The food axis : cooking, eating, and the architecture of American houses Elizabeth Collins Cromley

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cromley, Elizabeth C.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Architecture, Domestic--Social aspects--United States.

Architecture, Domestic.

Domestic space--United States.

Domestic space.

Architecture and society--United States.

Architecture and society.

Food habits--United States.

Food habits.

Physical Description:

viii, 269 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2010.

Summary:

Blending architectural and social history with the necessity, and the passion, for food, this engaging new book attempts to understand the development of the American house by viewing it through one very specific lens: the food axis. Taking in far more than the kitchen, the author explores all areas of food management within the home: preparation, cooking, consumption, and disposal. Her food axis implies a network of related spaces above and below ground, both attached to the house and separate from it. Studying the use and interaction of these spaces, and the ways in which their components change (often radically) over time, the author shows how these elements have helped shape the multiple forms of residential architecture in the United States, from the first settlement period to the present.

Beginning with the earliest, and relatively simple, houses, the author traces changes in food spaces through the years, noting a steady escalation in the number of food-related rooms. Along the way, she considers multiple circumstances that shed light on this evolution, including the role of gender in determining food-space design, the relation of food spaces to nature, and the telling ways in which people and food circulate through kitchens and dining rooms. Because Cromley is interested not only in how designed spaces look but how they are used, she cites a wealth of primary sources: autobiographies, travel journals, household diaries, letters, and inventories, in her exploration of the habits surrounding all aspects of food in the home. --Book Jacket.

Contents:

The one-room house and the emergence of function-specific spaces, 1600-1750

Developments in space and technology, 1750-1850

National unity, regional diversity, 1850-1900

Efficient space, electric power, 1900-1940

Food spaces in the modern style, 1940-1975

All spaces are potential food spaces, 1975-2010.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

HSP Historic Culinary Arts Collection

ISBN:

9780813930077

0813930073

OCLC:

529958055