Community, domestic labor, technology, and commercial food: what an early 20th-century recipe box can tell us

ABSTRACT

A recipe box collected by Winifred Kowalke of Madison, Wisconsin, in the first half of the 20th century provides a rare glimpse into domesticity in the first half of the twentieth century as technological developments, an evolving convenience-foods industry, and a thriving female network dramatically changed lives, especially those of middle-class women. A careful reading of the cards in the box discloses the impact of new technology on cooking methods, the influence of the emerging commercial market of manufactured foods on the content of the American diet, and the strength of women’s networks in sustaining a vibrant female community. Most importantly, it is a story that reaches beyond the ideals presented in women’s magazines and contemporary cookbooks to reveal the lived experiences of women in that period. Winifred Kowalke was civic minded. Her recipe box reinforces the image of a woman active in the community and knitted into an extensive, interlacing social network that encompassed a diversity of prominent Madisonians and local cooks. Her friends were community leaders, but their civic and social activities did not divorce them from the domestic world. Her civic and organizational lives melded with her domestic.

KEYWORDS:

• Recipe box
• cooking
• women’s networks
• domestic technology
• home economics
• commercial foods
• cookbooks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. I thank Megan Elias and the two anonymous reviews for Food, Culture, and Society for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. Conversations with Elizabeth Feder and Michael Apple enriched my analysis.

2. I wish to thank Kylie Smith, Archivist/Museum Director, Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation, for her assistance in identifying former members of the organization. I am grateful to Stephanie Mead of the American Institute of Chemical Engineer for information about that organization and Rob Brodhagen and Pat Brodhagen for their background on Otto Kowalke. The website Ancestry.com provided information from the United States censuses and Madison City Directories. The staff of the University Archives and Records Management, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Anna Dinkel, Katie Nash, Sarah Grimm, Troy Reeves, David Pavelich, and Hannah Dillemuth) directed me to the data bases for UW Alumni Magazine (https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AQGZB5COYM65WR83); the student newspaper, the Cardinal (https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Cardinal); Wisconsin Engineer (https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/A7P3DBZ6M5SIJV8I) and the Badger yearbook (https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AUWYearBks). Wisconsin NewspaperARCHIVE.com (https://access-newspaperarchive-com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/) and Newspapers.com (https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.web/newspapersdotcom) provided additional information about local events.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rima D. Apple

Rima D. Apple has published extensively in women’s history, the history of medicine and nursing, and the history of nutrition. Among her eight books is Vitamania: Vitamins in American culture (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996) which received the Kremers Award, 1998, from the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. In 2018 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of the History of Medicine. She has lectured extensively both in the United States and internationally.