Never forget that many gave their lives over the last 250 years for us to live in a free democracy.
Cruikshank’s 1820 image showed what was needed to outfit a very young midshipman (in blue), including food and drinks.
“Fitting out” from The Progress of a Midshipman exemplified in the career of Master Blockhead in seven plates & frontispiece by Captain Frederick Marryat (1792-1848), sketches improved by George Cruikshank (1792-1878), in the Yale Center for British Art.
Sea chest labeled:
“Mastr Willm Blockhead
HM Ship Hellfire
West India Station.”
The father, on the left, is holding a very long paper of “List of Necessaries for Fitting out a Midshipman.” The piles of bills on the table show that it was expensive to outfit a young teenage midshipman.
Inventory list on the lid. Labels of contents for sea chest: “Preserved meat W.B.” (box), “Green Tea” (lg tin), “Pickles” (3 jars), “Epson Salts” (bottle), “Cherry Brandy” (2 bottles), “Portable Soup” (box). “James’s Powders” and “Rags for Wounds” in chest.
“He hails in life’s advancing day
Amusive hopes & prospects gay
Nor in the wide horizon round
Can e’er one little speck be found
To cloud the scene.” Anon
Blog post on rations and rationing taped talks HERE
Blog posts on Memorial Day HERE
Blog posts on Military HERE
UPCOMING TALKS
Jun 4 Wed 12 Sifter: The Ask – Searching for Foods in History. Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery. HERE
Jun 5 Thur 12:30 “One hook, one fish at a time”: Generic hybridity and elite authenticity in Whole Foods Market’s “Behind the Scenes” YouTube videos about seafood. Cynthia Gordon, Alla Tovares. Food History. The Institute of Historical Research (IHR). HERE
Jun 5 Thu 12:30 The School Meals Service: aims, achievements and limitations. Gary McCulloch. The Institute of Historical Research (IHR)HERE
Jun 5 Thu 6 Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States. Michelle McDonald. American Philosophical Society. Hybrid HERE TAPE may be HERE
Jun 9 Mon 2? Leftovers: A history of food waste and preservation… from 16th century to now. Eleanor Barnett. York Festival of Ideas UK HERE
Jun 12 Thu 12:30 Menus and memories through food. Nathalie Cooke: Tastes and Traditions: A Visual Sampler of Menu History; Mallory Cerkleski: Food as Relationship Building: Unveiling Memories Through Food-Centered Oral History Collection. Food History. The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) HERE. TAPE maybe HERE
Jun 16 Mon 12:30 The Rains of 1661: Dearth, Religion, and Politics in Little Ice England. “…a major role in the significant harvest shortfall that followed later in the year.” Alastair Bellany. The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) HERE
Jun 16 Mon 1 Unlocking prehistoric culinary records through the analysis of food remains. Dr Lara González Carretero. Creswell Crags. UK HERE
Jun 18 Wed 5-6AM Interpreting Books Through Food with the Food Museum UK. David Thomson. Living Knowledge Network. British Library HERE. TAPE maybe HERE
Jun 18 Wed 2 A Divine Government; glass beehives in the [English 1642-51] civil war. Marlis Hinckley. Cambridgeshire Beekeepers’ Assn. HERE
Glass bee hives 1772, 1828 … and 1650s. My blog post, 2022. HERE
Jun 24 Tue 5:30-7 The 1920s Kitchen: How Tech & Taste Transformed the American Home. Becky Libourel Diamond. Replay for one week. New York Adventure Club $12 HERE
Jun 29 Thu 12:30 Taste Does Not Endure: Network Science Dynamics of Food Recipes from 1977-2017. Juan C. S. Herrera. Food History. The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) HERE . TAPE maybe HERE
CALENDAR OF VIRTUAL FOOD HISTORY TALKS HERE
©2025 Patricia Bixler Reber
Researching Food History HOME
I have no say over the choice of the following ads (“you might like” links), which vary, with this email service. STRONGLY DISAGREE with some of them.
