Visions of plenty: Refrigerators in America around 1950

Journal of Design History

Volumn 11, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 311-321

  Isenstadt, Sandy ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY   (United States)

Author keywords

1950s; Advertising; Consumption; Design; Household appliances; Refrigerators

Indexed keywords

EID: 33645884841     PISSN: 09524649     EISSN: 17417279     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jdh/11.4.311     Document Type: Review

References (35)

1. W. Gass, Fiction and the Figures of Life, David Godine, 1979, pp. 194-5.
2. J. F. Mitarachi, 'Is the kitchen disintegrating?', Industrial Design, vol. 1, no. 4, 1954, pp. 64-7.
3. M. L. Burstein, 'The demand for household refrigeration', in A. D. Harberger (ed. ), The Demand for Durable Goods, University of Chicago Press, 1960, pp. 99-148.
4. Frigidaire, the Electric Refrigerator for Modern Homes, advertising flyer, c. 1925.
5. On electric refrigeration as a 'natural' development, see R. S. Cowan, 'The "Industrial Revolution" in the home', Technology and Culture, vol. 17, no. 1, 1976, pp. 1-23.
6. See E. W. Williams, Frozen Foods: Biography of an Industry, Cahners Publishing, 1970
7. and 'The Birds Eye story', Quick Frozen Foods Magazine, 1964.
8. The 'Westinghouse Home of Tomorrow Institute', illustrated in the manufacturer's electrical appliance catalogues from the 1930s, is one example.
9. J. Meikle, Twentieth Century Limited, Temple University Press, 1979, p. 38
10. and P. Sparke, An Introduction to Design and Culture in the Twentieth Century, Harper & Row, 1986, p. 49.
11. R. Banham has a chapter on 'Concealed power' in The Architecture of the Well-tempered Environment, Architectural Press, 1969. Frank Lloyd Wright, in 1908, insisted that simplicity required 'appliances or fixtures' to be assimilated 'together with all appurtenances into the design of the structure'.
12. 'In the cause of architecture', reprinted in F. Gutheim, Frank Lloyd Wright on Architecture, Grosset & Dunlap, 1941, p. 33.
13. The built-in, too, was often rendered in theatrical terms: by re-enacting the little drama of opening and closing, it emulated the popular 'veil and reveal' strategy of advertising.
14. Ice deliveries came to be characterized as inconvenient, messy and, as a result, unhygienic. As General Electric put it, electrical refrigeration 'makes it safe to be hungry'. General Electric Refrigerator, General Electric Co. , 1929.
15. A. Bradley, Electric Refrigerator Menus and Recipes and F. B. Harris, Florida Salads, both published by the General Electric Co. in 1928, to name only two.
16. GE for Better Living, April, 1936, p. 2.
17. Regarding the 'emancipation of womanhood' from household labour, see S. Strasser, Never Done: A History of American Housework, Pantheon, 1982
18. and R. S. Cowan, More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave, Basic Books, 1983.
19. G. Nelson & H. Wright. Tomorrow's House, Simon & Schuster, 1945, p. 34.
20. The book was excerpted in a number of trade periodicals, including Architectural Forum, where both authors were employed, and it went through several printings in its first year alone.
21. This advertisement appeared in Architectural Record, January 1950.
22. Mechanical refrigeration was well-accepted by the late 1930s and overproduction of household units led to price wars and brand differentiation. See R. C. Haring, Marketing of Mechanical Household Refrigerators, Montana State University, 1963.
23. 'The Manor' was made by Ohio State Stove and Manufacturing Co. and illustrated in their product brochure Steel Kitchens for Modern Homes and Apartments, n. d. American Kitchens' 'Pioneer' ads appeared in Better Homes and Gardens in 1953.
24. 'The view is part of the decorating', Better Homes and Gardens, vol. 31, no. 5, 1953, p. 72.
25. K. A. Marling refers to the aesthetic preoccupation with 'eye appeal' across a range of product designs in the 1950s in As Seen on TV. The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s, Harvard University Press, 1994.
26. T. Peterson, Magazines in the Twentieth Century, Urbana, Illinois, 1956, pp. 344-6.
27. Beyond Alois Riegl's more familiar distinction between haptic and optically-based art, authorities on consumer behaviour described the 'objective' qualities of sight and the more limited information gathered by touch, which was also deemed 'primitive'. In R. Sheldon & E. Arens, Consumer Engineering: A New Technique for Prosperity, Harper & Bros. , 1932, p. 68.
28. A. Giddens, The Constitution of Society, University of California Press, 1984, pp. 259-60.
29. Allowing a rich diet even in crowded settings, refrigeration may have well played a role in urbanization, though it obviously is not an essential aspect. This is O. E. Anderson, Jr. /s view in Refrigeration in America: A History of a New Technology and Its Impact, Princeton University Press, 1953, p. 320.
30. Crosley's ad appeared in Better Homes and Gardens, August 1953.
31. D. Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience, Random House, 1974, pp. 117-18, 443-4
32. and W. Walsh, The Rise and Decline of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, L. Stuart, 1986.
33. For a concise look at marketing strategy in supermarket design, see J. Hitt, 'The theory of supermarkets', New York Times Magazine, 10 March 1996, pp. 56-61, 94, 98.
34. Offering each family member a unique role to play in the domestic political economy, Reynolds Aluminum's 'Eskimo Freeze' advertisement appeared in House and Garden in August 1947.
35. In 1937, the editor of Electric Refrigeration News judged marketing to be a greater factor than engineering in the acceptance of electrical refrigeration. Cited in Anderson, op. cit. , p. 214.