Retro Renovation» 1957

Merry Mamie Christmas

pam kueber — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:00:27 +0000

Merry Christmas, everyone, from Ike and Mamie and me, too, of course. Thanks to Carol Hegeman, Supervisory Historian at the Eisenhower National Historic Site, for providing this wonderful 1957 Christmas card from the Eisenhower collection, featuring Mame and Ike in a Crosley utility vehicle. (Yes – that’s the same Crosley as produced steel kitchen cabinets, refrigerators and the like.) The Eisenhowers’ Christmas cards were designed and produced by Hallmark. Each year the Eisenhowers used a formal card, for obligatory mailings. More interesting (to me), Mamie also had personal cards designed — “fun” cards that she may have put on gifts she was giving, Carol explained. No question: This is a fun one. I wish you all a safe, happy and healthy holiday. Credit: National Park Service, Eisenhower National Historic Site.

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Are you looking for vintage metal kitchen cabinets?

pam kueber — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:59:39 +0000

I love this photo posted on our vintage steel kitchen cabinet Forum…and I fussed with it to make it look like an old polaroid. These are 1957 yellow GE cabinets, for sale in St. Louis. How many readers have steel kitchen cabinets — are installing them — or on the hunt?

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A 1957 Time Capsule Kitchen

Erica Donnis — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:00:27 +0000

A view of the Koravos family kitchen. Courtesy of Historic New England. Used on this site with permission.

THE 1957 KITCHEN from the Koravos family home in Andover, Massachusetts is the eye candy of the America’s Kitchens exhibition. Imagine original robin’s egg blue metal cabinets, stainless Westinghouse wall oven and cooktop, and canary yellow Formica counters with space-age patterning, all in near pristine condition. Mrs. Koravos preferred to cook in a second full kitchen in her basement, leaving this one on the first floor, which her guests would see, clean and clutter-free. According to curator and co-author Nancy Carlisle, show kitchens were popular in Greek- and Italian-American homes during the twentieth century. And take heart, retro renovators: Historic New England acquired the Koravos gem when a relative of co-author Melinda Nasardinov saw it posted on Craigslist!

Erica Donnis is an independent historian and museum consultant based in Burlington, Vermont. This is her fifth and final vignette reviewing America’s Kitchens — the book and now, a traveling national exhibition. Thank you, Erica!

Readers, click on the image below THREE times and it will get very big so that you can see the detail.

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