America’s Kitchen
April 01 – October 31, 2011
Special Exhibitions Gallery
Although kitchen chores have changed from the multi-tasking of colonial and early nineteenth-century households – cooking, laundering, preserving, making soap and candles, spinning, and minding children – to common activities of today like paying bills, doing homework, entertaining, and microwaving popcorn, the kitchen remains the “heart of the home.”
From open fires to microwave ovens, kitchens tell stories – about families and women’s roles; new technologies; changes in gadgets and appliances; and shifts in values and everyday life. “America’s Kitchens” features seven kitchen vignettes, including an historic eighteenth century kitchen, as well as a traditional adobe kitchen in the Southwest and a bright blue 1950s kitchen. Each item in the exhibition tells a story, and excerpts from letters and diaries reveal both nostalgic memories as well as despair at the endless drudgery of kitchen work. Although kitchen chores have changed from the eighteenth century to today, the kitchen remains the “heart of the home.”
“America’s Kitchens” is a traveling exhibit from Historic New England.
