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.
Don’t Buy Into the Authenticity Scam
We choose products and services partially based on how they make us feel, on meanings we derive from our choices.
The Cookbook That Brought Chinese Food to American Kitchens
The groundbreaking 1945 cookbook, How to Cook and Eat in Chinese, that introduced Chinese cooking to white American cooks.
When Coffee Went Bananas
Abel French Spawn was not alone in marketing caffeine-free coffee substitutes like banana coffee to Mormons.
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.
Bog Butter Barrels and Ireland’s 3000-Year-Old Refrigerators
Wooden Bog Butter Barrels are possibly the most beautiful things you can find in a bog. But why did people throw their butter into bogs?
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.
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."
When Margarine Was Contraband
Protectionist laws favoring producers of butter meant that getting margarine in Wisconsin was no easy feat.