Food History

Pubs can wait a day, I have found something I forgot to tell you. It’s so much fun it can’t wait. I should never have forgotten it in the first place.

I’ve given you so many recipes from the Columbian Exposition and introduced you to so many of the Lady-Managers, and I only just realized that I never actually wrote a post about the Exposition itself. It has important food consequences, too, so this wasn’t just an oversight, it was negligence.

It was the World’s Columbian Exposition, one of those great fairs and exhibitions that were so much a part of the late nineteenth century. I only just discovered that it was also known as the Chicago World’s Fair, which means there is one less great Fair in the period than I thought. This does not actually mean that my life is blighted, but it does mean I’m sadly disappointed. Chicago must have been a great place to visit in 1893, though.

It’s famous for its architecture and for its amazing Women’s Congress (and for the first woman to hold a US architectural degree to design the Women’s Building, though she was way underpaid for her work) and for all sorts of other goods and wonders. 600 acres, 200 new buildings. Tons of historical influences, especially Classical. It was apparently the original alabaster city that inspired two full words in “America the Beautiful” (that thought comes from Wikipedia, which means you can’t trust it, but it was too cool to leave out, which sums up much Wikipedian material in my life). The fair ended disastrously, with assassination, but it was a glorious happening until then. The Columbian Exposition was a totally fascinating event.

The food aspect of it was special, and that’s what I’m interested in today. We already know that it had its own cookbook. The cookbook and its Lady-Managers seems to have been part of the gradual process of getting US women their civic rights, too, though I haven’t checked this one up. (Update: I found what I needed. If you want to see how women’s rights linked into the Exposition, check out another book published for it, accessible online here.)

Because it was a huge event, manufacturers used the Exposition to launch stuff. There would have been a lot of foods that were tested there and tried there and tasted there. Some of them stuck and have become standards in US eating. Cracker Jack and Aunt Jemima pancakes, for instance, Juicy Fruit gums, Quaker Oats, cream of wheat and shredded wheat. These sit alongside the cookbook to give a lovely little moment in time for US food history.

So, next time you’re in Chicago, eat one of the iconic Exposition foods while browsing an old copy of the cookbook, and relive a moment in history.