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Washington, D.C., circa 1919. "G.R. Simcox." Who we hope is not anywhere in this photo. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
How many shorpyites(?) can remember having to peel up the tab in the middle of the milk bottle cap. The next iteration was crimped wax covers, if I remember, and I was a milk-man.
This little gem is a precursor to what Harold Evans selected as "the Image of the Century" for American Heritage magazine back in December 1999. The image was a panorama of a DuPont Company employee, Stephen Czakalinski, his wife, and two sons framed by all the food they supposedly consumed in a year. It is a widely published image shot by DuPont photographer Alex Henderson and first used in Better Living, a company employee magazine patterned after Life, in its November-December 1951 issue. From 1919 to 1951, the American table expanded, but the glass milk bottle remained.
Now I know what my daily minimum requirement of lard looks like.
The Kurtz brand is still around, in Sav-A-Lot stores. I always have Kurtz Hamburger Dill Slices on hand.
Marshall McLuhan once noted that color photography has done more for food than eating has.
Before the discovery of leafy green vegetables.
This looks like a representation of the food consumed by one person (who apparently isn't much of a vegetable fan) over the course of a week.
I can identify everything in this shot except that plate of what appears to be dehydrated kale chips in the upper right. The honeycomb is a nice touch.
[It's cereal. - Dave]
According to his 1968 obit, Glenn R. Simcox "was employed as a youth counselor for the extension service of the Agriculture Department" from 1912 to 1919.
A native of Iowa, he later served as secretary to Iowa congressmen, chief clerk for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and president of the National Association of Retired Civil Employees.
No matter how pretty and neat the setting might be, food in black in white doesn't look appetizing at all.
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