Tag Archives: Thanksgiving

Books & Reading, Film & Movies, Food & Drink, Libraries, Memories & History, Pleasures

A Slice of American Life from the FSA/OWI Photograph Collection | Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos | Library of Congress

November 18, 2021 by Kristi Finefield

Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico. Mary Mutz making an apple pie on the Mutz ranch. Photo by John Collier, Jr., 1943 Feb. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d26282

Thanksgiving in America is pie’s time to shine, as one or more of these delightful desserts often provide the sweet finish to Thanksgiving feasts across the country.

Depending on where you live or your family hails from, the pies could contain pecan, sweet potato, pumpkin, apple, or a wide variety of other delicious fillings.

The Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI) collection includes photo stories in which the photographer captures a simple task of daily life, sometimes taking a series of photographs of the steps it takes to complete it.

Two photo series I found illustrate the everyday task of making a pie, offering visual insight into life in the 1930s and 1940s, and a chance to observe if anything has changed in the intervening decades. As I plot my pie plan for next week, I’ll share these two stories of pie making from the FSA/OWI collection below.

Mary Mutz of Moreno Valley, California puts together an apple pie through five photos, from filling the pie crust, adding the top crust, trimming and crimping it, sprinkling sugar on top and baking the pie. The negatives aren’t always numbered in order so it’s important to look closely when putting together the sequence, as seen below…

Source: A Slice of American Life from the FSA/OWI Photograph Collection | Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos

Current Affairs, Food & Drink

How I Mastered the Art (and Politics) of Cornbread Dressing – The New York Times

Cornbread dressing, a Southern alternative for Thanksgiving. Credit Melina Hammer for The New York Times

Navigating the treacherous shoals of Southern custom, class, region — and Grandma.

Source: How I Mastered the Art (and Politics) of Cornbread Dressing – The New York Times

Current Affairs

The Modern Invention of Thanksgiving | JSTOR Daily

When you think of the history of Thanksgiving, you’d be hard-pressed not to picture funny Pilgrim hats and stereotyped Native Americans. These days, most of us know that the sanitized story we learned in grade school bears little resemblance to the real history of the Plymouth colony. But it might still come as a surprise to hear that, as Anne Blue Wills argues in a 2003 article in Church History, Thanksgiving as we know it was deliberately invented in the 19th Century.

Source: The Modern Invention of Thanksgiving | JSTOR Daily

Current Affairs, Food & Drink, Love & Relationships

FFF: The 2015 Holiday Season

FFF: The 2015 Holiday Season
November 24, 2015

Release Number: CB15-FF.25

This festive season, or simply the holidays, is a time for gathering and celebrating with family and friends, gift giving, reflection and thanks. To commemorate this time of year, the U.S. Census Bureau presents the following holiday-related facts and figures from its collection of statistics.

Source: FFF: The 2015 Holiday Season

Current Affairs, Food & Drink

Thanksgiving History | Plimoth Plantation

Thanksgiving is a particularly American holiday. The word evokes images of football, family reunions, roasted turkey with stuffing, pumpkin pie and, of course, the Pilgrims and Wampanoag, the acknowledged founders of the feast. But was it always so? Read on to find out…

Source: Thanksgiving History | Plimoth Plantation

Food & Drink, Memories & History, Television

Thanksgiving, the Julia Child Way – The New York Times

Julia Child Credit Paul Child, courtesy Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
Julia Child Credit Paul Child, courtesy Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University

At the height of Julia Child’s fame in the 1970s and ’80s, Thanksgiving guests often felt the need to tell her she should get her home number removed from the public directory. (This was an analog tool called a “telephone book.”)

Source: Thanksgiving, the Julia Child Way – The New York Times

Editorial note: Pretty sad but speaks to generational changes going on, when you have to explain in a “New York Times” article what a telephone book “was.” Aside, they do still make telephone books, but not as many…