journalism history
-
National Women & Media Collection
I was happy to provide a quote for this National Women & Media Collection poster. So much of my research is due to the documents that are housed at the NWMC. It was established by women’s page editor turned publisher Marjorie Paxon.
-
Cookbook Dedication: Day Two
Most of the newspaper food editors in my book, The Food Section, wrote cookbooks. Many included tributes that were helpful in understanding their lives and their relationships. Jeanne Voltz, food editor at the Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times, wrote numerous cookbooks and her dedication pages were insightful. In The Flavor of the South, she wrote:“Marie Sewell Appleton, who had the nerve to let a curious child invade her kitchenandJames Lamar Appleton, who taught the child to taste.” In The Country Ham Book, she wrote:“To the memory of my grandmother Susan Hannon Sewell, who regarded country ham as the staff of life, and my late husband, Luther, who insisted that…
You May Also Like
Food Studies Presentation: Ohio Food Editor History
-
Cookbook Dedications: Day One
Most of the newspaper food editors in my book, The Food Section, wrote cookbooks. Some of them (such as Ruth Ellen Church and Jeanne Voltz) wrote numerous cookbooks. One of my favorite parts of my research was reading the dedications in the cookbooks which gave me some insight into the women. This is the dedication from Denver food editor Helen Dollaghan’s Best Main Dishes: “For my husband, and in memory of my mother, Helen Neuer Dollaghan. Mom taught me how to cook, beginning with the basics of making gravy. Cecil, my husband, never complained when the gravy had a few lumps in it along the way.” I will be blogging…
- Cecily Brownstone, food editors, food history, food journalism, Jane Nickerson, journalism history, women and journalism
James Beard & Female Newspaper Food Editors
This photo was posted on the Fales’ library’s Facebook wall. This is the caption: James Beard, Irma Rombauer, Cecily Brownstone, Clementine Paddleford and other guests at Cecily’s Jane Street home in the 1940s. It is likely that James Beard would be saddened how much his story has overshadowed the women he surrounded himself with during his career. The women who promoted his career and kept his counsel, such as Jane Nickerson and Cecily Brownstone, have been marginalized in culinary history. As Beard’s biographer, Evan Jones, wrote: “Jim was not a heterosexual, but he was a ladies’ man, and he earned deep affection from women of his own and other persuasions.”…
You May Also Like
Green Bean Casserole & Food Editor Cecily Brownstone
-
My First Cooking Contest
I just registered for my first cooking contest. I am making salsa for the Avalon Park Chili Cook Off. Newspaper food editors were often the judges of local and national cooking competition. In 1968, there were 150 food editors—of both newspaper and magazine writers—who attended the Pillbury Bake Off. Another ten food editors would actually judge the finalists, including Benet of the San Francisco Chronicle and Volpe of the Pittsburgh Press. As in previous meetings, this meant a chance to advertisers to share their products or technologies and a chance for the editors to learn about local foods among the intended propaganda. The women learned about new General Electric products…
-
History of Newspaper Food Journalism
I am looking forward to presenting “Newspaper Food Journalism: The History of Food Sections & The Story of Food Editors” at the AEJMC Southeast Colloquium. It will be held at the University of Florida in March. For years, historians considered the food sections of newspapers to be either fluff and/or lacking an ethical framework because the food editors were controlled by advertisers. As I began to challenge those assumptions, I looked at what was covered at the week-long meetings of food editors which ran in the 1950s and 1960s. The meetings were sponsored by advertisers and featured their newest products. Yet, the meetings also featured significant speakers and events. A…
You May Also Like
Food Studies Presentation: Ohio Food Editor History
