Acc. #2001.0031 advertisement, Landers, Frary & Clark, Museum of Connecticut History

This week’s Friday Find comes from the Connecticut State Library, State Archives and Museum of Connecticut History collections. The Museum has this amazing collection of advertisements for Connecticut made products from all over the world. Many of the products that were used during the war, by soldiers and housewives alike, were manufactured here. The topic of Connecticut manufacturing during World War One could fill volumes, and I believe a book on just that is in the works, so today we’ll just focus on these great ads from Landers, Frary & Clark, a housewares manufacturing company that was located in New Britain.

The museum also has a rather large collection of Landers, Frary & Clark housewares. In reality I think most of the historical societies in Connecticut probably have one or two items from them as well. I’m guessing many of you may as well, I know I still have the Universal Food Chopper that belonged to my grandmother.

These housewares were marketed to housewives as a way of appealing to their patriotism. It wasn’t just companies like Landers, Frary & Clark making these appeals. Food conservation was a major theme during World War I as much as it was during World War II. Posters adorned towns urging people to conserve food for the troops as well as for war torn Europe. Searching the historic Hartford Courant turns up the term “food conservation” 428 times between April 1917 and October 1919. A sign was even erected at the Old State House in downtown Hartford urging residents not to waste food.

Within the Connecticut State Council of Defense was a Committee of Food Supply that published materials like the pamphlet below titled “Cutting The Meat Bills With Milk”. This pamphlet from our library collection gives suggestions on how like “Serve milk toast for breakfast in place of the bacon” and admonishes readers not to waste milk.

Digging a little deeper into our collections I found some period cookbooks, like Allied Cookery and War-time Breads and Cakes as well as a few local ones published by Ladies Aid Societies. There are hidden gems everywhere, you just have to look!