Kitchenware

Introduction

American food culture has evolved through a rich interplay of foreign adaptation and home-grown invention. The food gathering and cultivation methods of native peoples; America's successive waves of colonial and immigrant populations; and 20th-century revolutions in agriculture and cooking technologies–all have shaped our culinary heritage.

Food and eating habits are a compelling tool for examining culture. Culinary histories illuminate national and ethnic identities and evolving gender roles, thereby shedding light on shifting social boundaries, changing patterns of family life, and national aspirations and values. The food habits of European colonists and Western homesteaders, for example, testified to the difficult and often primitive conditions of rural and frontier life. By contrast, at the end of the 19th century, America’s expanding economy and growing upper class fueled desires for elegance and self-indulgence with respect to food. By the early 1900s, labor-saving kitchen devices created more leisure time, allowing for a greater enjoyment of food as entertainment. In the mid-20th century, revolutions in agriculture and food technology transformed eating into big business, separating most Americans from food production entirely.

Kitchen Technology

Technological invention and domestic reform had an enormous impact on the evolution of the American kitchen. By the late 19th century, fewer women could rely on domestic servants; the housewife of the early 20th century required, and demanded, a more efficient kitchen in which to work.

A wide range of cooking appliances and equipment emerged during this period, offering the choice of coal range, coal-and-gas range, gas burners to convert the coal range to gas, gas range, electric range, and oil-cooker. As electricity became less expensive, it gradually replaced gas. Although some originally feared it might cause electrocution, in fact, the electric stove proved to be safer than gas, which carried a risk of explosion.

Another useful feature of the 19th century kitchen was the refrigerator, at first simply a lidless box containing a lump of ice. Finally, kitchen tools emerged to meet every conceivable "need," from coffee grinders to apple peelers to salad spinners. Perhaps no other segment of house wares is more characteristically American than the never-ending parade of products and "gadgets."

As fine antiques become more scarce, everyday items become more desirable. Thus the popularity of collecting painted store signs that advertise items of another era. The items found in a country or general store have become part of the history of our country and collected because they represent the practical, whimsical, and sometimes humorous side of everyday life. The stores were filled with inventions that are no longer in demand but are historically interesting because they show a former way of life. Packaging before the mid- nineteenth century was in bottles, boxes, tins and cans; all collectible today. Old tools or kitchen utensil made before 1900 especially those with patent dates and in original condition are very collectible.