Updating Your Arts & Crafts House?

Arts & Crafts Kitchens:
The Evolution of the Modern Kitchen

J. M. Edgar, CMC, CRC

When we first started building kitchens many years ago, no one wanted an Arts & Crafts look. They wanted to replace their Arts & Crafts kitchen with something "modern". We spent hours talking Bungalow owners out of colonial-style and county kitchens — then all the rage. Sometimes we succeeded. Mostly we failed. Things have definitely changed. More than 80% of the kitchens we build today are some version of the Craftsman, Mission or Prairie kitchen. We are in the middle of an Arts & Crafts revival and even houses that do not otherwise have a hint of Arts & Crafts styling feature Craftsman, Prairie and Mission kitchens.

Of course, what we now call the Arts & Crafts kitchen is actually a modern interpretation — the invention of contemporary kitchen designers applying Arts & Crafts design elements and features to modern kitchens. No such kitchens existed during the actual Arts & Crafts era.

Prior to the First World War, Arts & Crafts kitchens barely differed from their spartan Victorian antecedents. A wall sink, a few drawer chests and a table or two for food preparation, along with a wood- or coal-burning stove was the standard. In contemporary illustrations, kitchens of the period seldom featured built-in cabinetry. There was very little need for extensive storage. Most food was grown or produced locally and purchased fresh daily — at least in upscale neighborhoods. The milkman delivered fresh milk, the butcher fresh meat to order, the greengrocer fresh vegetables to supplement whatever was growing in the back garden. Very little food needed to be stored. The little storage that existed was devoted to storing kitchen implements and possibly dining ware.

But, things were beginning to change. A number of distinct trends converged during the period between the world wars that radically altered the American diet and the American kitchen.

Health and Sanitation

The flu pandemic of 1918-19 on top of the adulterated and impure food scandals¹ of the early 1900s badly frightened the country and a created a national clamor for better health and sanitation. The movement was, as many trends have been both before and after, co-opted by merchandisers and fueled by widespread product advertising.

Like today's fervor for everything "green", in the 1920s and '30s it was everything "hygenic". All manner of products were suddenly "more sanitary", "healthier" and "cleaner", even "sterile"; or at very least "polished", "sparkling" or "gleaming". Listerine was essential for clean breath, and Johnson Wax for sanitary floors — which were not really clean unless they were "Spic 'n Span®".

Warnings against the more odious personal habits, such as spitting on the sidewalk ("You cannot expect to rate if you expectorate!") appeared on trams, billboards and posters, alongside exhortations to weekly bathing, and daily teeth cleaning. Spitoons disappeared from restaurants, bars and hotel lobbies almost overnight. In 1890 they were everywhere, by 1910 they had become curiosities.

Food Safety

Food was a very big part of the health and hygiene movement, and the federal government played, and still plays, a pivotal role in ensuring that food was safe to eat. Food scandals of the first decade of the 20th century prompted the Pure Food and Drug act of 1906. The Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, later recast as the Food and Drug Administration, was charged with the Herculean task of ensuring the safety of the nation's food supply. Despite the usual bureaucratic missteps and political interference, it was very aggressive, and made sure that its enforcement actions were very widely publicized.

There had already been 12,000 seizures and prosecutions by 1924, and it quickly became clear to all that the federal government was not kidding about food safety. As a result, consumer confidence in processed foods increased dramatically, and people began buying a lot more of them, which, in turn, encouraged the food industry to introduce an ever increasing number and variety of prepared foods.

Almost all of today's major food brands premiered during the Arts & Crafts period, and many are now well into their second century: Jello (1900), Hershey's Chocolate (1900), Dole Pineapple (1903), Quaker Oatmeal (1904), Popsicle (1905), Kelloggs Corn Flakes (1906), Crisco (1911), Hellman's (1912), and Morton Salt (1912).

Campbell's Soup Company's condensed canned soups replaced the soup pot on the stove in the 1920's. Canned soups were thought to be healthier, and they certainly were much more convenient. Mix the contents with an equal amount of water or milk, heat and serve.

Kellogg's Corn Flakes was already a breakfast staple just a few years after its introduction in 1906 and Wheaties, encorsed by sports celebrities of the period, had become the "Breakfast of Champions" by 1930.

A large and growing range of canned vegetables and fruits meant that American diets were no longer hostage to what happened to be in season locally.

The Jolly Green Giant became the symbol of the Minnesota Valley Canning Company in 1928, and its familiar, deep throated, "ho-ho-ho" a radio staple in the 1930s. (The character is one of the most recognizable brand icons of the 20th century, second only to Ronald McDonald).

The Del Monte brand, owned by the California Fruit Canners Association, later Calpak, came to dominate much of the canned produce market by the mid-1930s in no small part due to consumer confidence in California's very strict food quality and safety laws.

By the end of the Arts & Craft era, exotic foods, many virtually unknown to Americans just a scant few decades earlier, such as apricots, artichokes, mangos, pineapple and canned tuna, had become commonplace in the corner grocery, neatly tucked in their gleaming, sanitary, government-sanctioned cans; and available year 'round for as little as 5¢.

Universal Electrification

Indoor plumbing was the transformational technology that created the first modern bathroom by bringing it indoors during the Victorian Era. In the Arts & Crafts age, it was universal electricity. It was electricity that made possible the modern kitchen.

In 1897 electric street lights illuminated Wall Street. By 1900 a few major cities could boast electricity, but by 1939 all but the most remote areas were electrified. The New Deal extended this new luxury even to America's rural marches. The Rural Electric Administration (REA) had brought electric power to over 33% of the nation's farms by 1939. Electricity powered lights, fans and, most importantly for food safety, refrigerators.

Home Refrigeration

General Electric introduced the first widely accepted home refrigerator in 1925, the "Monitor Top"². The compressor motor was housed in a cylinder (the "monitor") on top of the actual refrigerator.

Familiar Foods From the Arts & Crafts Era The Food Timeline
Most of the "Modern" foods you buy everyday are not at all modern. Most of our familiar food brands originated during the food revolution of the Arts & Crafts period.
1900s	1910s	1920s	1930s
1900 • Jell-O gelatin • Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar • Wesson Oil • Chiclets • Hill's Bros. Coffee • Egg Cream (which contains neither egg nor cream) invented by Louis Auster in Brooklyn (disputed) • The term "hot dog" coined by cartoonist Thomas Aloysius Dorgan (disputed) 1901 • NECCO Wafers • Peanut butter and jelly sandwich invented by Julia Davis Chandler (disputed) 1902 • Karo Corn Syrup • Cracker Jack • Presto self-rising cake flour 1903 • Pepsi Cola • Dole canned pineapple • Canned tuna (or 1908) • Sunshine biscuits 1904 • Quaker Oatmeal • Swans Down Cake Flour • Campbell's Pork & Beans • French's Mustard • Dr. Pepper • Tea bag invented by Thomas Sullivan • Banana split created by David Strickler who continued to sell the confection in his pharmacy until 1965¹ 1905 • Heinz Baked Beans • Royal Crown Cola • Ovaltine • Popsicle accidently invented by 11-year-old Frank Epperson. • Holly sugar 1906 • Hebrew National franks • Planter's Nuts • A-1 Steak Sauce • Kelloggs Corn Flakes • Pure Food & Drug and Meat Inspection Acts become law. 1907 • LeSeur canned baby peas • Hershey Kisses • Canada Dry Ginger Ale 1908 • Hershey bar with almonds • Canned tuna (or 1903) • Electric toaster for home use by GE. 1909 • Melitta drip coffeemaker	1910 • Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour • Hill's Bros. invents the vacuum packed coffee can • Hydrox cookies • Post Toasties • Melitta drip coffeemaker, • Chipped Beef on Toast appears in the "Manual for Army Cooks" and was instantly christened "s__t on a shingle" by disenchanted doughboys. It nonetheless remained a mainstay of Army breakfasts for a century. 1911 • Crisco vegetable shortening • Domino sugar • Mazola corn oil • Electric waffle iron 1912 • Hamburger bun • Hellmann's mayonnais • Oreo, the best-selling cookie in history. • Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce • Morton Table Salt ("When it rains, it pours.") • Whitman Sampler • Thousand Island Dressing invented by Sophia LaLonde (disputed) • Lorna Doon cookies • Scoville Scale for measuring the "hot" in hot peppers • Cracker Jack unveils "a prize in every package" • Vitamin pills 1913 • Campbell's Cream of Celery soup • Peppermint Life Savers • Mallomars • Quaker Puffed Cereals 1914 • Del Monte canned fruit cocktail • Reuben sandwich • First electric refrigerator for commerical use 1915 • Kellogg's 40% Bran Flakes • Pyrex glass baking dishes 1916 • Nathan's Famous franks • Fortune Cookie invented by George Jung • "American Cheese" patented by Canadian James L. Kraft • GE offers first electric refrigertor home use 1917 • Moon Pies • Clark Bars • Food and Fuel Control Act gives federal govenment control of food production during WWI 1918 • The First World War. American Cheese is part of Army rations. • Contadina tomato sauce • French Dip sandwich 1919 • Hostess Snack Cakes • Nestle Milk Chocolate Bar • KitchenAid Mixer² • Malt-O-Meal • Peter-Paul candy bar • "Sunkist" oranges	1920 • La Choy • Eskimo Pie patented • Good Humor ice cream bar • Baby Ruth & Oh Henry! • Marshmallow Fluff • Caesar Salad 1921 • Wheaties • Wonder Bread • Welsh's grape jelly • Betty Crocker cake mixes • Land O'Lakes butter • Sioux Bee Honey • Sanka • White Castle Hamburger • Quaker Quick instant oatmeal • Canned citrus juice • Wrigley's chewing gum 1922 • A&W Root Beer • Girl Scout Cookies • Gummi Bears • Clark Bar • Klondike ice cream bar • "Better Homes & Gardens" founded (as "Fruit Garden & Home Magazine") 1923 • Pet Canned Milk • Reese's Peanut Butter Cup • Mounds candy bar • Yoo-Hoo chocolate drink • Russell Stover Candies 1924 • Bit-O-Honey candy bar • Fruit-flavored Life Savers • Beech-Nut Coffee • Popsicle patented & commercial production begins. • Oscar Meyer sliced bacon 1925 • Green Giant canned peas • Mr. Goodbar • Jolly Time Popcorn 1926 • Hormel canned ham • Milk Duds • Breyer's Ice Cream • Sunbeam "Toastmaster" pop-up toaster 1927 • Gerber's baby food • Homogenized milk 1928 • Broccoli introduced to the U.S. • Peter Pan Peanut Butter • Velveeta cheese • Progresso soups • Nehi soft drinks • Butterfingers • Heath bar • Kool-Aid • Pez • Chef Boy-Ar-Dee • Double Bubble gum • Rice Krispies • Nabisco Shredded Wheat 1929 • Gerber baby food • Oscar Meyer Wieners • Karmelkorn • Snickers • Twizzlers • 7-Up (As "Lithiated Lemon") • Wax paper milk carton • Kentucky Fried Chicken • Po' Boy sandwich • Ruby Red Grapefruit	1930 • Hostess Twinkies • Mott's Apple Sauce • Philly Cheese Steak • Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail • Birdseye frozen foods • Faberware Electric Percolator • Toll House Cookies 1931 • Beech-Nut Baby Food • Bisquick • Wyler's Bouillon Cubes • Tootsie Pops • Chryst-O-Mint Life Savers • Alka Seltzer • Sunbeam "Mixmaster" mixer³ • The Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer 1932 • Bagel • Fritos corn chips • Skippy Peanut Butter • 3 Musketeers bar • Mars Bar • Pablum baby food 1933 • Nestle Toll-House Cookies • Miracle Whip Salad Dressing • Campbell's Chicken Noodle & Cream of Mushrrom soups • Waring "Miracle Mixer" Blender • Spic 'n Span household cleaner invented by two housewives in Saginaw, Michigan • Lithiated Lemon renamed 7-Up 1934 • Pet Evaporated Milk • Ritz Crackers • Hawaiian Punch 1935 • Adolph's Meat Tenderizer • Kit Kat Bar • ReaLemon Lemon Juice • 5-Flavor Life savers 1936 • Jell-O Instant Chocolate Pudding • Hungry Jack Pancake Mix • Mars Almond Bar • Cobb Salad • Girl Scout Cookies 1937 • Kraft Macaroni and Cheese dinner • SPAM lunch meat • Kix corn puff cereal • Ragu Spaghetti Sauce • Krispy Kreme Donuts • Pepperidge Farm Bread • Rolo candy 1938 • Bumble Bee Tuna • Lawry's Seasoned Salt • Mott's Apple Juice • Nescafe Instant Coffee • Tupperware • Nestle Crunch candy bar 1939 • Food Stamps • Lay's Potato Chips • Cream of Wheat • Pressure Cooker • Sara Lee cheese cake
¹ The Food Chronology, James Trager [Henry Holt:New York] 1995; ² The Kitchen Aid mixer design never changed. Attachments made for the original 1919 mixer still fit today's models. It is, as far as we know, the only kitchen appliance to have its own fan club. ³ The most widely owned kitchen appliance in history, and the only small appliance to ever appear on a U.S. Postage stamp. Sources: The Food Chronology, James Trager [Henry Holt:New York] 1995; The Century in Food: America's Fads and Favorites, Beverly Bundy [Collectors Press:Portland OR] 2002; Candy: The Sweet History , Beth Kimmerle [Collector's Press:Portland OR] 2003

One million Monitors were sold by 1931 for $230.00 each. This might sound cheap. It wasn't. In today's dollars it would be about $4,000. You could buy a new Ford for about the same price.

But, it did not take long for competitors to challenge GE's hegemony. Westinghouse, Maytag, Kelvinator, Norge, Sears-Kenmore and Fridigaire introduced more streamlined refrigerators that moved the compressor motor inside the refrigerator cabinet. This much quieter design became the model for all future home refrigerators. As the century progressed, the two-ice-tray freezer compartment had grown large enough to hold ice cream and frozen foods. By the late 1930's Frigidaire dominated much of the market. In fact, the Frigidaire name became so closely associated with home refrigeration that the name is now part of the vernacular. In many places in the U.S., particularly in the South, a refrigerator is a "frigidaire" no matter who makes it.

Appliance makers published pamphlets and booklets that showed housewives how to use the new electric devices, complete with recipes and hints on how to store leftovers. Many of these were packaged inside the new appliance. GE published "The Silent Hostess Treasure Book" (1930), Westinghouse "The Refrigerator Book" (1933), and Frigidaire "Famous Dishes from Every State (1936).

Refrigerator purchases were encouraged by the federal government. Under Title I of the National Housing Act of 1934, the government subsidized low interest loans to homeowners looking to improve their houses and add modern conveniences. Local electric utilities, seeking more electricity customers, often sold large appliances at barely above cost; or stimulated their purchase with rebates and rate discounts.

By the eve of World War II, 44% of American homes, about 15 million households, had at least one mechanical refrigerator, and a growing number were equipped with a separate food freezer. The ice box was quickly becoming an interesting historical curiosity relegated to the very few parts of the country that did not yet have electricity.

Commercial Refrigeration

Even more important to the American diet, however, was commercial refrigeration. The idea of shipping fruit and produce long distances by rail and ship using blocks of ice to preserve the perishable freight had been pioneered by Frederic Tudor in the early 1900s and was by the turn of the 20th century a nationwide system of ice-making factories and replenishment stations along most main-line railroad tracks. Refrigerated rail cars incorporating large ice bins or hoppers made importation of fresh foods from distant parts of the country reliable and safe. Produce companies, such as the Western Fruit Express and Fruit Growers Express transported citrus fruits, lettuce, asparagus, watermelons, cantaloupes, green onions, strawberries, peaches, nectarines, cherries and tomatoes grown in California and Florida and apples from Washington State as much a 3,000 miles in refrigerated rail cars or "reefers" attached to fast, cross-country, passenger trains. Oranges in December became a common sight at the grocery by 1930 — and a welcome addition to every child's Christmas stocking. The system was so efficient that mechanical refrigeration in rail cars did not gain a foothold until the 1950s when the refrigeration units became small enough and efficient enough to complete with ice as the preferred refrigerant.

But, mechanical refrigeration units quickly replaced ice just about everywhere else. By the 1920's ice wagons were being supplanted by motor trucks with on-board mechanical refrigerators. Refrigerated milk trucks with appeared in most cities by 1925. Milk was packaged in sanitary, sealed, bottles — not ladled from dusty crocks — and by 1937 the familiar disposable wax milk carton was coming into use to replace the returnable bottle. A number of studies had shown that the disposable carton was more sanitary and less likely to promote disease.

The Popsicle®

Arts & Crafts Kitchen Remodeling in Lincoln, Nebraska: Cherry Popsicle®

Originally priced at 10¢, the Popsicle was reshaped into a two-stick configuration that could be broken in half to share with a friend and reduced to 5¢ in 1930 — making it more affordable as a Depression-era treat.

The Popsicle Wars:

Good Humor and Popsicle battled each other over frozen treats on a stick for most of 60 years. Good Humor wanted to offer a fruit treat, and Popsicle an ice cream bar. After a number of broken agreements and several lawsuits, Good Humor finally settled the matter by buying out Popsicle in 1999. Both brands are now owned by Unilever.

The Word "Popsicle":

"Popsicle" is a registered trademark that has become part of the vernacular. It is commonly used in the U.S. and Canada to refer to any ice-pop product, and not just the Popsicle® brand. The name's owner, Unilever, defends the trade name vigorously as applied to any frozen product on a stick, but is liberal about its use otherwise. You can write about a "popsicle stick" or "home-made popsicle" without getting any attention from Unilever, but if you introduce a commercial product with the word "...sicle" in the product name, you are going to get a blast from Unilever's lawyers followed by a lawsuit if you don't change the name.

The Popsicle Stick:

Almost as famous as the frozen treat itself is the stick used to hold it. Originally made of flexible birch, now basswood, it was quickly discovered that the sticks made great material for hobby and crafts projects. It did not take long for popsicle sticks, without the Popsicles, to become available in bags for crafting. Almost every boy of a certain age has made his share of popsicle stick log cabins, people, animals and projectile launchers of various kinds with which to annoy ones little sister. The milkman delivered not just milk and cream, but many other products that needed to be chilled: eggs, cheese, butter, yogurt, fruit juice and sometimes soft drinks. His daily rounds saved the busy homemaker the bother of a trip to the grocery for perishables. Many period homes were equipped with a "milk door": a small door that opened directly onto the kitchen countertop where the milkman deposited his delivery. The milk door allowed safe deliveries even if the homemaker was absent

By the end of the 1930s the, white-uniformed Good Humor Man in his jingling ice-cream wagon had already become an icon of American pop culture and the summer-day hero of every kid with a nickel in his pocket.

A nickel also bought a Popsicle®, a frozen fruit bar on a stick. In the 1930s the Popsicle was reshaped into a two-stick conffiguration that could be broken in half to share with a friend (or a pesky little brother) — making it more affordable as a Depression-era treat. Accidently invented in 1905 by 11-year-old Frank Eperson who left a soda on the porch where it froze, it was not produced commercially until 1924. In 1931 alone it sold 200 million bars — 1-1/2 bars for every man, woman and child in the United States.

At the grocery store, freezers, cold rooms and refrigerated displays meant that food could be kept fresh until it was sold, vastly reducing spoilage and waste. Glass-fronted self-service coolers and open-top freezers were in common use in the 1930s as self-service chain supermarkets began to replace the corner grocery by offering more variety at lower prices.

Organization and Efficiency

By the late 1920s, a well-organized, efficient kitchen had become the goal of every homemaker who saw the colorful ads for "modern" kitchens in Ladies' Home Journal or House and Garden. The middle-class housewife of the Arts & Crafts era did not usually have full-time servants and would be doing most of the domestic chores herself, as well aswatching the children and taking care of the garden. These added roles meant that it would not be possible to use most of the day preparing, serving and cleaning up after meals. In response, the Arts & Crafts homemaker was quick to adopt almost any labor-saving device or practice that reduced her time in the kitchen.

The push for a better organized life ("A place for everything, and everything in its place") started during Victorian times, but peaked during the inter-war period. It was the impetus for Hoosier-style cabinets, designed to better organize food preparation and make it more efficient, and the Wooten Patent Secretary that helped organize the 19th century executive's office.

But, it was not until kitchens began to be viewed as meal production centers where principles of industrial design and ergonomics should be applied that the real progress in kitchen organization and efficiency occurred.

In 1912 Christine Frederick began a series of articles for the Ladies' Home Journal which explained the evolving principles of time and motion, developed by industrial ergonomist Frederick Taylor, as they applied to domestic tasks. Subsequently re-published as a book, The New Housekeeping: Efficiency Studies in Home Management, the chapter on kitchen organization and layout established a basic kitchen organizing principles still in use today:

"The first step toward the efficiency any kitchen is to have the kitchen small, compact and without long narrow pantries and closets… A good-sized kitchen for a small house is 10 x 12; the ideal is nearly square… [T]he next step… is to place the principal equipment of stove, sink, tables and closets in right relation to each other… In planning for any kitchen, I have found, after close study, that there are just two main orocesses in all kitchen work… those processes which prepare the meal [and] those which clear away the meal. Each of these processes covers distinct equipment" (Emphases in the original.).

Frederick founded and directed a laboratory for conducting time and motion studies of domestic tasks and evaluating household equipment. She was not at all bashful about endorsing products that she thought were useful. She was, for example, a well-publicized consultant to the Hoosier Manufcturing Co.

Frederick was clearly working toward the principle that was later encapsulated in the concept of the kitchen work triangle, but she did not quite get there. That was left up to a psychologist and and pioneering industrial engineer, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, who, in the early 1920s, began applying rudimentary ergonomic principles to household work through her own time and motion studies. She discovered that much of the time required for meal preparation involved moving among the three major work centers: sink, refrigerator (or ice box), and range. If this movement could be minimized, the time required to prepare meals could be vastly decreased. She created the kitchen work triangle to graphically illustrate how these three centers should be arrange for maximum efficiency.

But, perhaps even more important to modern kitchen planning was the development by Katharine A. Fisher³ of the concept of a task-centric workspace. A director of the Good Housekeeping Institute, author, and columnist for Good Housekeeping Magazine, she wrote a series of widely read columns about kitchen efficiency begining in 1925 in which she proposed grouping kitchen tasks factory style, according to purpose and materials, and assignng each task to its own work station. Cabinets within easy reach of the work station would hold all the implements and ingredients required to complete the task. Sounds basic to us today, but it was revoutionary at the time. Everything in "daily use" should be "in sight" and right at hand. Her ideas are central to modern kitchen planning, although there is probably not one kitchen planner in a hundred who knows where these central ideas came from.

The idea of kitchen as workplace took hold very quickly. Advertising in the 1920s had already begun to portray the home kitchen in industrial terms: as a "production center" for meals. Ads in popular magazines promoted labor-saving tools and devices as critical to "the business" of food preparation. University research centers began studying household ergonomics, eventually leading to the establishment of the Small Homes Council to research housing issues at the University of Illinois in 1944

The upshot was that meal preparation and cleanup, which required an average of 44 hours per week in 1900, had dropped to under 20 hours in 1939.

Processed Foods

But, while improved organization and labor saving technologies made major contributions to more efficient meal production, the biggest time- and work-saver of all were processed foods. Prepared foods were heavily promoted by the food industry for their "ease", "speed", "simplicity" and "efficiency".

And, the fact is, they were every one of these. Fully or partially prepared foods often sliced meal preparation from hours to minutes. Busy housewives were quick to adopt these wonderful time- and work-savers almost as soon as they hit grocery shelves.

Bisquick is a good example. Introduced in 1931, this mixture of flour, salt and baking soda eliminated the time-consuming process of measuring and blending ingredients to make pastries, and turned it into one easy step: add an egg or two and mix. It make bakers out of nearly every homemaker — much to the dismay of commercial bakeries, 2/3rds of which were out of business by 1939. First marketed solely as a fast way to make biscuits, company -sponsored recipes soon appeared in magazines and on Busquick packages for hundreds of other foods, including pizza dough, pancakes, dumplings, cookies and pastry crusts. By the mid-1930s you could buy a set of Busquick recipes from General Mills, complete with its own recipe box.

SPAM was another wonder product. A blend of pork products (you probably don't want to know precisely which pork products) and seasonings, SPAM came packaged in a revolutionary rectangular vacuum can, ready to heat, slice and eat. It could be kept on the shelf for seven years without spoiling (which made it ideal as a staple of GI mess halls during the 2nd World War). It entered the national diet almost overnight after its introduction in 1937 and SPAMwiches quickly became a common item in a workingman's lunch pail.

American Cheese became a smash hit with the buying public just a few years after its introduction. Canadian-born James L. Kraft, seeking to improve the shelf life of cheese, patented a process of adding sodium phosphate to re-pasturized cheddar cheese in 1916. Canned, it could be kept on the shelf for years,and was a huge commercial success — especially after 6 million American soldiers and Marines returned from the Great War with a taste for the canned processed cheese that had been issued as military rations. (Packaged with two protein-fortified crackers, Kraft canned cheese survived as part of military C-rations until the 1980s, and was as popular among GIs in Viet Nam in 1968 as it had been among Doughboys in France fifty years earlier in 1918.)Repackaged in the familiar foil wrapper and yellow box, it was re-christened "Velveeta" in 1928, and made the grilled cheese sandwich an American dinner tradition and a favorite of kids of all ages — and parents of all ages, too, come to think of it.

In 1928 Gerber Products Company introduced its pre-cooked, pureed baby foods with "heat and eat" simplicity, eliminating the time-consuming and labor-intensive process of boiling, mashing and straining food for the baby. Invented by cannery owner Daniel Gerber to feed his own baby, Sally, the strained, baby- and mother-friendly, fruits and vegitables (initially peas, prunes, carrots and spinach) forever changed how infants are fed in the U.S. Gerber offered 5 jars for $1.00 to any mother who would fill out a form giving the name and address of her grocery store. Using this information, Gerber expanded its product into just about every nook and cranny of the United States and Canada within a few years. Now a subsidiary of the world-wide Nestl� Company, Gerber controls about 80% of the U.S. baby food market, far outdistancing its rivals, Eeach Nut and Del Mont�.

The dinnertime icon, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese appeared as "Keft Dinner" on grocery shelves in 1937 in response to the need for a wholesome, filling and inexpensive meal for Depression-era families. Kraft combined dry macaroni with a sealed package of powered American cheese in a box that could be kept on the shelf for ten months or longer — "a meal for 4 in 9 minutes for about 19¢". During WWII a homemaker in the U.S. could get two boxes of macaroni and cheese for one meat ration stamp. Fifty million boxes were sold before the war ended, and America had become addicted to "mac and cheese", the ultimate "comfort food".

In the U.S. the product was renamed Kraft Macaroni & Cheese shortly after its debut, but kept its original "Kraft Dinner" tag in Canada, where it is considered a "national dish" and a "cultural icon". Canada is, in fact, the only country in the world that eats more Mac & Cheese per person than Americans, about 50% more, and the product is the single most popular grocery item sold in Canada where it is often referred to as simply "KD".

A Workingman's Weekly Food Basket From 1900 to 1940 Weekly Cost of Food During the Arts & Crafts Period
Food Item	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940
1 lb. apples	0.10	0.11	0.11	0.11	0.05
2 lbs. roast	0.36	0.38	0.82	0.82	0.62
3 lbs. steak	0.48	0.60	1.41	1.44	1.23
1 lb. bread	0.05	0.05	0.12	0.09	0.09
1 lb. butter	0.27	0.39	0.71	0.46	0.41
2 lbs. chicken	0.39	0.57	0.32	1.11	0.90
1 lb. coffee	0.16	0.20	0.43	0.37	0.22
1 doz. eggs	0.23	0.36	0.76	0.52	0.42
1 gal. milk	0.20	0.34	0.66	0.62	0.56
2 bu. potatoes	0.61	0.40	0.66	0.38	0.25
1 lb. rice	0.36	0.08	0.17	0.09	0.07
1 lb. sugar	0.36	0.05	0.18	0.06	0.08
Total	2.98	3.53	7.37	6.07	4.90

Wkly Wage	9.40	12.08	28.56	28.65	26.70
Food as a % of Wkly Wage	31.7^%	29.2^%	25.8^%	21.2^%	18.4^%
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, 2 vols.

1937 also saw the introduction of Rag�'s bottled prepared spaghetti sauce by the Rochester, N.Y.-based Ragu Packing Company. It quickly replaced the hours-long process of making Italian-style red pasta sauce at home, and introduced "Spaghetti Night" to war-rationed American dinner tables after Pearl Harbor.

Requiring no preparation other than warming, it was hearty, cheap, nutritious, and filling. It made Italian culinary purists cringe, and its slogan, "That's Italian" almost compelled them to seek solace in strong drink, but was an overnight success with busy American housewives. Sales soared, and labor over a hot kitchen stove took one more telling blow. Now owned by the Anglo-Dutch food giant, Unilever, Rag� is still the best-selling prepared spaghetti sauce brand in the U.S.

Jell-O, premiered in six fruit flavors in 1900. Colorful recipe booklets, free for the asking, seemed to offer endless new ways to serve the chilled, shimmering dessert. American homemakers fell in love with it, and the national fascination with everything Jell-O has lasted over a century, stoked by national recipe contests that challenged housewives to come up with new and innovative ways to use Jell-O in home dining.

Jell-O instant pudding followed in 1936: just add milk, "heat, chill and eat". It put dessert pudding on the nation's menu.

After 1928 an ice-cold pitcher of Kool-Aid in one of six fruit flavors was a stock item in nearly every Summertime American refrigerator. Invented by Edwin Perkins in Hastings, Nebraska, it replaced the time-consuming process of making chilled fruit-based soft drinks. And, at 5¢, for two quarts of the sugar-sweetened beverage (with vitamin D added), it was a Depression-era bargain — and still is today.⁴

Food Cost and Life Expectancy

In fact, almost all of these packaged processed foods, in addition to being simple to prepare, healthy, nutritious,and quick, were very easy on the budget.

Food cost as a percentage of America's wages plummeted during the Arts & Crafts period, in no small part due to the revolution in processing, packaging and transportation. At the turn of the century a workingman spent nearly 1/3rd of his wages feeding his family. By 1940 that cost had declined to just over 18% and was still falling. (Today it is about 13%.) At the same time, an increasing variety of wholesome, healthy food — both fresh and packaged — was available throughout the year in all but the most remote parts of the country and, after 1930, many basic foods such as milk and bread were fortified with vitamins and other nutrition supplements.

This vastly improved national diet contributed materially to better overall health in America. Dietary deficiency diseases that had plagued mankind since the dawn of time were in steep decline by 1941, and within the next decade all but disappeared in most parts of the United States and Canada. Life expectancy rose sharply. A male born in the U.S. in 1900 could expect to live just 48 years — a number that had barely budged since the Dark Ages. But, by 1941 his expected life span was 63 years — the largest increase in life-expectancy since record-keeping began, and still unequaled.

The Built-in Kitchen

The massive shift toward refrigerated, canned, frozen and dry foods that could be kept for days, weeks, even months and years, meant that some place to store all this bounty had become a critical need in American kitchens by the eve of the World War.

Adding to the problem was the dramatic increase in the number of small appliances and kitchen utensils. The pop-up toaster, waffle maker, blender and electric mixer had all become common kitchen fixtures, as had the electric percolator. By the mid-1930s not only were small appliances vastly improved over earlier, utilitarian models, they were becoming sleek and stylish enough to be brought right to the dinner table.

Some were to become icons of industrial design. The 1930 Art-Deco Sunbeam Mixmaster® remained virtually unchanged well into the 1960s and has now been revived under a new name with modern innards, but the same 1930s "retro" look. It is the only small appliance ever to have appeared on a U.S. postage stamp. The Sunbeam T-series "Toastmaster" toaster enjoyed the same longevity. The 1930s design was made well into the post-war period, and has also been revived to once again take its proper place in thousands of restored Arts & Crafts and "retro" kitchens (See: Postwar Housing Styles: Cape Cod, Colonial and Ranch).

Arts & Crafts Kitchens in Period Advertising

Arts & Crafts Kitchen Remodeling in Lincoln, Nebraska: Arts & Crafts Kitchen in Advertising

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Kitchens that appear in period advertising are usually more inspirational than actual; but advertising does give us a good idea of what American homeowners of the time thought were ideal kitchens. These illustrations run the gamut from primitive early period kitchens to streamlined Art Deco styles of the the late Arts & Crafts period. Notice the absence of stained wood cabinets. Stained wood cabinets in kitchens were rate in the Arts & Crafts period.

For many more vintage advertising illustrations, and expert information on vintage kitchens and baths, we urge you to visit Antique Home Styles.

Traditional kitchen storage — a few cupboards and some hooks on the wall, was simply overwhelmed. There was no place to put all the stuff. It took the built in kitchen cabinet to solve the storage problem.

By the second half of the 1930s, some sort of built-in cabinetry was standard in most new kitchens, and every homemaker with an older kitchen aspired to the new style of kitchen with numerous fitted cabinets pictured in period magazines.

National scale cabinet factories barely existed before 1945. Some manufacturers offered pre-made fitted kitchen cabinets as more or less an addition tho their regular line of furniture products. Hoosier, for example, showed fitted cabinets in its advertising after 1930. But, these were not well received by a public that wanted the better fit and quality of custom cabinetry. So, cabinetmaking during the Arts & Crafts era remained largely a local enterprise. A skilled cabinetmaker built cabinets on site, first locating the kitchen sink under a window (for keeping an eye on the kids in the yard), then building pantries and cupboards to fit around appliances. Sometimes his efforts were guided by an architect or designer, but more often not. By today's standards the storage was often primitive, awkward and inconvenient. But, some of it was ingenious. Adjustable shelves, slide-out trays on wooden glides, fresh bread drawers with zinc liners and pull-out cutting boards were common, and often cleverly designed and well-built — very well-built as anyone who has ever had to tear out these cabinets will readily, but unhappily, attest.

It took the post-war housing boom to bring industrial-scale cabinetmaking into full bloom. All of today's major cabinet manufacturers were started after the War. During the Arts & Crafts period the only "factory cabinets" advertised in national media were Hoosier-style all-in-one baking centers. But, the basic cabinet standards that made large scale cabinet manufacturing possible after the World War were established during the Arts & Crafts period. Cabinet dimensions such as the standard 36" countertop height, 24" deep base cabinets and 12" deep wall cabinets were nearly universally accepted by 1941.

The late Arts & Crafts kitchen had evolved far beyond the its spare, utilitarian Victorian beginnings. It had become a efficient meal preparation and cleanup center with cold and dry storage, distinct preparation areas, running water, electricity, and even sanitary waste disposal. General Electric had already invented and was selling the kitchen sink disposer that was later to become a market leader as the "Disposall". Still not quite the modern kitchen of today, but very close, and it took little more than a firm design nudge after the World War to bring about the fully modern kitchen in thousands upon thousands of post-war suburban homes.

Recreating the Arts & Crafts Kitchen

Today's Arts & Crafts kitchen is only a distant relative of the actual kitchens of the Arts & Crafts period. In fact, the contemporary kitchen is more accurately a modern kitchen in the Arts & Crafts style. What kitchen designers have done is take the best design elements of the Arts & Crafts house and combine them with modern kitchen features to produce a hybrid kitchen that looks and feels like it could have been completely at home in an Arts & Crafts house. But, it is anything but historically accurate. And, if it were, who would want it?

Fortunately Arts & Crafts kitchens were usually fairly large because as well as cooking and washing up, they were often the place where laundry was done. The sink and washboard gave way to the wringer washer once electricity was available, and the laundry was often moved to a porch or the basement. A built-in drop-down ironing board was a standard feature. With the laundry moved elsewhere in the modern home, the ironing board recess has often been converted to a cup and glassware cupboard or spice cabinet — and in its new role is very functional. The fairly generous footprint of the Arts & Crafts kitchen makes it easier to modernize the kitchen without adding on.

Wall Treatments

By the 1920s and on into the 1930s, hygiene and sanitation were key elements of the Arts & Crafts kitchen. Above all else, any kitchen feature needed to be easily cleaned and unlikely to harbor germs. Ceramic tile was a favored material. A tile wainscot was a common feature — often extending up the wall to as high as 56". Tile was hygenic and easy to keep clean. The walls above the tile were painted in durable, washable enamel paint. Wallpaper in kitchens was not sanitary, and, therefore, less often used. If more decoration was wanted, stencils were used to paint designs on the walls.

Unlike the rest of the house, usually painted in somber earth tones, the most common colors for both tile and paint in kitchens were pastels. Contemporary illustrations show various shades of peach, yellow, pale green and light blue. Many of the colors we usually associate with post-war modernism were already well established in the Arts & Crafts kitchen palette: aqua, turquoise, peach, lemon yellow and nearly every shade of pink. Colors were frequently banded. One color to about midway up the windows, another color up to the top of the window, and a third color in the frieze above the window. Often the color bands were separated by horizontal mouldings. Where a tile wainscot was used, the tile was often bordered in a contrasting color. Peach and aqua were popular combinations.

The Three Faces of Oak

How oak is sawn affects its appearance and price. Rift oak is characterized by straight, close-set, parallel grain; quartersawn by straight grain with perpendicular "flecks" (sometimes called "flakes"). The darker the wood is stained, the more obvious the flecks become. Flat- or plain-sawn oak has a coarse arched or "cathedral" grain. It is the most common cut because it produces the most usable wood, but it is rarely seen in Arts & Crafts furnishings or cabinets.

Quartersawing wastes more wood and is therefore pricier, but much more authentic. Rift sawn oak is rare. Few logs are deliberately rift sawn. Rift sawn boards are produced in the process of quartersawing. Rift and quarter boards are often mixed together as "quartersawn" oak, so it pays to look at each board before you buy it.

Cabinets

Original Arts & Crafts kitchens were work rooms where cooking and cleaning up was done. They were not "public" rooms that guests entered, so they were very utilitarian. While the trend today is toward stained fine wood kitchen cabinets, the cabinets of the actual period were usually pine, painted in light, "sanitary" colors. White was by far the most popular — not usually a bright "hospital" white, but a slightly "off white". Variations of white were also used: cream, eggshell, and ivory were very popular.

The elegant, fine wood cabinets you see in the modern interpretation of the Arts & Crafts kitchen cabinet did not originate in the kitchen, but in the more public living and dining rooms of the period. Fine hardwood was a feature of built-in living room and dining room furniture and fireplace mantels. However, since kitchens now have become public rooms, upgraded cabinet wood is a appropriate interpretation.

But, whether painted pine or carefully finished hardwoods, Arts & Crafts cabinet styles are distinctive. The cabinets typically feature a flat 1- or 2-panel door with square, unadorned frame. Edge profiling typical of the Victorian era is almost completely absent except in very early kitchens. Raised-panel and flush cabinet doors are inconsistent with the period, as are arched-panel doors. Glass-panel doors are, however, appropriate, especially with art or stained glass. Many architect-designed Prairie-style cabinet doors and drawers are more elaborate, but still rather plain. (For example of Arts & Crafts cabinet doors and drawer fronts, see Cabinet Door Styles.)

1920's Gas Range

A period advertisement showing a Magic Chef gas range and typical cooking implement storage in the 1920s.

If you think your modern kitchen range has features, take a look at the two ovens, broiler, bread warmer and utensil drawer built into this Magic Chef 1000 Series four-burner. This was Magic Chef's compact range. Six and eight burner models were available.

It is possible to get a restored period range for your period kitchen. Try Antique Stoves. Generally, each part of the country used wood that was common to its area. Use of local materials was a key tenet of the Arts & Crafts philosophy. Oak was the most frequent wood of choice in the Midwest: usually red oak, either rift cut or quartersawn. Although major cabinet manufacturers often use flat sawn oak in most of their Craftsman cabinets, it is not actually authentic to the period. Rift or quartersawn elm and chestnut are also good choices.

Cherrywood was not commonly found in Arts & Crafts houses in the Midwest, but was fairly common in the East. Some famous architects used mroe exotic woods. Cuban mahogany, for example, was the material of choice for most Greene & Greene cabinetry and furnishings in California. Unfortunately Cuban mahogany is now commercially extinct, as is Honduran mahogany, from overcutting. The "mahogany" available today is usually not a true mahogany, but a wood with somewhat a similar appearance.

Straight-grain, Douglas Fir was a staple of West Coast cabinetry. It was widely used to build period kitchen cabinets because it was cheap at the time, not so any longer. But, it makes a beautiful cabinet and is a basic wood in Japanese cabinetmaking. Light colored woods, such as maple, should be used only if they are painted. Whatever the wood, it should be well figured, high quality wood. The color and grain of the wood was considered all the decoration needed in Arts & Crafts cabinetry.

Countertops

Early countertops were often linoleum or what was then often called "oil cloth". Linoleum works well as flooring, but it doesn't suffer the kind of abuse a countertop gets, and has to be replaced frequently. It is not a good choice for today's kitchen. Wood countertops were common, especially where any cutting was done. Wood is actually a good countertop material, but it does required periodic maintenance to keep its good looks. If stone was used, it was typically a local stone such as limestone, or, in upscale kitchens, soapstone or slate imported from the East. Artificial stone will work if the color is kept dark to look a little like soapstone or slate.

The laminated countertop was invented in the early 20th century by Formica, and was the upscale countertop by the 1920s. It was used on the Queen Mary and in Art Deco retail establishements as the luxury countertop material of choice. It was expensive, but still found its way into many late Arts & Crafts homes, often with wood banding on the edges. All laminate manufacturers make patterns very suited for Arts & Crafts homes.

Zinc was a common countertop treatment during Victorian times, and was carried over into the Arts & Crafts era. Zinc countertops are still being made. As is Monel™, a nickel alloy invented in 1901 and often used in period groceries as a countertop material.

Ceramic and stone tile are also a suitable countertop surface. At the time tile was more common for floors, but it does not take much imagination to translate it to countertops. It is generally our preferred choice. With the new carefree urethane grouts and careful setting, it is among the most maintenance-free countertop materials — requiring much less attention than any natural stone. It is also the material that permits the most creativity. There are literally thousands of patterns and colors of ceramic tile, so mix, match and experiment until you get a look you love.

It was common in the early Craftsman period to use tables as work surfaces, and these could have been fitted with an enamel-on-steel working surface. "Porceliron" was a common trade name for the material. Enamel-on-steel tended to chip, so unmarred examples are difficult to find, and auction prices are numbing for exceptional pieces. The working surfaces of Hoosier cabinets were also often enamel-on-steel. Unfortunately, as for as we can tell, none of these materials are available today. (But, if you know of a source, please contact us.)

Flooring

In the immediate post-Victorian period, bare wood floors were common, sometimes waxed, mostly not. By the 1920s kitchen floors were often painted pine. Most paint companies of the time offered various shades of a floor paint in such hues as orange, brown, gray and maroon. The sanitation movement meant that floors had to be hygenic, which meant weekly cleaning and monthly waxing in many homes. Yearly repainting as part of general Spring Cleaning was recommended by paint companies — although it was very inconvenient since it usually took more than a week for the paint to dry. Painted floors are not durable enough for the modern kitchen, although we have done some. It is especially appropriate where the original flooring is in good shape but stained and discolored to the extent that the wood cannot be restored. Figure on repainting every two or three years — more often in high traffic areas. Fortunately, today's floor paint dries overnight.

Hardwood flooring was sometimes used, primarily in upscale homes. If used it was usually strip and plank wood (usually red oak). Hardwood is a good choice for today's kitchen since modern finishes give excellent protection against water damage. Stone tile (typically slates), ceramic tile or true linoleum are also authentic, and excellent choices. Vinyl sheet flooring can simulate linoleum, although true linoleum is nonce again available. The Arts & Crafts Society offers a slide show of linoleum patterns common in the 1930s. While most of these are no longer made, the show gives you a good idea of what your great-grandmother thought was trendy.

One of the most interesting discoveries we have made over the years is that there is often a pristine oak strip floor under the many layers of lineoleum and vinyl on an Arts & Crafts kitchen floor. We think it is an accident of hstory. Most of the period houses built before 1930 seem to have had oak kitchen floors, which were almost immediately covered in lineoleum — the "miracle" material of the day. What the covering has done is keep the oak in almost new condition, without the wear common to other parts of the house. A few hours work removing the asphalt tile adhesive and some sanding and refinishing results in a floor that looks almost new, even though it is actually nearly 100 years old.

Most Requested Feature

We have never seen an original Arts & Crafts kitchen cabinet with a glass door. But, glass doors were common in built-in dining room breakfronts. Kitchen designers simply adopted the style of of these glass doors and Craftsman windows to kitchen cabinets. Glass is common in reproduction Arts & Crafts kitchens, particularly stained or art glass in Arts & Crafts and Art Deco designs.

It may not be original, but it is authentic, and the most requested kitchen feature of Arts & Crafts kitchen renovations. Put a little low-voltage light inside the cabinets, and you have a built-in display case for grandma's Irish china.

The Arts & Crafts Bath

In the early part of the Arts & Crafts era, the bath was merely a continuation of the Victorian bathroom with its stand-alone claw-foot tub and wall-mounted lavatory sink. This was often a very monochromatic room � with a subway tile wainscot, white floor tile and painted… more �

¹ The results of Upton Sinclair's undercover investigation of the meat packing industry were published in his novel, The Jungle in 1905. Outraged public reaction compelled President Theodore Roosevelt to send federal inspectors to meat packing plants, and what they found resulted in the Meat Inspection and the Pure Food and Drug Acts of 1906 that created the Food and Drug Administration to ensure food safety.
Sinclair's was neither the first nor the last expose that finally compelled the government to take remedial action. Rachel Carson's The Silent Sprint virtually created the the grassroots environmental movement and led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. The 1965 publication of Ralph Nader's Unsafe At Any Speed led Congress to unanimously pass the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act establishing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and marked a historic shift in responsibility for automobile safety from the consumer to the manufacturer which still exists today.
But, of course, the ultimate expose novel is still Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe published in 1852. The book's emotional portrayal of the impact of slavery aroused abolitionist sentament in the North and enraged the South, eventually leading to civil war and the abolition of chattel slavery in the United States.

²The shape of the refrigerator reminded GE engineers of the Civil War gunboat, the USS "Monitor", which defeated the CSS Merrimac in the first battle between ironclad ships in history, and the most famous naval battle of the Civil War. The Monitor was a radical innovation in naval ship architecture that was despised by most sailing ship officers, and called, among other unflattering names "a cheesebox on a raft". Nonetheless, its rotating gun turret and iron armor became the model for future naval warship design that persists even today.

³ Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Encyclopedia of Kitchen History, New York: Taylor & Francis, 2004.

⁴Kool-Aid originally sold for 10¢, but the price was reduced to 5¢ during the Depression to generate more demand. Unlike most products, Kool-Aid has decreased in real cost over the years. It is now selling for about 20¢ in 2012 dollars, which equals a single 1933 penny. Add two quarts of water, sugar, corn syrum, a dash of salt and a sprinkle of potassium chloride (i.e. Morton Salt Substitute or Lite Salt) and you have a poor-man's gatorade, for a fraction of the ridiculous Gatorade® price. Our favorite job-site summertime beverage. (Inflation calculations courtesy the U.S. Inflation Calcuator.)

Need to learn more about kitchen and bath design? Try these articles:

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Arts & Crafts Kitchens: The Evolution of the Modern Kitchen J. M. Edgar, CMC, CRC