Skip to content
April White

April White

April is the author of The Divorce Colony, the stunning true story of the socialites who pioneered modern marriage on the American frontier. She previously served as an editor and writer at Atlas Obscura and Smithsonian Magazine. See more of her work at aprwhite.com.

Visit Website
A collage of photographs by Doris Ulmann
Archive Adventures

The “Vanishing Types” of Doris Ulmann

As her extensive body of work shows, Ulmann felt the loss of an imagined simpler time and tried to preserve it with her camera.
A grilled cheese sandwich
Education & Society

A Brief History of Comfort Food

Our newest culinary trend is also our oldest.
antique cans
History Is Served

Frontier America in a Collection of Tin Cans

For Jim Rock, tin cans were as important as shards of ancient pottery. Each can told a story of nineteenth and twentieth century life in America.
Banana coffee
History Is Served

When Coffee Went Bananas

Abel French Spawn was not alone in marketing caffeine-free coffee substitutes like banana coffee to Mormons.
Moonshine still
History Is Served

The Caves in Which Moonshine Was Made

White County, TN, averaged more than a million and a half gallons of moonshine a year at late as the 1950s.
Duncan Hines cake
History Is Served

Duncan Hines, Cake Mix Maker Extraordinaire

Duncan Hines was not created by a marketing department. Born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1880, he became an amateur restaurant critic.
Piper Cub plane farmers
History Is Served

An Airplane in Every Barn?

Why airborne farming hasn’t been cleared for take-off.
Natchitoches meat pies
History Is Served

How Delicious Meat Pies Put Natchitoches on the Map

The Natchitoches meat pie, a crimped half moon hiding a pocket of spiced meat, exemplifies “culinary place making."
Margarine ad
History Is Served

When Margarine Was Contraband

Protectionist laws favoring producers of butter meant that getting margarine in Wisconsin was no easy feat.
Alemany farmer's market, San Francisco, CA (2012)
History Is Served

The Wartime Origins of Farmers Markets

In 1943, the idea of a farmers market at which produce was sold directly to the customer was nearly unheard of, a relic of the distant past.
Pisco punch
History Is Served

The Lost (and Found) Classic Cocktail of San Francisco

The legend of Pisco punch did not die with its creator, Duncan Nicol.
Thompson's Temperance Spa
History Is Served

When the Temperance Movement Opened Saloons

Charles Sumner Eaton's “Temperance Spa” served alternative adult beverages like coffee, egg phosphates, and "Moxie Nerve Food," all in the name of health.
Betty Crocker cupcakes
History Is Served

In Search of the Real Betty Crocker

Betty Crocker, the woman who would become America’s most beloved baker, sprang to life in 1921 in an all-male advertising department.
Los Angeles taco truck
History Is Served

When Tacos Become a Political Flashpoint

In 2008, the “Taco Truck War” broke out in Los Angeles. Taco trucks again became a hot-button issue in the 2016 presidential race. Why?
NYC food riot
History Is Served

“Give Us Bread!”

In 1917, a food riot erupted in Brooklyn over the prices of staples. These forms of protest, sadly, are not quite yet ready for the dustbin of history.
Source: https://flic.kr/p/5krZLr
History Is Served

The Decadent Art of Butter Sculpture

Butter sculpture is a fixture of American state fairs. The practice of using food as a medium for art dates back centuries.
potato chips
History Is Served

The Story of the Invention of the Potato Chip Is a Myth

Everyone knows the potato chip was invented in Saratoga Springs, NY in 1853. Except it wasn’t.
Keeley Cure ad
Health

Inside a Nineteenth-Century Quest to End Addiction

In 1880, Dr. Leslie E. Keeley promised a cure for the disease of drunkenness. The community he developed influenced our understanding of treating addiction.

Support JSTOR Daily

Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news.