Food

• 

  Barrel Chock

  Description

  An insecure barrel stack is an unacceptable hazard in a winery. This wooden wedge was one of hundreds used to stabilize stacks of 225 liter (60 gallon) wine barrels that were holding wine for aging at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (SLWC) in California’s Napa Valley in the mid-1990s. The prosaic but essential chocks, pushed into place along the curves at the bottom of each barrel, kept the formidable stacks of French oak barrels secure and stable. As cellar workers climbed the stacks to top off barrels and monitor the wine, they trusted the chocks to function properly.

  ID Number

  1998.0181.17C

  accession number

  1998.0181

  catalog number

  1998.0181.17C

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Barrel Chock

  Description

  An insecure barrel stack is an unacceptable hazard in a winery. This wooden wedge was one of hundreds used to stabilize stacks of 225 liter (60 gallon) wine barrels that were holding wine for aging at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (SLWC) in California’s Napa Valley in the mid-1990s. The prosaic but essential chocks, pushed into place along the curves at the bottom of each barrel, kept the formidable stacks of French oak barrels secure and stable. As cellar workers climbed the stacks to top off barrels and monitor the wine, they trusted the chocks to function properly.

  ID Number

  1998.0181.17D

  accession number

  1998.0181

  catalog number

  1998.0181.17D

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• Trade catalogs from Highbee's

  Date

  1900s

  Company Name

  Highbee's

  Record ID

  SILNMAHTL_42655

  Data source

  Smithsonian Libraries

• Basket for Goldman's Folding Basket Carriage

  Description (Brief)

  To increase shoppers ability to purchase more groceries, Sylvan Goldman of Oklahoma City, developed a "combination of basket and carriage." He devised a folding frame with wheels and two shelves which held two stock wire baskets. He filed for patent on March 14, 1938 and recieved approved patent on April 9, 1940 for the Folding Basket Carriage for Self-Serivce Stores.

  Date made

  ca 1937

  maker

  Folding Basket Carrier Co.

  ID Number

  CL.302377.02

  accession number

  302377

  patent number

  2196914

  catalog number

  302377.02

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• Ice-Cream Disher

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1900 - 1925

  ID Number

  DL.263901.0136

  catalog number

  263901.0136

  accession number

  263901

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• churn

  Location

  Currently not on view

  ID Number

  DL.301219.0035

  catalog number

  301219.0035

  accession number

  301219

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Fruit Salad

  Description (Brief)

  A Nickolas Muray 3-color carbro photograph of fruit salad in a glass bowl ca. 1940s. Mazola advertisment.

  Verso: Muray label. Muray stamp. "Mazola Ad" (black pencil). "Carbro made from ektachrome" (black pencil).

  Description

  Nickolas Muray was born in Szeged, Hungary on February 15, 1892. Twelve years after his birth, Muray left his native town and enrolled in a graphic arts school in Budapest. Enrolling in art school was the first step on a road that would eventually lead him to study a photographic printing process called three-color carbro. In the course of his accomplished career, Muray would become an expert in this process and play a key role in bringing color photography to America.

  While attending art school in Budapest, Muray studied lithography and photoengraving, earning an International Engraver's Certificate. Muray was also introduced to photography during this time period. His combined interest in photography and printmaking led him to Berlin, Germany to participate in a three-year color-photoengraving course. In Berlin, Muray learned how to make color filters, a first step in the craft that would one day become his trademark. Immediately after the completion of the course, Muray found a good job with a publishing company in Ullstein, Germany. However, the threat of war in Europe forced Muray to flee for America in 1913. Soon after his arrival in New York, Muray was working as a photoengraver for Condé Nast. His specialty was color separations and half-tone negatives.

  By 1920, Muray had established a home for himself in the up-and-coming artists' haven of Greenwich Village. He opened a portrait studio out of his apartment and continued to work part time at his engraving job. Harper's Bazaar magazine gave Muray his first big assignment in 1921. The project was to photograph Broadway star Florence Reed. The magazine was so impressed with his photographs that they began to publish his work monthly. This allowed him to give up his part time job and work solely as a photographer. It did not take long for Muray to become one of the most renowned portrait photographers in Manhattan. Muray spent much of the early 1920s photographing the most famous and important personalities in New York at the time.

  In his spare time Muray enjoyed fencing. In 1927, he won the National Sabre Championship and in 1928 and 1932, he was on the United States Olympic Team. During World War II, Muray was a flight lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1940s

  maker

  Muray, Nickolas

  ID Number

  PG.69.247.09

  catalog number

  69.247.09

  accession number

  287542

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Salad Fork, SS United States

  Description

  Used by passengers traveling aboard the ocean liner SS United States, this silverplate salad fork was manufactured for the United States Lines by the International Silver Co., a Connecticut company formed in 1898. The Manhattan pattern features a detailed fan design on the handle, a popular pattern in the early 1950s, which is also when the United States began its transatlantic service. The phrase “U.S. Lines 52” is engraved on the back of the handle.

  A survey of SS United States menus from the 1950s reveals a limited range of salads, many of them familiar standards such as heart of lettuce, sliced tomato, cole slaw, beet salad, and chef’s salad. A few offerings—chicory, watercress, or Belgian endive—may have seemed exotic to American travelers of the 1950s. The dressings available for most salads included the familiar French, Thousand Island, Lemon, and Garlic, with an occasional “California,” Roquefort, or simply “Special,” on the side.

  The SS United States was the largest and fastest passenger liner ever built in the United States. Launched in 1952, it was billed as the most modern and luxurious ship in service on the North Atlantic. The ship had 695 staterooms located on eight of the liner’s 12 decks. It could accommodate 1,972 passengers in first, cabin, or tourist class. Three separate dining rooms served passengers traveling in each class. Some 1,011 crew were required to run the ship and serve the passengers.

  Date made

  1950s

  maker

  International Silver Company

  ID Number

  TR.336767.119

  catalog number

  336767.119

  accession number

  1978.2219

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Sauceboat

  Description

  Raised ovoid sauceboat with flared curvilinear rim and wide pouring lip on three cast scroll legs attached to 7-lobed shells on body and terminating in matching shell feet; double C-curve handle has an open-ended, waterleaf upper terminal and split bud lower terminal. Body is engraved on one side "TMF" in conjoined script to right of a crest depicting a bird of prey standing with wings displayed on a heraldic wreath, and on opposite side with crest of a collared owl on a heraldic wreath. Bottom underside struck with four hallmarks: a crowned leopard's head, left-facing lion passant, and London date letter, all in scalloped shields, and the raised calligraphic letters "JS" in an oval. No centerpunch.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1753

  ID Number

  DL.308963.0002

  catalog number

  308963.0002

  accession number

  308963

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Photograph of Vegetable Hodgepodge for Burpee Seed Co.

  Description

  Frederick Eugene Ives (1856–1937) was a brilliant man interested in patenting his ideas (the first in 1881), but not so much in licensing them. Ives's first three-color single exposure camera was patented in 1899. Over the next thirty years, Ives patented a variety of cameras and printing processes for color photography. After the Smithsonian hosted a show of Ives's photography company's work in late 1949 or early 1950, Associate Curator Alexander Wedderburn selected five prints for the color photography portion of the Photographic History Collection. This photograph represents the culmination of Ives's long series of patents and work with color photography.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  Date made

  1940s

  maker

  Ives Color Processes, Inc.

  ID Number

  PG.004680

  accession number

  187952

  catalog number

  4680

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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