
- Oysters in the shell can be sold to consumers, but most are processed—shucked, rinsed, and packed into containers—in packing houses located near the water. Oyster processing in Maryland began in Baltimore in the first half of the 19th century and expanded to locations around the bay and closer to the oyster beds after the Civil War. African American men and women comprised the majority of workers in these packing houses.
- Oysters are bivalves, whose two shells are held together by a strong muscle. They grow on diverse hard surfaces, including each other, and their shells develop unique shapes and contours. Because of this, no two oysters are alike, a fact that has vexed would-be inventors of an oyster-opening machine. No machine has ever replaced the speed and accuracy of a skilled pair of human hands.
- Shucking oysters takes strength and stamina. In the Chesapeake, the oyster season occurs in winter, and shuckers had to stand in damp, usually unheated rooms with concrete floors to work. They wore boots, gloves, and waterproof aprons over their clothing as protection against the cold mud that stuck to the oyster shells. Paid by the weight of the oyster meats they produced and not by the hour, shuckers learned to work quickly and accurately. Torn oyster meat not only lost its shape, it also lost its water content, its weight, and its value.
- This knife is of the “cracking” type, named because the wider end was used for separating a cluster oysters or cracking off the tip of an oyster before the pointed end was inserted between the shells. Once a shucker separated the shells, he or she would deftly cut the muscle and drop the meat into a container. When the container was full, the shucker would take it to a scale to be weighed.
- This knife was forged and honed into shape by a blacksmith, possibly John Stephens or Jack Swift, both Crisfield blacksmiths who made a variety of tools for use in the water business. The initials “JS” are stamped in the thick end of the knife.
- date made
- 1900
- maker
- Swift, Jack
- ID Number
- 2008.0052.01
- accession number
- 2008.0052
- catalog number
- 2008.0052.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Civil War Soldier's Mess
- Description
- Physical Description
- Small metal box to protect matches, two-piece lantern, metal frying pan, and cup. Hardtack.
- General History
- A match safe, lantern, frying pan, and cup would have been part of a soldier’s equipment. Hardtack is the name given to a thick cracker made of flour, water, and sometimes salt. While it has been called by several nicknames, the Union Army of the Potomac referred to the ration as hardtack, and the name stuck. When stored properly, hardtack would last for years. Because it could be prepared cheaply and would last so long, hardtack was the most convenient food for soldiers. The army furnished hardtack by weight, but in most units the biscuits were doled out by number, with a ration generally being nine or ten.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- associated date
- 1861 - 1865
- ID Number
- AF*55596
- catalog number
- 55596
- accession number
- 195333
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Schooner Cook's Bell
- Description
- This brass bell was used to summon the crew to meals on a Gloucester (Massachusetts) fishing schooner in the late 19th century. Each sailing schooner shipped a cook along with eight to twelve fishermen and a captain. Before heading out, the cook provisioned the schooner with food for the trip. George W. Scott served as a cook on the schooner Ocean King in 1879, around the time this bell was in service. His journal lists the following provisions for a four-month journey: 5 barrels beef, 1 barrel pork, 1 barrel hams, 10 barrels flour, 50 gallons molasses, 15 bushels potatoes, and 200 pounds butter.
- The cook on a Gloucester schooner produced three large meals a day. Meal times followed the rhythm of work and were likely to change depending on the catch and the weather. Fishing always came first, and a good cook was able to work around changes in the routine. The schooner fare was similar to meals served in the crew’s home towns across New England and Atlantic Canada. Breakfast might consist of doughnuts, pancakes, potatoes, and porridge. The main meal of the day was dinner (lunch), and typically consisted of meat, soup, fish, baked beans, pudding, cakes, and bread or biscuits. Supper might have been leftovers.
- Fishing in the North Atlantic was hard work, and three meals were usually not enough to keep the crew satisfied. So the cook left bread, pie, and leftovers in a cupboard where the crew could grab snacks between fishing duties. All meals were announced by the loud ringing of the bell. At meal times the captain and half the crew would eat at the table in the galley set by the cook. The other half would continue working until the second shift was signaled by the ringing of the bell. A good cook was one who could clear the table, wash the dishes, and reset the table in mere minutes, while keeping the hot food coming.
- date made
- 1882
- 1883
- Associated Date
- late 19th century
- cook on the schooner "Ocean King"
- Scott, George W.
- ID Number
- AG*054697
- accession number
- 012158
- catalog number
- 054697
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stoneware Water Cooler
- Description
- Eleazer Orcutt was trained as a potter by his father in Whately, Massachusetts and operated potteries at various times around New York State and in New England. He partnered with Horace Humiston in Troy, New York in 1832. This ice water cooler was probably made for an individual or firm named A. Drown in Canaan, New York and is decorated with a classical figure holding a lute.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- about 1832
- maker
- Orcutt, Eleazer
- Humiston, Horace
- ID Number
- CE*300894.017
- catalog number
- 300894.17
- accession number
- 300894
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stoneware Crock
- Description
- John Burger managed Nathan Clark’s Rochester, New York pottery beginning in 1841, before Clark sold his share of the business to Burger and Thompson Harrington in the early 1850s. Burger’s salt-glazed stoneware is similar to Clark’s work; both are known for their cobalt flower designs with strongly accentuated leaf patterns and generous use of color. The shape of this jar reflects the shift around the 1860’s towards straight-sided rather than ovoid pots.
- date made
- 1854-1867
- maker
- Burger, John
- ID Number
- CE*319884.161
- catalog number
- 319884.161
- accession number
- 319884
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Mackerel Plow (Knife)
- Description
- Used by New England fishermen aboard mackerel schooners in the 19th century, this unusual tool converted poor “leather-bellies” to fat “Number 1” fish with a few short strokes. Mackerel caught in seines at the beginning of the season—in spring and early summer—were generally lean, dry, and tough, and not worth much at market. But fishermen found a way to plump them up to command a higher price. After splitting a scrawny mackerel down its back with a larger knife, a fisherman would make several slashes parallel to the backbone with the small blade of the plow. Like plowing furrows on land, the slashes opened the flesh, causing the fish to swell and look fat, which could bring a higher price.
- Fishermen typically had their own mackerel plows, which were widely variable in size and design. All were handmade of wood and had very small metal blades. Many, like this one, had an open handle that fit the hand of its user. This example is embellished with pewter inlays, including five-pointed stars and the initials “EB,” presumably to identify its owner.
- Date made
- 1880s
- ID Number
- TR*029368
- catalog number
- 029368
- accession number
- 12679
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ship Model, Chaleur
- Description
- In the mid-18th century, little sloops, brigs, and schooners were the small craft of choice for use in local coastal trade along the shores of North America. In the early 1760s, the British Royal Navy produced a list of six vessels it intended to purchase in the New England area for use in the North American Squadron. The Chaleur was one of these vessels, possibly purchased in Boston in May 1764. Its original name and home port are unknown.
- Originally, the Chaleur is believed to have been rigged as an armed sloop. In 1768, records indicate that it was re-rigged as a two-masted schooner, as shown by the model. The Chaleur was sent back to England, where the hull shape was documented at the Royal Navy’s Woolwich Dockyard, London. The schooner’s hull was found to be rotten, so the Navy recommended that it be sold. It dropped out of the record at that point, and at present nothing is known of its later history.
- Date made
- 1962
- ID Number
- TR*320005
- catalog number
- 320005
- accession number
- 241594
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ship Model, Ketch
- Description
- In 17th-century New England, the ketch (or “catch”) was a small, two-masted craft with a square stern. Ketches had small crews of around four men, and they are believed to have had fore-and-aft rigs, rather than square sails, for ease and simplicity of handling. They were used mainly for local coastal trade and for fishing on the shallow sand banks off the New England coast.
- In the early 18th century, this boat type disappeared from contemporary records and descriptions. It was replaced by the “scooner” or schooner, a similar boat type with a fore-and-aft rig that was easy and economical to sail. In fact, some scholars think that only the name changed, and that the two boat types were almost identical in rig and construction.
- Date made
- 1978
- original ship built
- ca 1600
- maker
- Hoff, Jr., William Bruce
- ID Number
- TR*336377
- accession number
- 1978.0351
- catalog number
- 336377
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
[Bowls of brightly dyed Easter eggs : chromogenic color phototransparency.]
- Summary
- Four bowls, containing blue, red, green, and yellow eggs. "Agfachrome CT18" edge imprint on film
- Date
- 1951
- 1950-1980
- 1960-1990
- photographer
- Sultner-Welles, Donald H (Sultner, Donald Harvey) 1914-1981
- Local number
- AC0145-0000049.tif (AC scan no.)
- 53482 Videodisc frame
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Japanese transports carrying food from Choraizi Station to front lines--siege of Port Arthur. 7604 Interpositive
- Notes
- Same as RSN 14195
- Currently stored in box 3.2.20 [204B]
- Date
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- photographer
- Ricalton, James
- Local number
- RSN 21928
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
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