Food History

First off, I have to thank Jess for inspiring this post.  For one of my article summaries for John Luchin's class, I read “Summoning the Food Ghosts: Food History as Public History” by Megan Elias.  This was probably one of my favorite articles that I read for that class.  The subject of food in the museum is kind of different, mostly because we are taught that snacks and museums do not mix.  This really fascinated me for a while, probably because it combines my two favorite things, history and food. 
 A very underrepresented subject in history in general is the evolution of food.  How has what we eat changed over time?  Elias' article questioned how people's circumstances changed the way they ate.  These circumstances were as simple as time and location, but there were some more complex factors too.  She looked at how the family dynamic changed because of food, and how food changed because of family dynamics.  
A food exhibit could be a really neat thing to bring in visitors.  This obviously doesn't have a place in all museums, but a few could pull it off.  At a living history museum, they could cook period food the way it was cooked two hundred years ago.  This would obviously carry some cost to buy the food and the equipment.  I think that kids especially would like this kind of exhibit, but it has potential to bring in visitors from all ages because don't we all love food?

Elias, Megan. “Summoning the Food Ghosts: Food History as Public History.” The Public Historian 34, no. 2 (Spring 2012), 13-29.