It’s the most wonderful time of the year—holiday cooking and baking season! Though the slow rising of a dough or hand-mixing of a batter can be satisfying and soothing, sometimes we welcome opportunities to cut corners. Today we’ve mined the collection for technologies meant to make cooking just a little bit easier. Some have become mainstays of kitchens everywhere. Others (like the mystery heating appliance above) long ago disappeared to that impossible to reach top corner kitchen cabinet.
Thankfully, radium-coated cookware never gained great popularity. Promising to be impervious to acid and grease, to never burn or stick, X-Radium Cooking Utensils (below) were advertised at a moment when the element was finding its way into all sorts of consumer products, whether as an additive or just as a futuristic name. Our collection includes trademark registrations for a number of radium-infused or radium-inspired products, including suspenders, theatrical costumes, heaters, boots, paper, printing pigments, silk, soap, shirts, and hosiery.
Housekeepers […] X-radium cooking utensils: The latest and most scientific cooking utensils yet produced. 1905. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g14669Not all newfangled kitchen products dazzle and shout. Sometimes they offer a simple fix. Many developments in cooking technologies sprung from wartime necessity. The below photograph is part of a series produced by the Office of War Information encouraging substitution of materials based on availability. Glass utensils replaced metal, which was in demand for military use.
Substitute materials. Glass utensils. New type glass measuring cups have easy-to-read markings. The quart measuring cup shown here makes simple the job of preparing baby’s formula or cooking recipes. Photo by Albert Freeman, William Perlitch, or Roger Smith, January 1943. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b09820
Likewise, pressure cookers were highlighted as a means of conserving gas and preserving food.
How to conserve household gas. One of the best ways to save gas is to use a pressure cooker if you have one. These utensils save by greatly reducing the time of cooking. Another method to save gas is to use triplicate sets–three triangular cooking pots which fit together to make a circle. These make it possible to cook three vegetables on one burner. Photo by George Danor, November 1942. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b07704
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, educators from the Farm Security Administration traveled the country extolling the use of the pressure cooker as part of courses in efficient home management. The photographer’s caption for this image notes “These homesteaders say that the pressure cooker should be put on the national flag for they think it’s saving the farm folks for America.”
Mrs. Faro Caudill packing up kitchen equipment for moving to new dugout nearer the well. Notice the pressure cooker. These homesteaders say that the pressure cooker should be put on the national flag for they think it’s saving the farm folks for America. Pie Town, New Mexico. Photo by Russell Lee, June 1940. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b25389
Home cooks like Eulia Smart, below, made impressive use of the device.
Mrs. Eulia Smart says: “I never had a pressure cooker before an’ when I got this one, I canned everything in sight.” (264 quarts since spring) Coffee County, Alabama. Photo by John Collier Jr. August 1941. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8c32859
Electricity is the star of the next photograph. Steam billows out as a woman opens the lid to her electric roaster to check on the state of her turkey, the power cord featuring prominently against the modern geometric countertop. A boy illuminates the scene with an electric spotlight.
Royal Oak, Michigan. Woman cooking a turkey in an electric roaster. Photo by Arthur Siegel, December 1939. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d13642
In 1954, the electric appliance company Kelvinator commissioned architect Charles Goodman to design a home that would be offered as the grand prize in a short essay contest. According to advertisements for the competition, the home, which could be built in the location of the winner’s choosing, would be fitted with electric appliances designed to make every day feel like a holiday. Pictured here is the kitchen, featuring a sleek Kelvinator refrigerator, freezer, and oven.
Kelvinator Grand Prize Home. Kitchen and dining area. Perspective projection. Charles M. Goodman Associates, architect, 1954. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.79690
Goodman would later design a series of appliances and cookware for the building materials company TECFAB. The items in these drawings, like the console below, have the monumental feel of architectural elevations.
Control console and plug strip for electric cooking utensils for TECFAB, Inc. Front, side and top views. Charles M. Goodman Associates, Architects and Engineers, 1955. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.77341
Wishing you and yours happy (and efficient) holiday cooking!
Learn More:
- Read a blog post about kitchens in the Prints & Photographs Collection.
- View early twentieth century radium-related trademarks.
- View the many images related to pressure cookers in the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information archive.
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