"Deviled Ham Untouched by Hands": Food-Related Vintage Stereoviews

Abstract

This is an essay about depictions of food in vintage stereoviews, i.e., three-dimensional photographs mass-marketed in the 19 th and early 20 th centuries. The piece, illustrated with striking examples from the author9s collection, offers a look at a unique resource. Images include meat processors working in Chicago at the time of Upton Sinclair; Italians drying spaghetti on racks in the streets of Naples; East-End Londoners readying themselves for a banquet to honor King Edward VII; and a Liberty Bell made entirely of California apples. The author introduces to Gastronomica 9s readers this immensely rich, largely undiscovered store of visual information about food history and culture.