2009 September — Retro Renovation

Modern Kitchen “Wife-Savers”

Posted by: Erica Donnis • September 3, 2009

Kitchen accessories from the trade catalogue “243 New Ideas for Your Kitchen", ca. 1955. Kalamazoo Stoves and Furnaces, Kalamazoo, Mich., publisher. Promised gift to Historic New England from a private collection. Used on this site with permission.

ACCORDING TO AMERICA’S KITCHENS, many of the things we take for granted today in our kitchens were introduced or became widely available in the 20th century, driven by emerging technologies, consumer demand, and commercial marketing that influenced people to update frequently and to buy the latest gadgets. Heck yeah there is more →

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The Donna Reed Show kitchen

Posted by: pam kueber • September 3, 2009

donna-reed-kitchen I was a bit on the young side to watch The Donna Reed Show, which aired from 1958 to 1966. But when I was first shopping for a vintage stove, a refurbisher not too far away wanted me to buy a pristine electric Philco, which he called “a real Donna Reed model.” Drats. It was. But I skipped it because Mr. Retro Renovation wanted a gas stove. But, we ended up with electric anyway — and the story continues because the 1959 GE Pushbutton that we ultimately bought from the same guy was the trade-in for the pristine Donna Reed model. Oh well. So now, I get to show you Donna Reed’s kitchen. Heck yeah there is more →

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The Gropius Kitchen

Posted by: Erica Donnis • September 2, 2009

A view of the Gropius House kitchen. Courtesy Historic New England. Used on this site with their permission.

THE AMERICA’S KITCHENS EXHIBITION profiles the sleek, black and white kitchen and pantry designed by Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius for his 1938 Massachusetts home. According to curator and co-author Nancy Carlisle, the adjoining galley spaces are “models of efficiency” that function almost as “laboratories.” They contained the latest appliances, including a General Electric dishwasher and garbage disposal. The kitchen and pantry, in the rear of the house, worked well when the family employed a cook. But when Mrs. Gropius took over the meal preparation, she found it difficult to interact with family members or guests. Consequently, Mr. Gropius would often spend time with his wife there, assisting by loading the dishwasher or simply sitting and chatting while she worked.

Erica Donnis is an independent historian and museum consultant based in Burlington, Vermont. This is her third vignette taking a look at America’s Kitchens – both the book and the traveling national exhibit. Find out more about the Gropius House, which is now owned by Historic New England, here.

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A simpler but equally celebrated 1938 kitchen

Posted by: pam kueber • September 2, 2009

In contrast to the sleek and modern 1938 Gropius kitchen, here is a June 1938 country kitchen that must have been an even greater joy to its new owners. This photo was taken as part of a U.S. Farms Services Administration project and is now housed in the Library of Congress. Their documentation identifies the photo as, “Resettled farmer’s wife and daughter in kitchen of new home. Wabash Farms, Indiana.” This can only mean — resettlement from the Dust Bowl droughts of the Great Depression. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939. And the photographer, meanwhile, was Arthur Rothstein. When I google him, I find that he has been called, “simply the definitive photographer of the Dust Bowl.” Later, he went on to be the photo director for Look Magazine from 1946-1971, then Parade. He has a book – which I’ve added to Pamazon. Finally, here’s a link to a Library of Congress learning lab about that era. (Photo info: LC-USF34- 026361-D.)

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Mid-Century Kitchen Design

Posted by: Erica Donnis • September 1, 2009

“Kitchen No. 7,” from the trade catalogue “Kitchen Hints,” 1947. The Kitchen Maid Corporation, Andrews, Ind., publisher. Collection of Historic New England. Used on this site with their permission.

THE 20th CENTURY WAS A TIME OF RADICAL CHANGE in kitchen design. As Nancy Carlisle and Melinda Nasardinov describe in America’s Kitchens, a focus on efficiency in the early part of the century transformed kitchens into compact units, with matching cabinets and built-in appliances topped with spans of countertop. Efficient kitchens were meant to reduce workloads, but their small size and usual location in the back of the house also distanced cooks from their families and guests. The open floor plans of the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s were a reaction against that isolation. As Nasardinov frames it, they “transformed kitchens from service spaces into social spaces” by blurring the boundaries between cooking, eating, and living areas.

Erica Donnis is an independent historian and museum consultant based in Burlington, Vermont. This is the second installment of her week-long look at America’s Kitchens — both the book and the national traveling exhibition.

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Julia Child’s kitchen

Posted by: pam kueber • September 1, 2009

julia-childs-kitchen

Julia Child donated her kitchen to the Smithsonian in 2001. She had been in it exactly 40 years, since 1961. Here is her kitchen still in place in her Cambridge, Mass., home, before it was disassembled and moved to its exhibit space in Washington, D.C. On the Smithsonian’s website, Childs talks about how the kitchen included many favorite things that made her happy — as a kitchen should, even one that’s been the site of a famous TV series. (I presume those are tracks for cameras and lights we see on the ceiling.) Another interesting thing I spotted on the Smithsonian website: For the exhibit, the Smithsonian’s graphic team re-created the speckled linoleum kitchen floor originally in the Childs kitchen by making color copies then laminating them onto other flooring in a repeat pattern. Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian.

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