This presentation will explore popular conceptions of the American child (aged 2 to 12 years) as is evidenced through food-related advertisements, articles, dining artifacts, and other food ephemera from the 1870s to the 1910s. The 1870s serves as a starting point for this project as mass manufacturing made processed and brand name foods and food-related artifacts more accessible to families with moderate incomes, while the 1910s marks a fundamental change in the relationship between children and food due to the American entry into WWI. This project will pay particular attention to changes or continuities in constructions of this native-born, Anglo-American (most often middle-class) child, considering how the association with food limited, expanded, or defined children’s innocence during this period, as well as how children contributed to these definitions by demonstrating their own food interests, or interacted with food in “fun” or playful ways.
About the presenterBrandi J. Venable
I am interested in researching the symbolic function of food in the lives of real children and child characters in children’s literature and media.