We here at Paste Food spend a little more time than is reasonable looking at food-related images online. And we’re not talking about Instagram. We mean digital archives.
If you felt the ground rumble a little earlier this week, it’s because historians, library nerds, and writers across the country trembled with joy when The New York Public Library released nearly 200,000 items from its digital collection for the public to use at their will. So we dipped our toes in a bit and did just that. Here’s a small sample of what you can find with a quick keyword search: “food.”
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Man looking at exhibit on chemicals and food, New York World's Fair (1939-1940)
From The New York Public Library
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Seated female salt merchant in red sari, one of a collection of 177 original paintings illustrating costume, vehicles and trades in India. Approx. 1780.
From The New York Public Library
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Cheese Store, 276 Bleecker Street, Manhattan. Photographed by Berenice Abbott for the Federal Art Project, 1935.
From The New York Public Library
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Drying Peaches at Isleta, New Mexico, postcard, Detroit Publishing Company, 1907.
From The New York Public Library
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I've Got Chicken on the Brain, sheet music, 1899.
From The New York Public Library
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Men of the 43rd Reg. slicing bread and doing other food preparation, stereoscopic view, date not specified.
From The New York Public Library
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Engraving by Jacques Lepautre after a drawing by Jean Bérain, depicting a large banquet hall with servers bearing platters of food. Ball-goers sit in tiered seats on both sides of the room; others stand in 2 rows in the back of the room. Circa 1683.
From The New York Public Library
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Food of migrant workers, southern California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration, 1935.
From The New York Public Library
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Promotional photo of automat chocolate doughnuts, date not specified.
From The New York Public Library
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Letter from Elias Boudinot to his wife [Baskinridge, N. J.], 1777: "Sends this by a messenger going eastward, but without news; the day of trial, enemy bombarding their little forts on the river; as to a barrel of salmon at Morristown, and storing sugar in Livingston's cellar; not to delay wagons, sends eastern papers; prisoners in Philadelphia treated most cruelly, remonstrances made that day, nothing to eat but grass; Howe's army was starving; milch-cow beef sold for 3s. 6d. per 1b; inhabitants perishing and all turned Whigs; over 1000 women had come out in one day, begging for food; the news as to capture of Indiamen and Lord Stormont's recall was confirmed."
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Campbell prune dryers, California, postcard, 1908-1909.
From The New York Public Library