Food for Thought in Philadelphia

Exhibit Reviews FOOD FOR THOUGHT IN PHILADELPHIA: “THE LARDER INVADED” JUDITH A. MCGAW The history of food is inherently difficult to exhibit. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, culinary historians have had their “best evidence . . . eaten by its creators”;1 the surviving record lacks the gustatory and olfactory data that tell us most about food. More­ over, “a full scholarly context is only now emerging ... [in this] rel­ atively new field of historical research.”2 Compounding the inherent difficulties for thisjoint exhibit by the Library Company of Philadel­ phia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania were the brief time available to prepare it—six months—and the two-dimensional char­ acter of its sponsors’ principal holdings—books, manuscripts, printed ephemera, prints, photographs, and paintings. Recognizing the topic’s importance, guest curator William Woys Weaver, a culinary historian whose research had alerted the host in­ stitutions to their enormous scholarly resources,3 and curators Mary Dr. McGaw is associate professor of the history of technology at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Most Wonderful Machine: Mechanization and Social Change in Berkshire PaperMaking, 1801—1885 (Princeton, NJ., 1987). She is currently conducting research in the history of early Delaware Valley agriculture and domestic food pro­ cessing. She thanks Lindy Biggs, Julie Johnson, and Raman Srinivasan for attending the exhibit at her request and supplementing her observations with theirs. ’Mary Anne Hines, Gordon Marshall, and William Woys Weaver, The Larder Invaded: Reflections on Three Centuries of Philadelphia Food and Drink (Philadelphia: Library Com­ pany of Philadelphia and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1987), p. 7. 2Ibid., p. 45. 3William Woys Weaver, Sauerkraut Yankees: Pennsylvania-German Food and Foodways (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983). Weaver is currently at work on a two-volume history of Philadelphia culinary activities to 1876. Some of the themes of his work are suggested in “Philadelphia in Bocca," an overview of regional culinary history through the early 20th century included in The Larder Invaded along with a selected catalog of the exhibit.© 1988 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/88/2902-0006$01.00 266 Food for Thought in Philadelphia: “The Larder Invaded” 267 Anne Hines and Gordon Marshall of the Library Company were willing to accept these constraints. And despite them, the curators created an exhibit that managed both to whet the potential food his­ torian’s appetite for a fuller view of the sponsors’ collections and to offer the casual visitor an engaging and generally balanced bill of fare. “The Larder Invaded: Reflections on Three Centuries of Philadelphia Food and Drink” ran from November 1986 to April 1987 and covered 4,500 square feet of gallery space, winding through the first floors of the Library Company and Historical Society. It incorporated 255 pieces of artwork, displayed 250 books and pamphlets, and presented 647 additional items, including a number of objects borrowed from local collectors, businesses, and historical institutions. The long array of display cases and wall panels was made more inviting by a serpentine route that periodically opened new vistas to the viewer, and by latticework portals with titles signaling new sections. The route generally promoted smooth and clear passage through the exhibit. Object labels, however, sometimes required some stretching and craning to read and their typed form, necessitated by the short lead time, made 20/20 vision essential. Both the enormous array of themes and topics to be illustrated and the limited relevant secondary scholarship prompted the curators to keep label text minimal “in the hope that, properly arranged, the number of items and their variety will tell our story for us.”4 They also decided to preserve their efforts in a select catalog with accompanying full text in microfiche and to offer the possibility of making, smelling, and tasting some of the historic fare with the guidance of 35 Receiptsfrom “The Larder Invaded,” a representative selection of original recipes enhanced by Weaver’s directions adapted to modern ingredients and equipment.5 The exhibit was well designed tcf intrigue the visitor at the outset. It opened with an array of Philadelphia food images and facts, sugAThe Larder Invaded, p. 8. Given the dearth

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