Happy Pi(e) Day!
Pie Judging Contest with Dr. Louise Stanley and Mary Lindsay
From the series: Photographs of Nutrition Investigations, 1904 - 1939 from the Records of the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics, 1904 - 1939
(Our longtime followers may recall we ran this last year too — please don’t ‘judge’ us too harshly…)
Oleo Criminal
Photograph of John L. McMonigle, 1/22/1913
The “mug shot” of Leavenworth inmate John L. McMonigle, register number 8468. McMonigle was convicted of selling Oleomargarine, colored to look like butter, without paying the 10¢ per pound tax. He spent nearly a year in prison for violating the Oleomargarine Act of August 2, 1886.
More “Crimes against Butter” at Prologue »
(Ed. note: corrected tax amount from $10 to 10¢)
January 19 is National Popcorn Day!
THIS 50-YEAR-OLD POPCORN STAND IS A FIXTURE IN THE COMMUNITY OF NEW ULM, MINNESOTA. EACH SPRING AND SUMMER IT IS LOCATED ON CENTER STREET.
Flip Schulke, photographer. From the EPA’s DOCUMERICA series
How do you like your popcorn? With Butter? Salt? Plain? Or some other fancy topping?
January is National Soup Month
In honor of National Soup Month, here’s President Eisenhower’s recipe for (not so vegetarian) Vegetable Soup.
President Eisenhower’s Recipe for Vegetable Soup as Published in The Marion Sentenel, Linn County, Iowa
What is your favorite kind of soup?
December 16 is National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day
MEMBERS OF THE DONALD DANNHEIM FAMILY WHO OPERATE A DAIRY AND ICE CREAM STORE…DANNHEIM IS WORKING HARD TO RETAIN THE 10-CENT PRICE FOR CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM BARS. HE AND HIS FAMILY FREQUENTLY ARISE AT 5 A.M. IN THE SUMMER TO HAND MAKE AND HAND WRAP THE BARS…07/1974
Flip Schulke, photographer. From the EPA’s DOCUMERICA series
We’re not sure why it’s December 16. Not that we’re complaining, but December doesn’t already offer enough opportunities for snacks, chocolate-covered or otherwise?
“To Keep Bread, Cake, and Cookies Nice
protect from insects, mold, and mice”
Keep those cookies safe on National Cookie Day!
December 4th is National Cookie Day!
U.S. Marine Corps CPL. Victor Medrano prepares chocolate chip cookies for the crew of the aircraft carrier USS NIMITZ (CVN 68). Nimitz is deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch, 01/29/1998
Presidents eat Thanksgiving leftovers, too! Harry Truman and his family ate turkey soup and turkey hash at the White House on the day after Thanksgiving in 1948. Menu from the Truman Presidential Library Facebook page.
Happy Thanksgiving!
We hope you’re not spending Turkey Day by yourself in front of a radar screen, but let’s remember those who can’t take today off.
Arabian Sea. An air controlman AIRMAN eats his Thanksgiving dinner while keeping an eye on the radar scope in the helicopter direction center aboard the amphibious assault ship USS OKINAWA (LPH 3), 11/26/1987
We’re closed tomorrow for Thanksgiving! But we’ll be open on Friday. Keep the family entertained with a visit to the National Archives or a Presidential Library near you.
Happy Thanksgiving from the National Archives!
“This Counter Restaurant is at CCC Camp, TVA #22, near Esco, Tennessee. Temporarily the boys are eating outdoors and using for a lunch counter lumber which is to be used in the construction of their winter barracks. The barracks are being built by local labor. The cook’s tent, officers’ mess tent, etc., are in the background.”, 11/17/1933
In 1933, after submitting an outline for an introductory photographic survey of Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) projects, Lewis W. Hine was hired to do a one month assignment in East Tennessee. This photo of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers was taken November 17, 1933.
National Sandwich Day!
Sailor eating sandwich beneath propellers of torpedo being loaded aboard U.S. submarine at New London, Connecticut., 08/1943
Some people will do anything for a great sandwich - what lengths have you gone to in order to get that perfect sandwich (hopefully it didn’t involve standing under naval ordnance)?
Is your office overflowing with leftover candy today? We’ve got candy in the Archives too - but it’s an archival record, not a treat:
In 1962 two candy companies in Chicago copied Brach’s distinct toffee labels, but not their sweets. Customers were confused and complained to Brach’s about an inferior product. E.J. Brach & Sons brought the matter to the courts. After examining the case including the products (pictured), the U.S. District Court in Chicago ordered Peanut Speciality and Close & Company, Incorporated to stop manufacturing their imitations. The candies used as exhibits in the case survived and are currently kept in a mylar sleeve with the case.
Located in RG 21, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, case 62C1069, “E.J. Brach & Sons, a corporation v. Peanut Specialty Company, a corporation and Close & Company, Incorporated, a corporation.”
Patent Drawing for G. L. Witsil’s Sandwiched Bread, 10/11/1881
“As a new article of manufacture, sandwiched bread or bread containing pieces of meat which have been distributed in a raw condition throughout the dough of which the bread is composed and have been cooked at the same time therewith, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.”
Tired of having to build those complicated sandwiches with their messy fillings? Or did you ever want the fruitcake experience, but with meat?
Clarence Birdseye’s Patent Number 1773079 - Method of Preparing Food Product, 08/12/1930
Frozen food was not the instant success that Clarence Birdseye had anticipated. Few Depression-era kitchens had freezers. Business picked up after World War II, but it wasn’t frozen fish or peas that were selling. It was frozen orange juice concentrate—a product that USDA scientists helped to improve.
via DocsTeach
