Snapshots into how Americans grow, prepare and serve food
1500-1600 | 1600-1700 | 1700-1800 | 1800-1900 | 1900-1950 | 1950-2000+
1800-1900
The nation expands . . . the Louisiana purchase . . . westward expansion . . . the transcontinental railroad. Hard times and prosperity.
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 | | Lewis and Clark holding a council with the Indians
Library of Congress | |
Lewis & Clark: Nine Pounds of Buffalo a Day
Going through what is now part of Montana in 1805, Lewis and Clark's men were astounded by the wildlife they encountered. Herds of bison, numbering 10,000 or more, roamed the plains, one of dozens of kinds of game in the area. Meat was the focus of the American diet at the time and the expedition party feasted on nine pounds of buffalo meat every day during this part of their journey.
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 | | Chili Bowl
Courtesy of: iplayoutside.com | |
The Southwest: Home of Chili
Thanks to the use of chile peppers by Native Americans over the centuries in North America, people in the Southwest developed a taste for spicy stews and hashes. As early as 1828, trail cooks were popularizing "chili," a combination of pork, beef, native chiles, oregano, and garlic, among European American and Native American cowboys. Chili was easy to make, didn't require refrigeration, and the ingredients could be found almost anywhere in the region. These hot, hot precursors of chili con carne ("con carne" "means "with meat") would eventually give rise to a difficult question: Does real chili have beans? Chili aficionados are still shooting it out.
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 | | Freighting in the Black Hills
Library of Congress
Photograph by: John C. H. Grabill | |
Pioneers on the Oregon Trail: Nobody Ate Their Vegetables
Pioneers on the Oregon Trail might have died of food boredom if not for a host of more dangerous hazards such as poor sanitation, cholera, and, surprisingly, accidental gunshots. Because the emigrants had to pack enough food to last the whole 2,000-mile trip without spoiling, their diet was monotonous: preserved meats such as bacon, salt pork, and beef jerky along with dried beans, flour, cornmeal, and rice. They rarely ate fresh fruit, vegetables, or dairy products.
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 | | "Work on the last mile of the Pacific Railroad"
Library of Congress
Artist: Alfred R. Waud | |
Building the Railroads: Chinese in America
By 1852, 25,000 Chinese immigrants were in California to work in mines, pick crops, and, increasingly, build the railroads. They brought new traditions and ingredients to American dinner tables. Instead of water, they drank lukewarm tea kept in 40-gallon whiskey barrels beside the railroad tracks while they worked. They ate exotic foods such as abalone, cuttlefish, dried bamboo sprouts, dried oysters, dried mushrooms, dried seaweed, and rice.
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 | | Potato chips in bowl
� CORBIS | |
Potato Chips: Kettle-cooked by a Multicultural Chef
Snack food history was made when a fussy customer met a chunky French fry. George Crum, a talented chef of Native American and African American ancestry, created the first potato chip in 1853 at the Moon Lake Resort in Saratoga Springs, NY. French fries were one of the specialties of the house, but one day a customer complained that the fries were too thick. When the second batch of trimmed fries didn't placate the customer, Crum made his third batch so thin that they couldn't be eaten with a fork. The customer loved them and the potato chip was born.
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 | | Soldier seated on crate containing hard tack, during the Civil War
Library of Congress | |
Civil War: Union Soldiers Eat "Sheet Iron Crackers"
During the Civil War, the butt of many battlefield jokes was a flour biscuit called "hardtack." Hardtack was a mainstay of the Union soldier's diet. Dried to prevent spoilage, the biscuit was rock hard. Soldiers usually referred to hardtack as "tooth dullers" or "sheet iron crackers." One favorite recipe using hardtack was "skillygallee" - fried pork and crumbled hardtack.
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 | | Portrait of a Confederate Soldier
Library of Congress | |
Civil War: Confederate Soldiers Eat Same Food Every Day
Unlike their counterparts in the Union army, Confederate soldiers had even fewer choices when it came to food. They were given bacon, cornmeal, tea, sugar or molasses, and, sometimes, vegetables. "Coosh," a quick dish the soldiers prepared on the march, was made of fried bacon, cornmeal, and water.
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 | | Prospectors sit and stand near two tents in Cunningham Gulch, San Juan County, Colorado. Shows sacks of provisions, a cooking pan, a pot, a shovel and a pick.
Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
Photograph by: William Henry Jackson, Call Number WHJ-10198 | |
The Gold Rush: Worse Rations Than the Civil War
When prospectors during the California gold rush headed for the foothills of the Sierra Nevada to search their fortune, they were faced with two huge obstacles: they didn't know how to cook and food was scarce. Their diet rarely wavered from meat, bread, and coffee or tea with lots of sugar. Scurvy, a disease caused by deficiency of vitamin C found in fresh fruit and vegetables, was common. Many native plants that grew wild in the area would have cured their symptoms - spongy, bleeding gums and extreme weakness -, but the prospectors didn't recognize their value or know how to use them.
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 | | Champagne Chilling in Ice Bucket
� CORBIS | |
The Gold Rush: Rise of the Restaurant
Recognizing the entrepreneurial opportunities in California, women put their domestic skills, in high demand among the predominately male prospectors, to good use. Women ran boarding houses, restaurants, and farms. According to gold rush legend, one woman sold her pears when they were just blossoms on the tree; she tagged each flower with the name of the owner. In 1865, ripe pears were selling for $2.50 each, high by even today's standards. Since these men didn't want to cook, women and others nurtured a thriving restaurant business around the California gold rush towns. When prospectors hit it rich they liked to celebrate with fine, meaning expensive, French food such as champagne and oysters.
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 | | Adams Chewing Gum
Courtesy of: theimaginaryworld.com | |
Chewing Gum: The Gift of Chicle
"Chicle," a milky juice from the sapodilla tree used as a basis for chewing gum, has been harvested by Native Americans in Mexico and Mesoamerica for more than 3,000 years. In 1871, 35 years after Texans liberated their territory from Mexico, the exiled president of that country, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, living in Staten Island, NY, gave a sample of chicle to his secretary, Thomas Adams. After a failed attempt to combine chicle with rubber to make carriage tires, Adams was struck with a much tastier idea. He created the first modern chewing gum, Adams' New York Gum, and sold it to pharmacies. Soon enterprising pharmacists added mint and licorice flavoring.
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 | | Jesse James and Frank James, Illinois, 1872
Courtesy of: Phillip W. Steele, Joanne Byland and Sandra Reynolds Halbirt | |
The James Brothers: Chili Shootout
By 1876, cattle drivers, cowboys, and other trail hands had popularized chili all over the Southwest. The infamous bank robbers, Frank and Jesse James, were said to eat a few bowls of the "red" before pulling many of their heists. Legend has it that the James' rode into Fort Worth just for the chili and vowed never to rob the bank, saying, "anyplace that has a chili joint like this just oughta' be treated better."
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 | | 1901 Calendar featuring model Hilda Clark
Coca-Cola Company | |
Coca-Cola: Caffeine and Cocaine
Dr. John Pemberton, a pharmacist, invented Coca-Cola in 1886. Named for its two main ingredients - cocaine from the coca plant and caffeine, Coca-Cola was a variant of another drink he'd created, called French Wine of Coca, which was made of French Bordeaux wine, cocaine, and caffeine. Minus the wine and with the addition of sugar, citric acid, and fruit oils, Coca-Cola was an immediate hit as both a soda fountain drink and a tonic for digestion and other medicinal uses. Cocaine is no longer an ingredient of the drink (since it's illegal) but some part of the coca plant has long been believed to be a part of the company's top-secret recipe that it refuses to divulge.
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 | | H.J. Heinz Company Pickles and Food Products, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, about 1900
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of
American History, Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution | |
Heinz "57 Varieties": Advertising Genius
Only 25, Henry J. Heinz, a German American, began his enterprise in 1869 by selling his mother's grated horseradish in a clear glass jar to show its purity: no leaves, no wood fiber, no turnip filler. By proudly displaying the quality of his product, he began to earn the public's trust. After horseradish came a huge variety of products, which included the first sweet pickles ever brought to market. As Heinz continued adding to the roster of products, he began promoting them in innovative ways. He introduced one of the first advertising promotional pieces - the pickle pin - at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Three years later he coined the slogan "57 Varieties" and put it on all his advertisements.
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 | | John Little dining room, San Francisco, about 1875
Courtesy of: The Society of California Pioneers | |
Victorian Culture: Food & Status
Queen Victoria ruled England, but her way of life was imitated all over the world, including the United States. Families showed their wealth and status by collecting as many silver serving pieces as they could afford - the bigger, the better. If a family was both wealthy and trendy, they would offer their guests the latest in stylish foods, including pudding, ice cream, and jellies, on beautifully engraved silver plate objects.
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1500-1600 | 1600-1700 | 1700-1800 | 1800-1900 | 1900-1950 | 1950-2000+
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