Dining at Jefferson's White House

Quotes from people who dined with the President. Honore Julien (1760/1–1830) was Thomas Jefferson’s French chef for both terms (1801-1809). Image 1807.

Ice harvesting in 19th and 20th century America

Early 1900s films, recent tapes and zoom talk tapes show the various processes of ice harvesting on lakes and rivers: horse teams to plow the snow, score then saw the ice, then send the 'cakes' of ice up a conveyor into huge ice houses. It was done by small farmers to large scale operators, such as Bostonian Frederic Tudor the "Ice King" who shipped the New England ice to India.

Fig lemonade

This is a lemonade for hot weather - like Switchel or Shrub - very tart (only 1T or a teaspoon of honey).  Alexis Soyer called it a "Cooling Lemonade" in 1849, and a later cookbook author named it "Picnic Lemonade."  The vivid pink color happens instantly when lemon juice is added to the liquid from boiling the figs and yellow of the lemon peels.

5 centuries of Picnics

Beautiful picnics in paintings from the 1530s to the 21st century.  A couple early ones involve "Halte de Chasse" or a break in the Hunt.

The image on the left is by the Frenchman James Tissot in 1870.

Ruined Picnics

Robert Seymour (c1800-1836) drew a series of humorous sketches (including several on pic-nics) from 1834-1836.  Picnic problems included being "cow'd," a no trespassing type sign on the riverbank, and items in the picnic basket shifting and breaking.

Red, white and blue boiled hams for the 4th of July

At Mercersburg, Pa., before the Civil War, the town folk and farmers would go out to President James Buchanan's birthplace and share a picnic.  One lady brought "boiled hams decorated with cloves and red, white and blue paper."

Cooking and Dining onboard 19th century railroad cars

Pullman "Hotel Cars" in 1882 contained many ingenious devices such as a compact kitchen range/oven and temporary dining tables from "well-polished mahogany planks."