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Guest Blog Post: The Quotable Eugenia Sheppard
(Editor’s note: This is a guest post by talented UCF journalism student Baileigh Johnson. She has interned at several publications including Marie Claire Magazine and Orlando Magazine. She shares my interest in fashion journalism. Here is her blog.) On November 12, 1984, six years before I was born, and 28 years before I would learn her name, The New York Times ran an obituary, Section B, Page 15, titled “Eugenia Sheppard, Fashion Columnist, Dies.” This was the first article I ever read about Eugenia Sheppard, as well as the first indication of a thought that is now a reality: I had found my icon. A research opportunity secured this thought,…
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New York Fashion Editor Eugenia Sheppard
- Betty Ewing, Florida Women's Pages, Jeanne Voltz, Marie Anderson, Marjorie Paxson, Servicemen's Pier
Marie Anderson & the Servicemen’s Pier
The Veteran’s Day activities yesterday reminded me of some of the work women’s page journalists did stateside during World War II. Some went over to the news side of the newspaper – examples include Betty Ewing, Koky Dishon, Jeanne Voltz, Marjorie Paxson and Dorothy Jurney. Other women were volunteers for the war effort – such as Marie Anderson, pictured above. She oversaw major projects at the Servicemen’s Pier in Miami. Here is a story about her work in a 1943 Miami News story. I wrote about Marie’s work at the Pier in this book chapter about women in the Baby Boomer generation. After the war, Anderson went to work at…
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Happy Veteran’s Day
A few of the women’s page journalists I study were in the Service. For example, Ann Hamann served in the Army during World War II. After the war, she used the G.I. Bill to earn a master’s degree in home economics. She went on to become a food editor of an Indiana newspaper. In her retirement, she joined the Peace Corps I interviewed Ann’s son last year and have collected several of her food columns. Happy Veteran’s Day!
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Cake Mixes and the “Egg Theory”
Chicago Tribune food editor Mary Meade (Ruth Ellen Church) often said that recipes for cakes were the most common request from her readers. When companies began producing cake mixes in the 1950s, some makers did not appreciate the efficiency of just adding water to the mix. A researcher for General Mills set out to find out what the program was and came up with the “egg theory.” The “egg theory” about cake mixes can be found in Laura Shapiro’s Something From the Oven. She wrote: “After interviewing women and exploring the emotions that surrounded cakes and baking. Ernest Dichter reported that the very simplicity of mixes – just add water…
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Food Studies Presentation: Ohio Food Editor History
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Jane Nickerson & Bread Research
I tracked down the New York Times story about bread that was cited in the book White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf. On page 143, the author was listed as “Janet Nickerson” – a mistake that was repeated in at least one other academic article. As is shown here, the author was Jane Nickerson who I will be presenting a paper on Nickerson next week at NCA.
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Food Studies Presentation: Ohio Food Editor History
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101 Classic Cookbooks
I recently received the wonderful 101 Great Cookbooks in the mail. It includes an interesting history of cookbooks along with 501 classic recipe. The book was produced by the Fales Library at New York University. The cookbook collection is largely based on the donation by Cecily Brownstone – the longtime food writer for the Associated Press. In the introduction to the book, the Fales Library Director Marvin Taylor wrote about a meeting he and Marion Nestle had with Cecily: “Cecily was bedridden at the time, but we did get to meet and speak with her. She was a small woman with a sharp mind and quick wit.” (p 13) Cecily…
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Green Bean Casserole & Food Editor Cecily Brownstone
A website devoted to the history of newspaper women's pages
